OK, girls, we'll be hitting all those gay moose bars! Hang on to your purses!
Posted on 09/23/2008 8:29:32 AM PDT by GATOR NAVY
WASILLA — Responding to news reports about then-Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin asking a librarian how she would feel about banning books, a San Francisco man has donated two children’s books dealing with homosexuality to the Wasilla Library.
Mike Petrelis, a 49-year-old who files Freedom of Information requests for a living, said he was aghast to read reports of Palin’s 1996 inquiry about banning certain books at Wasilla’s library.
The news — old news in the Mat-Su Valley, but new in the Lower 48 — prompted Petrelis to send to Wasilla “Heather Has Two Mommies” and “Daddy’s Roommate,” both children’s books that explain gay lifestyle.
“I said, ‘I’m going to send copies of both books just to make sure they’re on the shelves,’” Petrelis said.
The story of Palin’s book removal question caught national attention after reporters arrived in town to probe Palin following Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s surprise Aug. 29 announcement. In the ensuing barrage of media attention on Wasilla, the inquiry as to the librarian’s feelings on pulling some books became one of the many old Palin stories that suddenly became new again when it reached the Lower 48.
There is no evidence that Palin ever banned any books from the library, although many Outside media outlets have incorrectly reported to the contrary. One book with which Palin reportedly had a problem was “Pastor, I am Gay,” by Howard Bess, a Valley resident and now-retired minister of the Church of the Covenant in Palmer.
Still, to Petrelis, Palin’s asking about removing books from the shelves was an attempt at censorship.
Whether “Heather Has Two Mommies” or “Daddy’s Roommate” will make it onto the shelves of the Wasilla Public Library is unclear.
Library Director KJ Martin-Albright said she has received the books but, like any donation, they have to go through a process that determines what to do with them.
There are two options for donations, she said. Either the library puts the book on the shelves or gives it to Friends of the Library to be sold. Martin-Albright said factors such as the author’s reputation, importance of the subject matter to the library’s collection, space availability in the library and a litany of other factors are used to determine the fate of donated materials.
As of Monday, there is no timeline for when a decision on the books Petrelis sent will be made, and Martin-Albright stressed every donated book goes through the same process.
“It’s the only way to be fair,” she said.
Petrelis’ idea to send the books seems to be well received in Alaska’s gay community. Bent Alaska, a blog chronicling gay news and events in the state, praises the donation on its Web site.
Tim Stallard, owner of Out in Alaska, a gay and lesbian guide service, said he thinks Petrelis’s effort is well-placed.
“I think it’s a good statement,” Stallard said. “I think in a free society like ours, openness and education and information are always important.”
Stallard added the timing is right after the Wasilla Public Library was thrust into the spotlight when Palin was named to the Republican ticket.
For Petrelis, his timing is even better because Banned Books Week, the American Library Association’s celebration of the freedom to read, begins Sept. 27. And more books dealing with homosexuality could be donated to Wasilla library soon. On his blog, Petrelis Files, Petrelis said he hopes to donate another gay-themed book, “And Tango Makes Three,” to the library.
Petrelis said while a book like “Heather Has Two Mommies” may not show a lot of circulation, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not being read.
Contact Michael Rovito at Michael.rovito@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.
“Mike Petrelis, a 49-year-old who files Freedom of Information requests for a living”
A professional agitator.
They can go in the library booksale cart. The same as libs at the ALA do with conservative titles that are donated unsolicited.
A professional agitator.
You mean community organizer.
They should thank him for the heating source for the upcoming cold winter!!!!
Those two books — Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy’s Roomate— are already there on the shelves of the library. This from another article about this non-issue.
yes, I used to spend hours alone in our small-twon public library as a child. No more; kids don’t belong there unattended.
In the public downtown library of the large city near me, for a while there was open pornography on the computers and really really creep filthy guys lined up every morning panting for the library to open. Kids were walking around in sight of hetero- and homosexual porn of the worst kind.
I objected to one of the librarians and she told me, with a rather haughty air, that it was a matter of ‘freedom of speech’.
Then the city newspaper got hold of it and did a big expose of the porn available to kids and creeps alike and all of a sudden -— no more porn allowed.
The creepy guys disappeared.
It still burns me. That librarian who was so sure it was a matter of ‘freedom of speech’ and gave me such a snotty attitude changed her feeble mind within days of the newspaper expose.
One of the few good things that liberal rag ever did.
The real working titles for these books:
“Heather’s two carpet-munchers want her to be one too”
and
“Daddy’s Butt Buddy”
Let’s just call them what they are. Trying to package filth in a nice littler wrapper to warp children’s minds by scrubbing it of the depravity it is, and attempting portraying it to kids as wholesome and wonderful.
It is sickening.
I am now more than ever totally convinced that this whole public school pro-gay agenda is about allowing the gay couples not to feel bad about what they are doing, not the kids. The secondary goal is to screw up the kids that are already messed up and try to get them to experiment and perhaps ‘believe’ they are gay or whatever.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2082198/posts
I don't know about “Daddy's Roommate,” but I suspect it's there too.
OK, girls, we'll be hitting all those gay moose bars! Hang on to your purses!
I’m sure Wasilla is a good, fine and red part of our vast and great country.
Whereas most of us all know San Francisco is present day garbage.
I’m not for government censorship, but honestly, I would have no problem burning a homosexual book that was targetted at children.
Thankfully, SF doesn’t have a say in community standards of Wasilla.
This has been bothering me ever since this non-scandal was first brought up. Clearly, unless a library automatically includes every book ever written, some process of picking and choosing must occur. Who chooses? If the librarians choose, what gives them, but not the citizens who pay for the library, the right to "censor" what goes on the shelves? Why is a priori censorship any better than after-the-fact censorship?
They are not Children’s Books. They are Homosexual books targeting children. Make a Staright Porn Book targeted at children and see what happens to you.
Whats the penalty for taking out a book and then losing it?
Actually, we should hope this becomes a movement and that leftists all over send a couple of thousand different book donations of everything from “Das Kapital” to the collected works of Michael Moore..... b/c it would make obvious the point that leftists are too dim to appreciate, that any local library has very limited capacity and has to make all sorts of selection choices about what is worth keeping and displaying in their collection. They can’t have a million books and so they constantly make selection decisions..... only the Library of Congress and NY Public Library and Harvard come close to trying to house every book published..... every other library engages in “censorship” by deciding what titles are most worth having when they cannot come close to including them all.
““I said, ‘I’m going to send copies of both books just to make sure they’re on the shelves,’” Petrelis said.”
I wonder if Stormfront and David Dukes group would have any boxes of books that they could donate to the San Francisco library system.
I don’t think that getting them on the shelves for the children’s use would be seen as desirable.
Very good points.
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