Cumberland City Council in western Sydney voted to ban books about homosexual parenting from its eight local libraries earlier this month, sparking outrage in other parts of the city, and from the LGBT agenda-driven NSW state government and state and corporate media.
The strategy was a familiar one, and it proved effective yet again, with the council reversing the original 6-5 vote in favour of the ban by 12 votes to 2.
Only former mayor and Our Local Community (OLC) councillor Steve Christou, who proposed the original ban, and independent councillor Eddy Sarkis (who was not present for the first ban ballot on May 1) voted in favour on May 16.
Two other OLC councillors, Paul Garrad and Helen Hughes, flipped to vote against the ban, as did independent Liberal Michael Zaiter and Greg Cummings from The Independents.
Muslim Labor councillor Mohamad Hussein also changed his vote, despite saying two weeks earlier that he could not “in good conscience” support anything that went against his religious beliefs.
Hijab-wearing Labor councillor Sabrin Farooqui was not present for the May 1 vote, but co-introduced the motion to rescind on Wednesday with Labor’s Ken Huang.
“As a follower of Islam, I can say that no-one is stopping me from following my religion in Australia. Similarly, I can’t enforce my belief on someone else. Australia is a secular country,” she said, adding that she wanted her son to read the book.
While the vote was underway pro and anti-protesters faced off outside the council chambers in Merrylands. Independent reporter Chriscoveries was on the scene and shared photos of the pro-homosexual parenting crowd with Noticer News.
“The White LGBTs while mostly well behaved on their visit from the inner city, later in the night did end up grabbing at me and pushing me up against a wall to obstruct me from filming as one of their own was being arrested by police,” Chriscoveries said.
