Alabama Lawmaker Urges Gay Book Ban
The Birmingham News in Alabama today is reporting that a state lawmaker, Rep. Gerald Allen, wants to ban novels with gay characters from public libraries, including university libraries.
Allen's proposed bill would prohibit the use of public funds for "the purchase of textbooks or library materials that recognize or promote homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle." Allen said he filed the bill to protect children from the "homosexual agenda."
Allen said that if his bill passes, novels with gay protagonists and college textbooks that suggest homosexuality is natural would have to be removed from library shelves and destroyed. "I guess we dig a big hole and dump them in and bury them," he said.
If the bill became law, public school textbooks could not present homosexuality as a genetic trait and public libraries couldn't offer books with gay or bisexual characters. Allen said no state funds should be used to pay for materials that foster homosexuality. He said that would include nonfiction books that suggest homosexuality is acceptable and fiction novels with gay characters. While that would ban books like "Heather has Two Mommies," it could also include classic and popular novels with gay characters such as "The Color Purple," "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and "Brideshead Revisted."
Written By:John Dope On December 1, 2004 3:38 PM Written By:stephen On December 1, 2004 3:42 PM
this is ridiculous.. all these bible thumpers really need to wake up, and start living in reality.
Can we say discrimination? Surely there's somehow a first amendment violation in there.
I'm not convinced there is a violation, as absolutely outrageous as this is. There's nothing in the Constitution requiring the states to make certain books available, they just can't prevent private actors from reading them.
Still, it's a special kind of scary that calls for this kind of law.
I can just see what would happen should such a bill become law...then the Christian Coalition would push for a ban on books that had any reference to pre-marital sex.
Does anyone else out there feel like we're not progressing as a society, but instead regressing?
This is an idea that doesn't really work. Moral issues aside, let me count the ways in which the idea to ban books with "gay characters" or "pro-homosexual messages" makes no sense:
1. How should censors define a fictional character as "homosexual"? Suppose the character has homosexual urges but consistently chooses not to act on them. Is "gay" defined by doing or thinking?
Or suppose the character -- say, a prostitute or an abused person -- has gay sex but doesn't like or want it. How should censors classify the cases?
2. Is a gay-ish "subtext" enough to warrant a book ban? Suppose that a famous novel, very popular with conservative readers, is in fact a "flaming queen" between the lines.
(I won't mention the title, because lots of readers would get mad at me. But the book exists.) Would censors make an exception in that case?
3. Should certain works from Greek antiquity be banned? (Such as Petronius' THE SATYRICON.) Or do they have a historical importance and should therefore be allowed?
4. OK, suppose a specific work of fiction contains explicit, even obscene descriptions of physical acts between people of the same gender. I understand this might offend many readers. Most people will probably not even want to read them. But: nobody is FORCING them to read it.
"But what if one of our kids walked into a library and stumbled upon such a passage in a book!" Well, you might be glad your kids DID visit a library to begin with. And if your kids are so vulnerable that a few glanced words might "traumatize" them, then maybe you're not raising them right.
5. Suppose all books with references to homosexuality (real or imagined) are purged from libraries. Will the censors stop there and say "Our work is done"? Probably not. They will start seeing "gay propaganda" even where there is none. Nothing's more dangerous than an idle bureaucrat.
6. Since this debate is going on, someone is bound to suggest putting "Parental Advisory" stickers on books. Sure, go ahead and try. I guarantee you that the books with warning labels will fly off the shelves. Kids will rush to read those books, just to see what their parents are telling them NOT to read.
So: is there a "gay agenda" which the "cultural elite" and librarians are pushing on the unassuming public? I don't know. If they do, I think it's a futile quest and doomed to fail.
-A.R.Yngve
http://yngve.bravehost.com
Gerald Allen needs to read the part in the Bible where it says it is wrong to judge others. Let God do that. He is quite capable. Mr. Allen needs to take the tour of East Berlin and see the library with no books--thanks to Hilter.
Maybe Mr. Allen should read "Farenheint 451." Instead of burying the books we can burn them. I'm sure we can also come up with technology that will help the "thought police" know what horrors are swirling around in our minds.
The govenor obviously doesn't read alot of books including the bible. If he is going to ban everything the bible says is bad how about football (never gonna happen in Alabama)touching the skin of an animal is a sin according to Leviticus, or how about cotton- polyster blends those are bad too. The problem with idiots is they read books to literally. The bible is not black and white even some of the letters are red. Furthermore christian zealots are just picking and choosing. They use judgement to make themeselves superior. If these guys could read one book between the lines like a sensible human being then maybe they would stop trying to ban the rest.
This is exactly why the world hates Amerika. This is also why I weep for my country.