Statement about leaving Central Library: 

We have taken the decision to move Edinburgh Zine Library out of Edinburgh Central Library. This is not an easy decision and we feel a great deal of sadness about it. It is a decision taken directly in response to Portobello Library’s recent hosting of the transphobic event “School and Gender Identity”. We are an LGBTQ+ led collective, with a number of trans members. EZL is not our job, and we balance running the zine library with work, study, caring responsibilities, creative practices, organising, activism, and just surviving. We want to feel confident that EZL is hosted by a space that is trans-positive in tangible and meaningful ways (in policy and practice, at all levels of the organisation). 

We want to make clear we have only ever had good experiences at the Art and Design Library and with its librarians - they have supported and nurtured the zine library, and EZL would not exist as it does now without their enthusiasm, advice and material support. However, we feel that last Tuesday’s event is evidence that there are not sufficient policies in place to maintain our safety. Edinburgh Libraries doesn’t currently take a sufficiently trans-positive stance to benefit from our labour in organising the zine library, nor to benefit from the work of the zine-makers whose zines are in our collection. To be clear, EZL is leaving Edinburgh Central Library because of Edinburgh Council’s weak stance on hate speech against trans people taking place within its library branches. 

This has been a difficult, considered and collective decision. We held a meeting when we heard the event was taking place, and agreed that we would contact Portobello Library with our concerns, and made contingency plans for a series of different outcomes. We didn’t receive a reply until after the event, but this confirmed that the Council feels it has no legal grounds to prevent events like this being held in Edinburgh Library premises and so we moved forward with a plan to relocate the zine library. Throughout this, we kept in contact with the Art & Design library. At the end of last week, we let them know of our intention to move the collection - a disappointing outcome for us all. On Friday we moved the collection to a member’s flat. We will be meeting over the coming weeks to figure out what is next. 

We are open to contact from other spaces in Edinburgh who might be interested in hosting EZL for a temporary or more permanent period. Whilst we are deeply sad to leave a public library space, we also hope that this can be a positive change that opens up space for growth in different directions.  

We have locked our twitter account to try and protect our members from any transphobic responses. We don’t need this announcement amplified on social media. Let your pals know, and stay tuned for an update (in a few weeks hopefully) on where you’ll find EZL in the future. Don’t worry if you’ve sent zines to the library over the last few weeks - we’ll still be able to collect them, but if you have any donations for us please hold off until we have a new home!