Family Matters

28 Jun 2018

Interview: Bess Hepworth #FreeMyLibrary #APRFF2018

Kids & Family, Sexuality, Society & Culture

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Interview: Bess Hepworth #FreeMyLibrary #APRFF2018

Family Matters were joined by Bess Hepworth, the Founder, Executive Director & Chief Disruptor of Planet Ally and key organiser of the Asia-Pacific Rainbow Families Forum.

She has recently founded Planet Ally, an LGBTIQ and ally travel website and visual story telling platform, with a particular focus on allyship and solidarity.

We explore the 2nd annual Asia-Pacific Rainbow Families Forum which was held in May this year.

We also discuss the recent decision by the Hong Kong government responsible for managing public libraries, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, which succumbed to pressure from anti-rainbow groups and decided that kids should not have free access to all children’s literature, particularly LGBTIQ themed books!

Why this is important to you:
The censoring of LGBTIQ themed books denies rainbow children the chance to see themselves and their families represented in books. This act of censorship also denies all children the chance to see life from a different perspective and to better understand the world.

What you can do about it:
To draw attention to this issue we have joined forces with IFED (International Family Equality Day) – Creative Network off a global campaign called #FreeMyLibrary. This was the hashtag used when Singapore experienced a temporary library book ban.
We would be honoured if you could stand with us against ideological censorship by sending us a quote – as simple as a sentence or two – and we’ll send it back to you with an awesome image from our local Hong Kong artist 阿離 (Pluck The Days) that you can share on social media.

CLICK HERE for a Google Form you can fill out and leave a quote!

bit.ly/freemylibraryquote

CLICK HERE for our webpage: https://www.planetally.org

The quote can be about why books should be freely accessed, why books about LGBTIQ families are so important, or how censorship is wrong.

Help us come together to tell Hong Kong, and the world, that censoring books belongs in the Dark Ages. Please tag @PlanetAllyApp on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook using the official hashtag #FreeMyLibrary.