LGBTQ festival wants sought-after book about 'Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters' removed from public library



Abigail Shrier has been through the wringer over her book, "Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters."

Released a year ago, the book isn't about transgenderism in general — but specifically about the impact it's having on girls "who had never experienced any discomfort in their biological sex until they heard a coming-out story from a speaker at a school assembly or discovered the internet community of trans 'influencers,'" according to the book's description.

As you might already know, the left hates "Irreversible Damage."

Last November, a woke social media user complained to Target that the book was for sale on its website, and Target promptly took it down. Only after a lot of pushback about free speech and free exchange of ideas did Target backtrack and put "Irreversible Damage" back up for sale.

Now what?

Now, a Canadian LGBTQ event wants her book dropped from a public library — and the group is looking to cut ties with the library system over it, Shrier wrote in an essay for former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss' Substack page.

"Let that sink in: a book review by a respected physician was bullied out of existence in America." The book - 'Irr… https://t.co/kWhs9n4qgA

— Bruce Paddle (@bruhpad) 1624307452.0

More from Shrier's aptly titled piece, "The Books Are Already Burning":

Halifax Pride, the annual LGBTQ festival, announced late last month that it would cut ties with the city's library system over its insistence on carrying Irreversible Damage, calling it "transphobic," and claiming that it "jeopardizes the safety of trans youth" and "debates the existence of trans people."

So far, the Halifax Public Libraries have resisted. Their position is straightforward and apolitical: libraries exist to expose the public to the widest array of views, "including those which may be regarded as unorthodox or unpopular with the majority."

The Halifax Public Libraries tried to compromise with the activists by pasting a note inside the book's cover, directing readers to a list of "trans-affirming" resources. But the activists were unappeased. No ties with the libraries were restored. They want the book gone from the library and scrubbed from existence. Two copies in a library of nearly 1.2 million volumes are two too many.

Not even the Nova Scotia Library Association or the Canadian Library Association has come to the library's defense, though their standing orders explicitly require member libraries "to guarantee and facilitate access to all expressions of knowledge and intellectual activity, including those which some elements of society may consider to be unconventional, unpopular or unacceptable."

Yet a lot of library users want to read it

Despite all the woke pushback against her book by Halifax Pride, Shrier said nearly 150 people are on a library waiting list to read "Irreversible Damage."

Indeed, Amazon — where it's ranked at the top of LGBTQ+ Demographic Studies and No. 7 in Political Commentary & Opinion — said "Irreversible Damage" was named a book of the year by The Economist, and one of the best books of 2021 by the Times and the Sunday Times.

But more matches are being lit

Still, she added, Science-Based Medicine — which Shrier said self-describes as "a group blog exploring issues and controversies in the relationship between science in medicine" — recently took down a review of "Irreversible Damage."

On Tuesday, one of the blog's long-time contributors, Dr. Harriet Hall — a family physician and flight surgeon in the Air Force with dozens of publications to her name — posted a favorable review of my book. She examined the scientific claims as well as the medical ones and wrote that the book "combines well-researched facts with horrifying stories about botched surgeries, people who later regret their choices and therapists who are not providing therapy but just validating their patient's self-diagnosis." Dr. Hall not only shared my criticisms of "affirmative care" — that is, immediately agreeing with a teen's self-diagnosis of gender dysphoria and proceeding to hormones and surgeries — but also noted that many physicians and therapists feel the same way but are afraid to say so.

Within a day, Dr. Hall's article was flooded with nearly 1,000 comments, mostly, she says, from activists demanding the article be stripped from the site, but also from some readers expressing their appreciation. Angry emails from activists swamped the blog's editors. Within two days, those editors had given Dr. Hall an ultimatum: retract, rewrite, or allow them to add a disclaimer.

"What surprised me was that my fellow editors attacked me, too. Basically what they said was that my article was not up to my usual standards as far as medicine, science and critical thinking went. And I didn't feel that I did anything but what I always do. That surprised me," Hall told Shrier, who added that Hall chose to have disagreeing editors include a disclaimer. "I told them I did not want it retracted. And the next thing I knew, they had retracted it."

You can read Shrier's entire essay here.

(H/T: Hot Air)

Target blasted for removing book about 'Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters' after complaint that it spreads 'transphobia'



Target is being blasted for removing a book — "Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters" by noted Wall Street Journal contributor Abigail Shrier — after a complaint on Twitter that the book is spreading "transphobia."

What's the background?

Shrier's book was released in June, and the likes of Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, and Dennis Prager have interviewed her about it.

As indicated in the title, the book isn't about transgenderism generally but specifically about the impact it's having on girls — "who had never experienced any discomfort in their biological sex until they heard a coming-out story from a speaker at a school assembly or discovered the internet community of trans 'influencers,'" according to the book's description.

"Unsuspecting parents are awakening to find their daughters in thrall to hip trans YouTube stars and 'gender-affirming' educators and therapists who push life-changing interventions on young girls — including medically unnecessary double mastectomies and puberty blockers that can cause permanent infertility," the description also says.

Here's Shrier talking about "Irreversible Damage" with Prager:

Abigail Shrier: Transgenderism's "IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE"youtu.be

What was the complaint about the book?

Twitter user @BlueIris04 complained to Target that "Irreversible Damage" is guilty of "transphobia" and said the "trans community deserves a response" from Target as to why it's selling the book.

Incidentally, @BlueIris04 uses "ACAB" — which stands for "all cops are bastards" — as well as the word "Ten" with an image of a skull for a Twitter handle. At some point @BlueIris04 blocked access to his or her tweets — but a screenshot of the complaint was saved:

@AskTarget @BlueIris04 lol they changed it but screenshots are forever https://t.co/TmCC5AYnWu
— LB (@LB)1605236137.0

Later @AskTarget replied to @BlueIris04 that "Irreversible Damage" was removed from its "assortment" of books:

Image source: Twitter/AskTarget

TheBlaze on Friday morning conducted a search on Target's website for Shrier's book, but it did not show up.

How are folks reacting to Target removing the book?

While some applauded Target's removal of "Irreversible Damage," other Twitter users weren't so keen on the decision:

  • "So @AskTarget, opposite opinions, right or wrong, are not welcome in your stores because of hurt feelings?" one user wrote. "Thanks for contributing to the mental and emotional failure of upcoming generations. They need to learn that not everything or everyone revolves around their feelings."
  • "Thanks for pandering to an a**hole who advocates for the murder of cops," another user noted.
  • "They need to be held accountable for censoring what we are allowed to read," another commenter said. "This is a good book."
  • "I don't feel safe at stores that allow a handful of activists to censor speech," one user offered.
  • "So the left advocates censorship, anti-Semitism, violence against political opponents, universal health care, marking and blacklisting people and socialism... ..then call everyone ELSE a Nazi," another commenter noted. "Stopped going to Target when they betrayed us with bathrooms."

What did the book's publisher have to say?

Regnery Publishing on Friday morning offered TheBlaze the following statement:

The "Woke, Inc." trend is, sadly, only getting worse. The mob has sufficiently trained big corporations like Target to live in fear — so much so that it only took *one* complaint from a Twitter user to convince Target to pull a bestselling book from its website. But as Target and other cowardly corporations cower in fear of leftist mobs, Regnery has always and will continue to stand proudly behind powerful voices like Abigail Shrier and the tremendously important work she has done in researching and writing "Irreversible Damage."

What did Target have to say?

Target on Friday morning didn't immediately respond to TheBlaze's request for comment on the retailer's rationale behind removing "Irreversible Damage" from its website.