Sydney councillor and former Cumberland Mayor Steve Christou, the wicked little man behind the LGBTQIA+ book ban, appeared on ABC Radio to defend his position and was absolutely reamed by the presenter. You truly love to see it.
In case you missed it, Cumberland Council voted six votes to five to pass a motion that would ban “sexualised” LGBTQIA+ parenting books from eight libraries. Naturally this caused a shitstorm tsunami wildfire across the country, with the NSW government even stepping forward with threats of pulling funding from the libraries for this decision.
The motion was brought to the council by former mayor Steve Christou, who was also responsible for bringing forward the drag queen storytime events ban, which passed in February this year. For context, this is also the same man who vowed to “dump Welcome to Country and smoking ceremonies” if he is re-elected, called the ‘Vote Yes’ campaign “woke idealistic nonsense” and compared the Sydney COVID-19 lockdowns to “Nazi Germany“. For legal reasons, I can’t put forward my personal opinion on the man, so I’m just providing you with the necessary… context (of which there is much more) you need and deserve before we get into this. Enjoy!
Hopping on ABC Radio with comedian and presenter Craig Reucassel (my king), Christou sought to make his stance clear on the issue, saying he only brought it up after receiving multiple calls from community members. The main source of ire was an educational book titled Same-Sex Parents.
When asked why he thought this educational book aimed at children (and designed to be inclusive and loving) was apparently “sexualising” the children, and whether or not he read the book, Christou confirmed he had not, in fact, read the book. To be fair, maybe it was above his reading level.
“We’re not marginalising anyone here, we’re saying no book of any sexual orientation [sic] no matter its background, should be on library shelves,” he retorted.
“Children are innocent and they should be able to walk into a library regardless of who their parents are and pick up a children’s book without this added pressure.”
To this, Reucassel fired back with a simply delicious takedown response.
“So would you suggest that we shouldn’t have the Bible or other books that influence children on sexuality and issues like that?”
Oof! Such a hot response.
Christou responded that he is yet to see anything in the Bible that talks about sexuality, and also challenged Reucassel to find him a two year old who could read. An interesting point to make considering the same argument could be applied to the same-sex parenting book.
However, the ABSass didn’t end there.
“You’re banning a book,” said Reucassel.
“Obviously this is about people reading — so you’re not talking about two year olds reading this book, are you?”
DRAG. HIM. Sorry, I got too excited. I love sassy journalism.
In response to this gorgeous line of questioning, Christou simply returned to his spiel about representing the people of his council area in an attempt to shift blame.
Reucassel then challenged this, by asking him how he managed to find out this view represented the “majority” of his community if all he was going off were a few complaint calls. To this, Christou had no answer.
A petition launched by Cumberland resident Caroline Staples to retract the ban will be presented to the council on May 15.
