Is Abilene's city council meeting headed for a protest?

City of Abilene Council Chambers, City Hall
Diana Groom, Abilene Reporter News

Abilene Reporter-News
Diana Groom, Abilene Reporter-News
October 23, 2023

On Thursday, the first item of discussion at the Abilene City Council could cause some controversy. The council will be voting on approval of the new Storybook Statue.

The proposed statue for 2024 will join Abilene’s Storybook Garden and features Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn and her unicorn friend. The character was created by LeUyen Pham, the featured illustrator of the city’s upcoming Children’s Art and Literacy Festival in 2024.

Critics of the book think that it is transgender-affirming because the kitty believes she can become a unicorn. Some parents even go so far as to say that the book is sexually implicit.

More recently, this same character caused quite a stir in the Katy Independent School District just west of Houston. According to the Houston Chronicle, one parent was so upset that she lobbied the school district to pull and manually check all new books to ensure the absence of sexually explicit content. This caused a delay for new schoolbooks for the 2023-2024 school year.

Here in Abilene in 2022, the city council voted unanimously to restrict children’s books with any sexual content in local libraries that are under the jurisdiction of the city manager. But, it is cases like these that beg the question, will there be a protest here in Abilene?

In other business councilors will discuss a request for a zoning change of some land around the Abilene Zoo. This alteration will allow about 225 acres to change from agricultural land to a planned development district, to allow for the zoo’s expansion. This will not affect the softball fields or the current park, according to Tim Littlejohn of the Planning Department.

The council will hear from Interim Police Chief, Doug Wrenn, on the upcoming agreement with VGI Technology for the creation of a Real Time Information Center. Wrenn said the agreement does not require additional cameras but allows for quicker, more streamlined access to the information provided with the current camera system.

The Abilene City Council will meet at 8:30 a.m. Thursday at council chambers, 555 Walnut Street.

The upcoming meeting agenda can be viewed at https://abilenetx.gov/714/Agendas-Minutes.