CBS News reports that some neanderthal lawmaker in Alabama has introduced a bill that would ban all books from public school libraries by gay authors or about gay characters.
"I don’t look at it as censorship," says Republican State Representative
Gerald Allen. "I look at it as protecting the hearts and souls and minds of
our children."Books by any gay author would have to go: Tennessee
Williams, Truman Capote and Gore Vidal. Alice Walker’s novel "The Color
Purple" has lesbian characters.Allen originally wanted to ban even some
Shakespeare. After criticism, he narrowed his bill to exempt the classics,
although he still can’t define what a classic is. Also exempted now
Alabama’s public and college libraries.Librarian Donna Schremser fears
the "thought police," would be patrolling her shelves."And so the
idea that we would have a pristine collection that represents one political
view, one religioius view, that’s not a library,” says Schremser."I
think it’s an absolutely absurd bill," says Mark Potok of the Southern
Poverty Law Center.First Amendment advocates say the ban clearly
does amount to censorship."It’s a Nazi book burning," says Potok. "You
know, it’s a remarkable piece of work."But in book after book, Allen
reads what he calls the "homosexual agenda," and he’s alarmed."It’s
not healthy for America, it doesn’t fit what we stand for," says Allen. "And
they will do whatever it takes to reach their goal."He says he sees this
as a line in the sand.
Happily, the bill died on the floor last week.
I wonder how much of this crap the guy actually believes. When I look at this kind of story, I don’t see an attempt at censorship so much as an attempt to showboat for a certain voter base.
Morons like this, unfortunately, give Republicans a bad name. You have to wonder how they come up with such loony ideas.
The bill died the most ignoble death possible.
Hardly anyone showed up to vote on it.
That’s me, on the cutting edge of current events…
…a week after they happen.
Riding the ragged edge of social change. The Alabama rep claims he got them from the Bible, straight from the interview.
Line in the sand? More like a mirage for the desperately lost.
The homosexual agenda:
Weed garden
Buy groceries
Go to PTA meeting
Coach soccer
sigh.
“That’s me, on the cutting edge of current events…”
It’s not you, Lee. This bill was reported on several months ago. It took CBS this long to find it.
Well they didn’t want to look eagar. They have a few critics.
The bill died the most ignoble death possible.
Hardly anyone showed up to vote on it.
I have to disagree with this, if only because a failure to speak out against such nonsense isn’t the same as vocally opposing it.
Just as the Republican in question is pandering to a bigoted power base (and having spent some 26 of my years in Alabama, up until 2001), the Democrats who failed to show were also being careful not to rock the boat.
I’m reminded of the joke about the sign on the highway as you cross from Alabama into Georgia – it says “Now leaving Alabama, set watch ahead 30 years.”
Actually, the bill was worse than that. It called not only for a ban on depictions of homosexuality, but anything sexual considered illegal under Alabama law. So depictions of oral sex between unmarried people would be out, as well as men lying to get women in bed.
Fun fun fun.