Christchurch Library and the secret it keeps from parents and the community.

Recently, a parent contacted me about an after-school programme called ‘Rainbow Drop-In’ being held at the Christchurch (NZ) Central Library, Tūranga. The parent had tried to find some information about it on the library’s website, but nothing could be found there.

(Just as a fyi before proceeding with this story, you may already have an inkling that I’m using sex-neutral nouns and pronouns for the purpose of anonymity, and not because of any claims of anyone having a non-sense – er, I mean ‘non-binary’ - identity.)

I also had a search through the library’s website, and the parent was correct – there wasn’t a whisper about the programme anywhere. Very strange, I thought. Normally, our libraries are transparent and enthusiastic about the programmes, events, and services they offer. They want the public to know what’s on offer to encourage participation. They’re also normally very helpful – but not so much this time.

The parent then rang the library to make enquiries and was told that the free programme was aimed at 12- to 16-year-olds on Tuesdays at 3.30pm during school term time. The activities are mostly board games, with two youth workers in support (just for board games?). The school students are referred to the programme by school counsellors, and if more information was required it could be obtained from the library’s Youth Liaison staff member. Notably, no mention of parental/caregiver involvement or permission was mentioned, and the age range suggests that primary/intermediate school students may mix it up with secondary school students.

Smelling a rat, I made a Local Government Official Information Act (LGOIA) request. It revealed that the programme is run by InsideOUT, and I was told that information about it would have to be got from them. So, the parent was told that the library Youth Liaison staff member could provide further information, and I was told in my LGOIA request that I would have to get that from InsideOUT. See attached PDF at the bottom containing the questions and answers to my LGOIA.

A word about InsideOUT before proceeding – this is a neo-rainbow lobby group with extraordinarily long tentacles, which appear to reach into workplaces and government departments all over the country. According to its 2021 -2022 Annual Report, this included gaining a contract with the Ministry of Health (now renamed Te Whatu Ora) to “deliver education services to mental health and addictions service providers” (pg18 in the above link). InsideOUT gets government and corporate funding, as well as donations, and also charges for its neo-rainbow advocacy service of going into workplaces, including the public service, to indoctrinate with its ideology. I use the word ‘indoctrinate’ intentionally, because when InsideOUT went to the Ministry of Transport (now renamed Te Manatū Waka) to deliver a talk on “How to Connect with the Rainbow Community” in late 2021, a staff member was later admonished by the Ministry of Transport’s Deputy Chief Executive for questioning InsideOUT’s definition of ‘lesbian’ during question time after the talk¹.

Some time after ringing the library, the parent decided to follow up by email to see if more information would be forthcoming that way about the Rainbow Drop-In programme. They were referred to the Christchurch contact for InsideOUT to get that information, but upon emailing the address supplied, was advised by auto-reply email that that person no longer worked for InsideOUT. Eventually, the parent got referred back to the library’s Youth Liaison staff member by another InsideOUT employee.

The library’s Youth Liaison staff member would not give any information about the programme. During the course of a few email exchanges, she was adamant that the parent would have to meet her for an interview to get any information, either with or without their teen, ending with –

I’m taking a guess that because the programme is not run by the library itself, but by an outside organisation on their premises and referred to as an “external booking”, the waters can be muddied as to why the library - a public service - is not obliged to be transparent about it on their website. A clever play with policy indeed.

But so many questions arise.

Why is the library’s Youth Liaison staff member involved in an “external booking” to the degree she is? Does the library get involved in any other external bookings in the same manner?

If a programme run on library premises for “vulnerable individuals” is run in secret from parents/caregivers and the community, how do we know where the accountability lies? Who is responsible for the usual risk assessment for the programme? The library or InsideOUT?

Does a school counsellor divulge the details of the programme only to students and not parents/caregivers? If a student isn’t ‘out’, and their parent/caregiver is deemed ‘unsafe’ to be given that knowledge, is the student referred to the programme by the school counsellor without any parental/caregiver knowledge at all?  If so, who then is responsible for that student in the event of a situation where she or he needs a parent/caregiver to take charge of them? Do the library staff have to step in?

And in the event that the stated two youth workers don’t turn up to the programme, which can happen for a variety of reasons, does it also fall to the library staff to absorb that role during the programme?

I feel that the marriage between the library and InsideOUT is not a good one. From the recounting of this parent’s story, and other anecdotal recounting of experiences with InsideOUT, a picture is beginning to emerge of how fractures and problems seem to appear when they come into an organisation, which weren’t there before.

If anyone reading this is like me and loves libraries, despite the creep of gender ideology into them, do you feel a little bit of dismay at what seems to be deliberate deceptiveness enacted upon the community as a whole? Deception is a deep hole to go down, and very hard to climb back out of.

Library Response To LGOIA Request

81KB ∙ PDF file

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¹The day InsideOUT came to The Ministry of Transport (speakupforwomen.nz)