Parents in the UK are debating over the right time to tell children about the birds and the bees — and whether aliens are gendered.
England’s Hertfordshire Council is being blasted for swapping out its story-time library bear with a colorful, gender-neutral extra terrestrial.
Campaigners incorrectly stated that Tala — an alien who uses they/them pronounces and is nonbinary — was transgender, as well as claim that the policy was an effort to “push gender ideology.”
The UK council confirmed that Tala the Storyteller is a “bright, vibrant creature” and “the star of Hertfordshire libraries” for a series aimed at catching the attention and imagination of toddlers and babies.
Tala’s creators, Emma Phillips and Eva Povey, said they were inspired by the children’s own artwork at workshops they partake in at the libraries.
“They helped us to understand what children liked best in a creature,” they said in a statement.
The “My First” series at Hertfordshire’s libraries includes a library card for kids featuring Tala the Storyteller, designed to encourage families with babies and youngsters to come back to the library on a regular basis, according to a council spokesperson.
Meanwhile, Bookstart Bear is being withdrawn nationally, according to the council, and will be replaced at Rhyme Time — a story-telling event at the county’s 46 libraries for children up to the age of 5 — by the colorful cartoon-like character.
High-profile gender issue campaigners, including Maya Forstater — who won a wrongful termination suit against her employer after she shared anti-trans sentiments online — are making claims that the removal of the bear is a “trans issue.”
Said Forstater, “A mother w her baby daughter @HitchinLibrary @HertsLibraries Rhyme time (aimed at 0-5 year olds) messaged me: ‘Book Start Bear has been retired and replaced with Talia, a ‘trans’ bear, with they/them pronouns.’ ‘I cannot express how upset I feel. Why do children need this?'”
Hitchin Library, one of the county’s libraries, hit back with a response. “Just to confirm – Tala isn’t trans, they are an alien.”
“Tala is a storytelling alien from outer space, so neither male nor female,” the library added.
Others also took to Twitter to shut down Forstater’s take.
“The library has already confirmed this is a lie, so why haven’t you deleted this?,” one wrote.
“It’s a creature, designed by children. It has green skin. For heaven’s sake,” another pointed out.
“It’s called Tala and there is no mention of it being trans on the website. It’s unaggressively gender non-specific, as far as I can see,” one person clarified.
Most local patrons of the libraries had a positive reaction to the “cute” new mascot, but others thought their children were too young for the conversation.
“You can believe trans people exist, you can believe society should treat them with respect, but how do you get to believing children need to be introduced to this at 0-5?,” one local tweeted.
“Makes no sense at all, if they want to learn about it when older let them choose to, not be forced upon 0-5 year olds,” another responded.
“Tala is not ‘trans’ and any suggestion that the character is would be grossly misleading and wildly inaccurate,” a Hertfordshire Council spokesperson said amid debate. “Tala is a fictional character, which is clearly based on an other-worldly creature to capture the imagination of children and young people using Hertfordshire’s libraries.”
“In the absence of a gender for this alien creature, we simply use gender neutral language when talking about them to the public,” they added.