By banning books featuring same-sex couples, a local government has emulated the anti-LGBTQI culture war championed by American conservatives.

The decision, narrowly passed by six votes to five, means books about same-sex parenting will be removed from Cumberland City Council libraries in Western Sydney.

Timothy Jones, an associate professor of history at La Trobe University and president of the Australian Queer Archives, said contextualising gender and same-sex families was an important part of education.

“These types of resources give teachers and students the resources to understand and deal with the world that they live in,” he said.

“They’re not sexualising or introducing unusual content to children.”

One Labor councillor Mohamad Hussein broke ranks with his party to ensure the vote passed. Hussein told The New Daily that he stood by his decision.

“This decision was made in line with my religious beliefs and I will not be compromising those beliefs,” he said

“I wish to make no further comments or statements regarding this matter.”

The Florida model

Jones said conservative groups in Australia often borrowed campaigning methods from the US.

“Religious conservatives will be communicating internationally, networking and listening to what political strategies work in other places,” he said.

“There’s different legal, political and social conditions here, so whether the strategy of book banning will gain traction here in Australia, it is hard to say.”

Banning LGBTQI resources has been a hallmark of former Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis’s “war on woke” as Florida governor.

Florida removed more than 300 books from school districts, including Pulitzer Prize-winning novels and LGBTQI education.

Republicans across America embraced the war against LGBTQI issues and ‘woke’, which resulted in states rolling back hard-fought protections and civil liberties.

Jones said Australia had no history of banning LGBTQI literature.

“The censorship regime changed in 1971 when the federal government shifted from a classic censorship model of imposing morals on the population to just classifying according to community standards,” he said.

“The efforts to ban books in the United States seems to be the obvious influence.”

NSW Arts Minister John Graham said if the council did not reverse course, its libraries may lose funding.

A local has also launched a petition to reverse the decision.

Book in question

The vote particularly focused on a book titled A Focus On: Same-Sex Parents.

Equality Australia legal director Ghassan Kassisieh said the council seemed to be clinging to some kind of backward stereotype that people in Western Sydney are bigoted.

“This book is part of an age-appropriate series about different types of families, some of which may have two mums or two dads,” he said.

“The attempt to erase these families from library shelves is disgraceful, as is any suggestion they are anything other than loving and nurturing environments for kids.”

Steve Christou, the councillor who led the charge against LGBTQI literature, said the decision helped children “avoid confusion”.

“We have a very different cultural mix out at Cumberland,” he told Today.

“It’s not just about targeting gay parents, they don’t want any form of sexualised books or our kids being opened up to any form of sexualisation in the libraries.”

The council voted against allowing drag queen story time events at its libraries in February.

The council rejected a NSW government push for more LGBTQI events at libraries. Photo: Getty

In Cumberland Council, 22.8 per cent of residents are Muslim, while 34.7 per cent are Christians of different denominations, according to Census data.

Cumberland mayor Lisa Lake, who voted against the decision, said she vehemently disagreed with it.

“It’s an appalling decision and I’m really deeply saddened by it,” she told ABC Radio.

“I’m now getting a lot of people who are disappointed with the decision and wishing us to reverse it.”