This is definitely one of the most random Eden Confidential columns I’ve ever read in the Daily Mail. Richard Eden gets some truly bizarre tips, and I would imagine that this one started out as something applauding transphobic bigotry and then it took a turn to make the Princess of Wales look too delicate to be around pro-trans literature. The backstory is: a few weeks ago, Kate attended the reopening of the Young V&A Museum, which has lots of interactive art and fun stuff for kids. It also has a gift shop with all kinds of fun stuff for kids. In the gift shop, there were pro-transgender books on display… until they were pulled just before Kate’s visit.
Flip-flopping Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer refuses to say whether or not he believes a woman can have a penis, but his party’s former senior MP Tristram Hunt appears to take a firmer stand when it comes to trans issues. I hear that Hunt, who is now director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, has sparked a furious row after he ordered the removal of a poster with pro-transgender messages as well as two LGBTQ+ themed books.
The poster was on display at the former Museum of Childhood in the East End of London. The books were for sale in its shop. He instructed them to be removed before the Princess of Wales opened the museum under its new name, Young V&A, last week, after a three-year, £13million redevelopment. The poster was produced by controversial charity Stonewall and read: ‘Some people are trans, get over it!’. The books removed from the YVA bookshop – Seeing Gender and Here and Queer – are illustrated titles.
Their removal proved particularly controversial because the museum reopened on the same day London celebrated its LGBTQ+ Pride festival. Rowan Ellis, 31, author of one of the books, Here and Queer: A Queer Girl’s Guide to Life, accuses the museum of stigmatising trans content as ‘inappropriate’ for children. She describes herself as ‘lividly angry’ that her work was removed.
The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) trade union accuses the museum of ‘seeking to hide the existence of trans people’. Its culture group secretary, Steven Warwick, claims the decision ‘adds to the current climate of transphobia and trans-erasure, putting trans people, particularly young trans people, at risk’. He adds: ‘It is particularly galling that this decision was made during LGBTQ+ history month.’
A V&A spokesman says the decision was ‘complex’ but the museum’s senior team ‘felt more consultation was necessary with young people and teachers on how to present these topics, to ensure their perspectives were more fulsomely represented’.
[From The Daily Mail]
A genuine question: do you think this was timed specifically around the Princess of Wales’s visit? I do. While it’s clear that LGBTQ-friendly literature is currently a “hot button” cultural issue in America and the UK, it also strikes me that the museum was very particular about the fact that Kate’s visit would bring a lot of cameras. They were aware of the optics and they didn’t want Kate standing in front of a pro-LGBTQ poster or book. Now, does it follow that Kate or her office had anything to do with it? Probably not – Kensington Palace isn’t known for, like, doing advance work or any work at all. But it’s curious that we’re constantly hearing stories like this, that Kate is too delicate and precious to be around LGBTQ literature, or hand a trophy to a Russian or glance at a painting of Harry.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.
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