Gay book ban goal of state lawmaker

[SunWuKong]

can't say i'm surprised, given the last presidential turn-out. if something like this passes, i wonder how far away we are from banning homosexuality altogether?

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnew...6768316400.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.

[Yeahman]

Fat chance of passing.
Interesting that "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is mentioned. The homosexual author, Oscar Wilde, is practically a saint in Catholicism. "The Picture of Dorian Gray," I was taught when it was required reading in my high school, was a story of the corruption of the conscience.

[John0101]

wow, thats horrible. I can't believe some people are so strongly against homosexuality.

Even if it doesn't have a good chance of passing this still shows the state of affairs of how LGBT are treated in society.

[SunWuKong]

Originally Posted by ye110man

Fat chance of passing.

you're probably right, because a lot of the contents in many books are up for interpretation. however, sodomy is still banned in Alabama, so i'm just wondering where is the line that religious conservative politicians won't cross?

and if a guy like this wants to ban books with homosexual material, why doesn't he also want to ban books with themes like murder and rape? it doesn't make sense to me at all. and it makes even less sense to me that someone like him could be elected into office.

the funny thing is that the type of people who voted for him probably think of themselves as very "American", and if they support this type of stuff, then they're basically bordering on thought control like fascists and communists do.

[Yeahman]

Originally Posted by SunWuKong

you're probably right, because a lot of the contents in many books are up for interpretation. however, sodomy is still banned in Alabama, so i'm just wondering where is the line that religious conservative politicians won't cross?

Anti-sodomy laws are reminants of the colonial days. Stuff like that can't pass today.

Originally Posted by SunWuKong

and if a guy like this wants to ban books with homosexual material, why doesn't he also want to ban books with themes like murder and rape? it doesn't make sense to me at all. and it makes even less sense to me that someone like him could be elected into office.

the funny thing is that the type of people who voted for him probably think of themselves as very "American", and if they support this type of stuff, then they're basically bordering on thought control like fascists and communists do.

He's a state lawmaker. Which means he probably got elected the same way most state lawmakers get elected; party affiliation.

[Faithless]

Originally Posted by ye110man

Fat chance of passing.
Interesting that "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is mentioned. The homosexual author, Oscar Wilde, is practically a saint in Catholicism. "The Picture of Dorian Gray," I was taught when it was required reading in my high school, was a story of the corruption of the conscience.

And with that: Vatican comes out of the closet and embraces Oscar

Oscar Wilde, poet, playwright, gay icon and deathbed convert to Catholicism, has been paid a rare tribute by the Vatican. His aphorisms are quoted in a collection of maxims and witticisms for Christians that has been published by one of the Pope’s closest aides (in the published work of one Father Leonardo Sapienza in his book Provocations: Aphorisms for an Anti-conformist Christianity).

So, do you ban that one, too?