http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/i ... 316400.xml

Gay book ban goal of state lawmaker

Wednesday, December 01, 2004
KIM CHANDLER

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.

my brothers friends sister in laws cousin caught aids from a gay book.

Can we just kill all rednecks including Bush and live in a happier world? please?

You're right. That book ban is totally gay.

--PunkDavid

Doesn't surprise me. I expect to see more of this far-right garbage springing up in the next couple of years. They do, after all, have a mandate.

how about you just off yourself if murder and death is so fuckin funny to you.

I'm not confident that this type of legislation will be passed.

One of the problems is the blocking of research that explores a genetic or inherited link for homosexuality. If research can neither be conducted nor read on this subject, science and our understanding of human sexuality (at least in Alabama) will be hindered.

It is never wise to prevent research or reading on any subject, even if it is controversal. I am also not really sure that if it is a negative thing that students are exposed to homosexuality in a school setting. It may be just my opinion, but I feel that it would be far better to have it discussed in a coherant and proper manner in a school setting, rather than viewed on television or through only the media.

If one looks at this subject from a complete subjective manner, regardless of morality and emotion, it does not make sense to refuse to discuss a subject which is so prevalent today. Millions of people worldwide are homosexual. To not discuss the topic would be fostering an ignorance of a significant part of humanity.

Do you know how fast the ACLU would be all over this if it did? Or gay rights groups? If it isn't already, Alabama would be the laughing stock of the country. This will never pass.

Funny. States like Massachusettes, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and California all subscribe to such "heathen" practices as tolerating homosexuals, yet they all have the highest qualities of life Alabama and the rest of the south will be the laughing stock of North America until they get some new priorities. Fuck these people.

we had our chance when they seceded from the Union, but we fucking blew it.

Just the fact that these classics could be deemed "too gay" for university students is beyond ridiculous.

Yes, that would be the final solution. Strange I've heard this somewhere before...

Yes yes! Lets just get rid of anything that offends us! Lets forget remembering and thinking, because those type of things are unpleasant!

Sometimes I think the whole world would be better if everyone read Farhenheit 451.

They would if only Bradbury would have written aphoristically.

Briefly?

I think the book is written perfectly.

Or at least if it weren't so gay.

What kind of blatent remark is that?

A joke, dude. As in, this thread is about not reading gay books? Maybe I should have thrown in a for good measure.

Oh. Haha I get it now. I thought you were being ignorant. Nevermind. Im humbled.