Reactions to Through the Looking Glass
Some of the reactions to our recent report into trans activism in children's literature and library services
Since our launch of Through the Looking Glass, in collaboration with Biology in Medicine and Transgender Trend, on 17 June 2026, we have been bowled over by the response.
The remarks of Anne Fine OBE FRSL, upon reading our report, appear to have hit a chord with many in the publishing industry.
Would it be possible to put together a more damning indictment of the world of children’s publishing than we have here? I doubt it. It is shameful. Shameful. Publishers will rush to climb on any bandwagon. But this one? Really?
This dismal betrayal of young readers. This unthinking capitulation to a biologically unfounded ideology whose false and troubling messages have damaged so many families. Over the last decade, publishers, booksellers, librarians and a bevy of joyless would-be authors became a major conduit for trans-activist propaganda and harmful lies, while others (whose books sold a good deal better) were bullied into silence, or out of their careers, by positively terrifying campaigns of cancellation and spite.
We already know the names of the principal victims. This report has the courage to name, too, the most tenacious of their persecutors. And just as the children’s publishing industry appears to have been the first captured, it is still almost the last redoubt of this dangerous idiocy. Everyone should read this report. What is dispiriting is just how many should be hanging their heads in the deepest self-reproach as they do so. Let us hope that they come away with a renewed understanding that a consensus enforced by malevolent silencing has no place in literature.
JK Rowling’s post on X agreeing with Anne Fine has been liked more 4,800 times and has been seen by over 230,000 people.
Our reply to her has had several hundred likes, which are private on X. Many of them came from children’s authors, illustrators and librarians. We are aware of the oppressive and censorious behaviour of the publishing industry on this topic and the importance of those quiet acts of rebellion.
The chapter on continued cancellations within children’s publishing spoke to the kind of fearfulness that keeps most of our supporters anonymous or silent. We know that any author who dares to step out of line and disagree with trans activists can be punished by the industry for those personal beliefs, even if the author’s books lack any gender-critical content.
We were therefore particularly grateful for people like the founder of ACHUKA, Amanda Craig and others who were willing to sharing the report openly with their audences.
Interest was not limited to Anglophone countries. We have seen posts about the report in Spanish, Icelandic, German and Chinese and thank those posters for bringing this report to the wider world. One example:
SEEN in Publishing co-chair Julia Williams appeared on GB News on 17 June and Free Speech Nation on 14 June to discuss the report. The GB News clip on X has had over 46,000 views. As she stated, promoting trans-activism in children literature and libraries is not a neutral act.
The launch of the report at the House of Lords, hosted by Baroness Jenkin of Kennington, was well attended. The resulting interest from MPs and peers has caused a second printing of the report. We are hopeful that it will help the nation’s policymakers better understand the pipeline to medicalization at a critical time. Right now, the government is trying to introduce a so-called conversion therapy ban that could criminalize the ‘watchful waiting’ approach to gender non-contentedness in children. It is also trying to conduct a two-year study on administering puberty blockers to children as young as 11, instead of tracking down and collecting the existing data those who have already undergone these treatments.
We also hope people in the US will read the report and consider it in light of the FTC suing WPATH for making false claims about the effectiveness of medical treatment for gender dysphoria, a complaint worth reading in its entirety We at SEEN in Publishing believe the trans-activist capture of publishing, from children’s publishing to the ALA, PEN America, and Authors Guild, played a significant role in WPATH’s successful deception of American consumers.
Thank you to everyone who commented, liked, restacked or reposted the report. We hope it will lead to a proper dialogue about safeguarding and paying attention to child development. Please do read it if you haven’t yet. The chapters on biology and child development are written to be accessible to all, since many members of the publishing industry are not scientists. You can read the report here.
And thank you to Andrew Doyle for his write up https://www.andrewdoyle.org/p/how-trans-activists-took-over-childrens