Gay book ban goal of state lawmaker

[Ruffhowse]

Wednesday, December 01, 2004
KIM CHANDLER
News staff writer
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.

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1101896768316400.xml
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And so it starts, gonna have an ol' fashioned book burnin'!!! Praise Jesus!! Next thing they'll do is start lynchin' gay people. Fucking unbelievable.

[Cobalt Violet]

1. And after their done with gays and gay books they'll come after the rest..

of us liberals.

[Hieronymus]

3. I can't believe this is happening........

to our country. It's a nightmare.:nuke:

[bluestateguy]

2. The corporate media says we need to better "understand" these people

and that we need to "connect" with their values.

[drhilarius]

4. Absolutely reprehensible.

What books are they going to ban next? Soon the only books we'll have access to will be all 532 translations of God's, supposedly, inerrant word.

In another thread, someone quotes a freeper as saying America's heartland- Bush country- is "visionary" and "imaginative". This is what visionary and imaginative people do, they ban books?

[izzie]

5. I love it when this goes on. Boston used to do it.

Every one ran down and bought the book.

[Cobalt Violet]

6. I wonder who is going to have to read all the books to see which ones...

Have gay characters in them. Do these people even read.

[Laughing Mirror]

7. "The George Wallace of homosexuality"

Allen might not want to remember what happened to Alabama's former favorite governor at that political rally in Laurel, Maryland in 1972.

Warning shots to remind him of Wallace's crippling bullets, in the form of letters and phone calls, should be directed to the following:

Representative Gerald Allen
8200 Old Hargrove Road East
Cottondale, AL 35453

205-556-5310 HOME
334-242-7758 State House

...

DU poster 94114_San_Francisco posted this helpful information in LBN on this thread yesterday.

Call him at home and say thank you

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. Free speech? What free speech?

Is he also going to black out "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" and the gay couples who get home improvements on shows like "Trading Spaces"? Frankly, it would seem to me that TV shows that >gasp< show gays as human beings will have a greater impact on how people view them than books in a library, especially in a state like AL where, I believe, the illiteracy rate is above 20%.

[phylny]

9. What the hell are these people AFRAID OF????? n/t

[drhilarius]

10. Well, from what i can gather...

They seem to think that gay sex is so unbelievably incredible that their otherwise hetero children and neighbors will develop a sudden and insatiable urge to sodomize one another.

[Scooter24]

11. This law has no chance of standing up in court.

and he knows this. They want another platform to launch their "how the Democrats and homosexuals are out to get the children, blah blah blah..." rhetoric.

Another redneck state congressman introducing inane law under the guise of "protecting children" that will end up with the government wasting thousands of dollars in legal fees to fight for its survival only to have a judge laugh at them and rule the law unconstitutional.

[xchrom]

12. while this law doesn't stand a chance

it does ratchet up the cultural war.
and that's all he's after for now.
this is all going to get uglier before it gets better.

[McKenzie]

13. The Jam - "Funeral Pyre"

Down in amongst the streets tonight
Books will burn, people laugh and cry in their turmoil
(turmoil turns rejoiceful)
Shed your fears and lose your guilt
Tonight we burn responsibility in the fire
We'll watch the flames grow higher!
But if you get too burnt, you can't come back home

etc.

[cali]

14. LOL. I love it. This is good for us.

It makes the religious right wing look like the stupid, bigoted, anti-1st Amendment creeps, they are. Even the freepers are freaked about this making them look bad. Imagine some of the books and authors they'd be banning: Tennesee Williams to Catcher In The Rye.

[QC]

15. Exactly--we need to hang these people around Bush's neck

like the albatrosses they are.