Posted on 12/01/2004 3:48:43 PM PST by pete anderson
MONTGOMERY - An Alabama lawmaker who sought to ban gay marriages now wants to ban novels with gay characters from public libraries, including university libraries.
A bill by Rep. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, 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."
"Our culture, how we know it today, is under attack from every angle," Allen said in a press conference Tuesday.
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.
A spokesman for the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center called the bill censorship.
"It sounds like Nazi book burning to me," said SPLC spokesman Mark Potok.
Allen pre-filed his bill in advance of the 2005 legislative session, which begins Feb. 1.
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.
When asked about Tennessee Williams' southern classic "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof," Allen said the play probably couldn't be performed by university theater groups.
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."
The bill also would ban materials that recognize or promote a lifestyle or actions prohibited by the sodomy and sexual misconduct laws of Alabama. Allen said that meant books with heterosexual couples committing those acts likely would be banned, too.
His bill also would prohibit a teacher from handing out materials or bringing in a classroom speaker who suggested homosexuality was OK, he said.
Allen has sponsored legislation to make a gay marriage ban part of the Alabama Constitution, but it was not approved by the Legislature.
Ken Baker, a board member of Equality Alabama, a gay rights organization, said Allen was "attempting to become the George Wallace of homosexuality."
Aside from the moral debates, the bill could be problematic for library collections, said Jaunita Owes, director of the Montgomery City-County Library, which is a few blocks from the Alabama Capitol.
"Half the books in the library could end up being banned. It's all based on how one interprets the material," Owes said.
E-mail: kchandler@bhamnews.com
This is why I think this should be very very very limited in purpose and scope. Homosexual materials do not need to be redily accessible in elementary school or used in elementary school.
In "Catcher" the main character hires a prostitute and his gay teacher comes on to him.
Gatsby has at least two affairs in the plot and Nick hints at being gay.
"Letter" is Obvious.
Sodomy includes both oral and anal intercourse under Alabama law, which is what the book burning would be based on.
"My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him" (Song of Solomon 5:4).Hmmmm... I wonder what that means. Obviously, we should be like Scalia and interpret the song literally, and the "hole of the door" is a hole in the door. It is not an anus. It would be perverse to impart sexual themes to the Song of Solomon. </sarcasm>
none of those books are in elementary school.
Those Cats were way ahead of their time with a Gay Divorce 70 years before Gay Marriage.
Stratman wrote:
This is a very scary proposition. What's next? There are scenes of incest in the Bible. Would this be banned as well?
....................................
Doesn't Noah get drunk and try to have sex with his sons? Isn't that incest and homosexuality. Goodness gracious, I guess the bible needs to be banned from church. LOL
I let my 12 year old daugher read the Scarlet Letter, I hope none of the Nanny State Advocates have me tossed in prison.
Correct.....
Well, we'll just have to see won't we.....
How in God's name does reading books promoting homosexual lifestyles benefit a CHILD!? My children are voracious readers, but they read classics, such as Tom Sawyer, Moby Dick, a Tale of Two Cities, etc. I would not allow them to read such trash. There IS a difference.
Re: the others - IMO you're stretching it. Yes, Gatsby has affairs, but we're not talking about extramarital sex here.
Might as well ban Flannery O'Connor, too - one of the greatest Southern novelists and a devout Catholic. She included at least one gay character in her story (name escapes me) about the boy raised by his crazy fire-breathing Pentecostal uncle in the backwoods.
We were talking about public libraries here. I know Scarlet Letter was in my elementary school library, because I read it in 6th grade. But schools have gotten dumbed down since then, right?
_______________________________
I'll say it, it's wrong.
Are you saying it's right?
You only read my first post. Try again.
No subsequent posts by you answer the question you yourself asked...is this right or wrong?
___________________________________
Not for nothing but Melville's works have been the subject of serious academic questions about queer undertones, especially Billy Budd but including Moby Dick.
INteresting...I had never heard that, I know I never suspected.....
Actually, it doesn't say that they tried to commit a homosexual act on Noah.....I believe the exact words are "uncover his nakedness" KJV.......
Do you know what the word "extremist" means?
And I'm talking about both sides. The author of the ban, and the homo-facsists who want to make sure that every child in America has to read and absorb the vital lessons offered in such important tomes as "My two Mommies".
There is a difference between classic literature and indoctrinational tripe.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.