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
If Hillary Clinton is elected president and proposes a law saying that no public school or public library may have any books that portray Republicans in a positive light, you will agree that that would be constitutional?
Anderson is hideously and criminally wrong in pursuing this.
So-called conservatives do horrendous damage to the conservative movement when they flagrantly attempt to rape the Constitution - especially when it smacks of a mixture of cheap publicity stunt and pining for a theocracy.
Do you think Anderson is even aware of the First Amendment? Banning books, destroying books, and preventing free speech is a gross violation of the fundamental freedoms upon which this nation was founded.
It doesn't matter how dumb or distasteful an opinion is - there must be the right to express it. Anderson is proposing a grotesque intrusion of government and tyranny that a petty dictator would be proud of.
A conservative should be ashamed to propose or support such a measure.
When you want public funding but you lack the courage to just say so, you redefine the mission of your opposition. It's dishonest but it works.
I am Anderson and No I do not think I am wrong.
I'm suprised the ACLU hasn't sued the State for funding and promoting this queer religious death cult.
From the article:
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.
Removing and destroying books is a ban. Doing so under government duress is a move worthy of Hitler or Stalin.
Also, using your reasoning - all Bibles and books mentioning the Bible, Christianity, and containing Christian characters would have to be removed and destroyed.
"Well I hope Neil Young will remember, A SOUTHERN MAN DON'T NEED HIM AROUND ANYHOW!"
Lynrd Skynrd
Doesn't this idiot know you are supposed to burn books, not ban them?
/sarcasm
As sick as I am of the Gaystapo promoting their garbage, this ban is as stupid and wrong as the politically correct attmpts at censorship.
At least that song was not as abysmally pretentious as Southern Man!
I wonder, if the gay protagonist got killed at the end would he allow it.....?
I'm not ashamed in the least. I am a CHRISTIAN Conservative. Society sets the moral standard. It is an issue of STATE's RIGHTS. If Alabama chooses to ban homosexual books, etc. that is their right. The Feds need to keep out of it. The people who choose to read such trash can move to another state......
Who was gay in any of those stories?
Nick Calloway, maybe...? But in A Scarlet Letter, did I miss some subtext when I was 13?
Read the article:
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.It's not just the purchase of books that requires public funds, it's their upkeep in the library (being reshelved, etc.).
According to Allen's standard "The Star Report" would be banned and any biogrpahy of our 42nd president would have to be stripped of any mention of his affair with Monica.
"Whole proposal is basically a free political ad for the Democratic Party."
You got that right, the left will use this an example of the rights extreme intolerance. T
here are so many things that he could of done to move things his direction. This just makes him look foolish, as it should. Americans will never allow book banning, I hope.
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