Rebuilding Bridges with the LGBTQI2S+ Community
I’d like to share an update on our plans for rebuilding bridges with the LGBTQI2S+ community following this past fall’s room rental controversy.
We will be developing a service plan that will outline the activity we will take to better meet the needs of the LGBTQI2S+ community in 2020 and beyond. Our staff group Pride Alliance will be an advisory group for the plan, and we will also develop it in consultation with Toronto’s wider LGBTQI2S+ community. This work will build on a long history of supporting the community through programs and services. One initiative recommended by Pride Alliance is to increase Positive Spaces training sessions so all staff can attend as a required course.
In addition, we will build on conversations that have been happening about trans issues with programming beginning this spring, developed in collaboration with the community. This is one of many initiatives we’ll be working on in 2020 to encourage greater understanding of trans issues and create more opportunities for trans voices to be heard.
I thank our Pride Alliance for agreeing to take on an advisory role for our service plan and programming, and look forward to their valuable input. I have consulted with Pride Alliance co-chairs Arturo Luque and Scott Robins on this communication, and they shared this comment on behalf of the entire Pride Alliance:
“Until recently, Pride Alliance was a volunteer group of queer TPL employees and allies that aimed to create visibility within the organization and push for greater intersectional diversity training and awareness. Pride Alliance has now been elevated to a consultative body for TPL in LGBTQI2S+ matters and in this new role, we hope to work towards healing the damage that's been done, rebuilding our community connections and uplifting queer voices through programs, collections and services.”
These are the first steps in rebuilding these important bridges with the LGBTQI2S+ community. Many TPL staff have worked hard to build these relationships and have nurtured very positive connections over the years, and I appreciate that very much. I feel strongly that it’s important that we also take system-wide, visible and transparen't approach given the complexity of this situation and the hurt and pain that has been caused over the room booking.
I am committed to make things better, to bring people together and to continue to offer services, programs and collections that will strengthen our communities.
We’re looking forward to this important work and community collaboration. I invite any community groups or individuals who have programming ideas and are interested in working together to submit a program proposal or contact our programming team directly at programproposals@tpl.ca. Pride Alliance staff will be available to consult if there are questions about program ideas or processes. We will review all proposals as we plan our programming to create more conversations about trans and LGBTQI2S+ issues.
Clarification:
We agree consultation with the trans community is essential and intend to develop our service plan in consultation with the community. We expect the formal community consultations will begin this spring and we will be transparen't in communicating when the events are scheduled. We also invite community groups or individuals who have programming ideas before then to contact us at programproposals@tpl.ca.
19 thoughts on “Rebuilding Bridges with the LGBTQI2S+ Community”
Where are the trans people, and specifically trans women, in your consultation process? You have referenced no attempts to reconcile or engage trans people directly on programming and safety measures that would demonstrate the TPL’s supposed interest in making the space safe for all members of our community.
I’m pleased that the Pride Alliance is consulting internally. How is the community at large, explicitly trans and non-binary members of our community, being included in this body?
At what point will you be willing to talk to the affected trans community about this? If you want to rebuild bridges as you say, there’s more work to be done than just a staff meeting.
This is meaningless unless you admit that the decision to allow a hate group access to library space rentals was incorrect, and commit to refusing any such rentals in the future.
You consulted with your own employees, who depend on employment at the library for their livelihoods? And you did this instead of listening to the hundreds of trans Torontonians and allies not employed by the library who told you loudly and in no uncertain terms exactly how your decisions were causing harm? And you think this is how you rebuild bridges with the communities you serve?
What happened this fall wasn’t a “controversy”, it was the TPL board showing its disregard for trans life by allowing hate speech in publically funded space. Not only that, but they acted in direct opposition of the TPL’s room booking policy.
To work towards repair involves apologies and acknowledgement. I see none of that here. What I see are empty and poorly thought out plans that don’t include any mention of working with the very trans people they ignored and failed this past fall.
Sadly, it’s in a time of crisis that the true colours of an organization and its leaders show.
This months later attempt to placate a group of people you steadfastly attacked when challenged is very transparen’t.
Where was this empathy last fall? It didn’t exist and this is a perfect example of too little too late.
Even if cancelling the event wasn’t appropriate, there was only callous, and vicious criticism of the people calling you out. You could have shown support, respect, and dare I say it, love, for the humans in this community. I will never forget, it was shameful.
I see no hint of an apology here. Admit your wrong doing first maybe? You owe the Toronto trans community a huge apology before any of this can be seen as anything beyond symbolic.
I think it is very important for everyone to realize that a bedrock principle of a public library is to support free speech and the expression of sensible opinions that might run contrary to the position or feelings of any one group. You cannot hope to shut down down free speech by slanging an institution that is doing its job. In fact, if a library is doing its job, it should be constantly mired in controversy for the books it purchases and the speakers it hosts.
Calling the intentional platforming of hate speech against the LGBT+ community is not “controversy”, it is a definitive stance against this community. No bridges can be built until TPL formally apologizes to the trans community (none of this both-sides “controversy” nonsense), fires Vickery Bowles, and connecting with actual members of the trans community that you have hurt.
Right now TPL is putting shame to what libraries should stand for.
TPL, you don’t need to appease these aggressive, shouty censors. I’m no fan of Meghan Murphy but I value and respect that Canadian public libraries need to honour the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by making room rentals available to all equally regardless of their beliefs. Seriously, what’s more likely: that Canadian public libraries are all run by transphobes or that they are run by honorable people doing some of the best work in our communities and also honour the law of the land?
I have followed these events in Toronto and other cities. Megan Murphy has placed libraries in a very difficult position. It seems that most libraries have allowed events involving her to take place in their facilities, despite outcry from members of the community.
I took the time to read statements from other libraries. They acknowledged the complexity of the issues and some explicitly stated that they do not endorse Megan Murphy’s views. One library outlined the organizational policies and practices they have developed to support their trans staff and customers.
I think that so far Toronto Public Library’s communications have missed the mark. The announcement about the room booking portrayed it as a black-and-white free speech issue, and it was implied that anyone who disagreed was anti-democratic and pro-censorship. I have not seen any communication from Toronto Public Library that says anything substantive about the library’s position on trans rights.
This latest post places an unexpected emphasis on library staff, and its hard not to think they’re being used as a smokescreen: “we can’t possibly be transphobic, we employ LGBTQ+ people and we sometimes even consult with them!” It makes me think of that old chestnut: “I’m not racist, I have black friends.”
I am not surprised that some people are responding with skepticism. This all seems like something out of a PR playbook rather than a sincere response to specific concerns.
The library is in a tough spot, and I have some sympathy, but I think you will keep inciting angry reactions until you make more of an effort to understand your critics and communicate in a way that directly addresses their concerns.
The only consultation we should expect the library do over a room rental request is with a lawyer to confirm it’s a legal use of the service that all are legally entitled to access. The library should never publicly disclose who is accessing services in advance of the individual or group making it known themselves, just as we rely on the library to not disclose what we’re reading or attending at the library. For a group looking for their rights to be better understood, expecting the library to ignore the rights of others makes no sense. The library is offering an invitation to get your voice out and be better understood. Take it or don’t but stop expecting others’ fundamental rights and freedoms to be illegally ignored as a requirement of your advocacy efforts.
As can be seen from the comments- you will never be sorry enough for these misogynists. You should have stuck to your guns. You at least had the respect of feminists.
Honestly if it’s out of a PR playbook that playbook must be circa P.T. Barnum because none of this is best practice.
TPL is still covering up the fact that the booking in question was made directly by city librarian Vickery Bowles, deliberately bypassing community consultation.
The Freedom of Information request clearly shows that little thoughy was put into making this decision to burn bridges:
https://twitter.com/BusinessWaffles/status/1218244065751334914
It also demonstrates that while Vickery Bowles has taken the blame, much blame should also be directed at Pam Ryan who led the initiative to protect Megan Murphy despite being well aware of her transphobic beliefs. The transphobia in leadership at TPL is far reaching. The response offered here is pathetic.
NOBODY consulted WOMEN about Bill C16
Trans-ID males should not have the right to be in female only spaces such as shelters, prisons, change-rooms, hospital rooms, etc. Transwomen are NOT women. They are men. Only adult human females are women.
Women have fought too long and hard to have these spaces that Trudeau had NO right to give to men. It is not ‘hate’ to speak out against the injustice of a law that is erasing our rights.
Where is the compassion from the TQ for vulnerable marginalized women in shelters & prisons being forced against their will to share their spaces with males?
Remember, LGBTQI2S+ and this Pride Alliance does not speak for everyone, and not this lesbian and many others. Our movement for acceptance of LGB has been hijacked by homophobic fascists attempting to shut down free speech. Why does this Pride Alliance get to be a consultant and have a say over programming but not a women’s group?
If anyone wants to see how much respect the current TPL leadership has for the Queer community, try to find its collection of Queer literature, called “The Pride Collection”. In theory it’s at the Yorkville branch. But once it reopens, go there and try to find it. I dare you.