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.

"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.

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Yep, he did get one thing right. Our culture is under attack.

The good people of Alabama need to deal harshly with this sorry asshole.

Burn books, my ass. Let's burn lawmakers.

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Cholesterol; it's not just for breakfast anymore.

Intolerance and isolationism isn't the answer.

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Life is too short not to love and be loved....preferably multiple times in one night.

I think men talk to women so they can sleep with them and women sleep with men so they can talk to them. ~ Jay McInerney

Section 28 inserts s2A into the 1986 Act and provides in relevant part -

2A (1) A local authority shall not -

a) intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality;
b) promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.

(2) Nothing in subsection (1) above shall be taken to prohibit the doing of anything for the purpose of treating or preventing the spread of disease.

sound Familiar

Section 28 was officially repealed on November 17 2003
this was a wrong law here and is still wrong

damn, that just pisses me off! I HATE closemindedness, and that @$$hole has a mind like fort knox! I just cannot wrap my mind around those bans. Just unfathomable to me. It is people like that that hold back the progress of human rights.

I can not stand the fact that my ex-girlfriend and her wife cannot have their marriage be recognized as a true and legal, in the state that they live in and are discriminated left and right. I can not stand that anyone is discriminated against, for what ever reason. Underneath our skins, we are all basically the same. We all breathe, eat, live and have emotions.

As a future educator, I have vowed that i will try and teach my students that discrimination in any form is wrong, wrong, WRONG! The way aound it is education, whether it is in books, or by word of mouth. Don't hate some one because they are different from you, or their beliefs are different, or they have a different sexual orienation from you; learn about the differences, you don't have to agree with them, but you will understand them better, and you'll be a better person for it!

My ire is irked about this, but i'll have someone else have their say, and they maybe able to teach me something. off of my soapbox......Lizz >

I may not agree with somethings, but I defend everyone's right to their own opinion, and their right to say it. That said, I disagree with ANY legislation that legislates morality, or immorality for that matter, because it never works. If legislation works why are our jails full?

Tolerance is the key to understanding. If we were tolerant we would not trample on peoples opinions, rights or property...

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Susan

I agree with the man who compared it to Nazi book burnings. Bad enough that they want to allow it and keep them from marrying, but they want to silence those who are more tolerant than themselves. This is an attempt to impose one world-view and mindset on all of us. They just want to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that homosexuality is still a taboo, underground, and shameful thing to most people- that it will just go away, if they harass or intimidate enough people. They actually think that gays and lesbians can change. A certain fellow that I know and love is bi- he's NOT going to become straight, just because they want him to.

After reading these last two threads,about strippers having to wear their licences and this Alabama A--H--- wanting to ban books,I'd say we should all spend a little more time considering just who we are electing to public office.

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Sex is one of nine reasons for reincarnation.The other eight are unimportant...Henry Miller