Alabama legislator proposes destroying, banning gay books

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Many greek plays would be outlawed in Alabama.

Assuming they knew or cared about their existence.


I'm currently reading 'Reading Lolita in Teheran'.

The Alabama legislator would fit right in with the Khomeini Revolution crowd, where works of art and literature were no longer seen as such, but deemed to be 'how to' manuals.


I really didn't 'learn' to be gay from the works of Oscar Wilde or Tennessee Williams or Euripides, whatever this dolt thinks.

Perhaps 'The Rights of Man' and 'Common Sense' should be banned too, in case people get a bit uppity.

[Ben Kenobi]

I agree with you, wrt to the university book collection.

The others are a much more interesting argument.

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
I wonder.

Would there be any uproar about having a bible on the shelves of the university collection?

What about in an elementary school?

What say ye proponents of free speech?

Are you telling me there are people (in the West) who say school and uni libraries shouldn't have copies of the Bible?!?

[Ben Kenobi]

Canada won't have them in public elementary schools.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Last Conformist

Are you telling me there are people (in the West) who say school and uni libraries shouldn't have copies of the Bible?!?

I doubt it.

It certainly would have made my English Language and Literature degree course rather difficult- along with the comparative mythology and religion courses, the theology courses, the courses to do with history, printing, art and art history, politics, sociology et cetera, et cetera.

He's just trying to confuse the issue between making a book available and teaching that it is the literal or only truth to the exclusion of any other viewpoint.

There is a difference, for instance, in me studying the evolution of the bible in English, what happened to its translators and when, and its effects on the English language, and English history and being taught that Christianity is the one way, the 'truth' and the light.

[Ben Kenobi]

I'm doing nothing of the sort.

Just making the point, that books in elementary schools are censored, and people approve of this censorship. Why one book should be included and not another, is a decision made by librarians all the time.

[Last Conformist]

Obviously, decisions have to be made about which books are to be included in any library - if nothing else, for reasons of cost and space. But not having the Bible in a school library in Canada is simply bizarre.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
I'm doing nothing of the sort.

Just making the point, that books in elementary schools are censored, and people approve of this censorship. Why one book should be included and not another, is a decision made by librarians all the time.

So which schools have banned the Bible or the Qu'ran or any other religious text, as opposed to having the teaching of the said text proscribed ?


Yes, books seem frequently to be the target of campaigns to ban them- the Harry Potter books, 'Gulliver's Travels', 'Black Beauty'- but so far you haven't given us any examples of a religious book rather than its teachings being banned.

The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–1999

Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz

Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Forever by Judy Blume

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The Giver by Lois Lowry

My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris

Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine

A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Sex by Madonna

Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson

In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak

The Witches by Roald Dahl

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

The Goats by Brock Cole

The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard

Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry

Final Exit by Derek Humphry

Blubber by Judy Blume

Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

The Pigman by Paul Zindel

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier

Deenie by Judy Blume

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden

Beloved by Toni Morrison

The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar

Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz

Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling

Cujo by Stephen King

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein

Ordinary People by Judith Guest

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)

Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard

Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole

What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras

The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy

Crazy Lady by Jane Conly

Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher

Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan

Fade by Robert Cormier

Guess What? by Mem Fox

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Native Son by Richard Wright

Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s

Fantasies by Nancy Friday

Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen

On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer

The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende

Jack by A.M. Homes

Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge

Family Secrets by Norma Klein

Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya

Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle

The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney

Carrie by Stephen King

The Dead Zone by Stephen King

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Always Running by Luis Rodriguez

Private Parts by Howard Stern

Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford

Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene

Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume

Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Running Loose by Chris Crutcher

Sex Education by Jenny Davis

Jumper by Steven Gould

Christine by Stephen King

The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene

That Was Then, This is Now by S.E. Hinton

Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy

The Wish Giver by Bill Brittain

Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier


1Out of 5,718 challenges reported to or recorded by the Office for Intellectual Freedom, as compiled by the Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom does not claim comprehensiveness in recording challenges. Research suggests that for each challenge reported there are as many as four or five which go unreported.

http://www.ala.org/bbooks/resource.html

and in the United States:

" Nine banned titles: Slaughterhouse-Five [and others].
In 1975, three school board members sought the removal of several books determined objectionable by a politically conservative organization. The following February, the board gave an “unofficial direction” that the books be removed from the school libraries, so that board members could read them. When the board action attracted press attention, the board described the books as “anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, and just plain filthy.” The nine books that were the subject of the lawsuit were Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.; The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris; Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas; Best Short Stories of Negro Writers edited by Langston Hughes; Go Ask Alice ; Laughing Boy by Oliver LaFarge; Black Boy by Richard Wright; A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But a Sandwich by Alice Childress; and Soul on Ice by Eldrige Cleaver.
The board appointed a review committee that recommended that five of the books be returned to the shelves, two be placed on restricted shelves, and two be removed from the library. The full board voted to remove all but one book.

After years of appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld (5-4) the students’ challenge to the board’s action. The Court held that school boards do not have unrestricted authority to select library books and that the First Amendment is implicated when books are removed arbitrarily.

Justice Brennan declared in the plurality opinion: “Local school boards may not remove books from school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books and seek by their removal to prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion. ”

Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853, 102 S.Ct. 2799, 73 L.Ed.2d 435 (1982)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A199109

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Berzerker


To reduce or eliminate the persecution faced by homosexuals by using public schools (and private if possible) to teach acceptance of homosexuals as humans worthy of the same respect afforded heterosexuals. The conflict is created when parents who believe homosexuality is a behavioral choice that can be induced don't want the schools used for that kind of social engineering.

Good post, concise and accurate.

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Sikander


Good post, concise and accurate.

Exactly. Parents have every right to determine what their children read and see in schools and lawmakers have every right to put forward bills that determine how public funds are used.

I have no idea whether this bill will pass since this is the first time I've heard of it. As long as they dont try to ban books I dont give a crap what they do.

[Mordoch]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
I wonder.

Would there be any uproar about having a bible on the shelves of the university collection?

This seems to be a particularly weak argument as I would assume many university library collections WOULD have the bible. In fact, Universities that have a school of theology probably have a large number of bibles including different versions.

[PLATO]

Re: Alabama legislator proposes destroying, banning gay books

Originally posted by ixnay
And people wonder why the South is laughed at.

Hey! It's Alabama...not the South! They, and Mississippi, are the red-headed step children.

[Adagio]

I don't care about books, but they have no right to ban games too, if they go that far... I would hate to see games like The Longest Journey get banned, just because one of the woman characters is gay (or lesbian if you want)

I don't have any problems if more guys "turns" gay, that just leaves more girls to me

[Shi Huangdi]

He did have people vote for him, but it's just one legislative district, not the whole state.

[Elok]

What if they convert women to lesbianism though, ADG?

Hey, I just realized: this means Star Wars will have to be banned too!

"[Heavy Breathing] Join the Dark Side. It is your destiny. [Heavy Breathing]."
And let's not forget Jar Jar Binks. And all that time Amidala spends with her "handmaidens." I smell a possible agenda.

Oh well, it's not like destroying literature has ever led us astray before, right?