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May 03, 2005
Idiotarians at Work
An Alabama legislator wants to prevent the state's public school libraries from purchasing books by gay or lesbian authors, or books that feature gay characters.
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."Oh, my aching head..."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.
My friend Joe has a term for something like this - aggressive stupidity. Of course, the opponents of the bill aren't exactly covering themselves in glory with their response:
A spokesman for the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center called the bill censorship.What doesn't sound like Nazi something-or-other to a liberal? Is it even possible for a liberal in a policy debate to refrain from a Nazi analogy?"It sounds like Nazi book burning to me," said SPLC spokesman Mark Potok.
Anyway, Allen's proposed legislation is just about the most bizarre piece of legislative foolishness I've seen outside of my own state. How exactly does one enforce such a law? What if a book has a bad gay character, such as The Talented Mr. Ripley? by Patricia Highsmith Does that count? What if the gay character is somewhat incidental, such as the character of Margot in Thomas Harris' Hannibal? How far do you take this sort of thing?
UPDATE - The link above may not work, so here's the CBS version of the story.
Posted by slublog at May 3, 2005 10:45 AM
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Comments
Hey I had no idea I said that so much that you'd remember it. I suppose blogging about politics it is brought to mind frequently.
Posted by: MainiacJoe at May 3, 2005 01:59 PM
Especially in Maine.
Posted by: Slublog at May 3, 2005 02:33 PM
I wonder why, if the fella was initially interested in cutting out some Shakespeare, he didn't just go whole hog and take out all the copies of the Bible? Oh yeah, the ACLU probably got those already, for a different reason.
Posted by: Tor at May 3, 2005 04:08 PM