Well. I am impressed. You'd think the US Constitution just took a right at the north border of Alabama and missed it altogether, wouldn't you?
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." [...] 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. [...] 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.
So ...those would be the sodomy and misconduct laws that were overturned nationwide by the Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas. The sodomy laws that effectively no longer exist or apply. Right. (Say one thing for the man: he's even-handed. No man-on-man or woman-on-woman sex, and if it's anything but your basic heterosexual missionary position eyes-closed think-of-the-good of-your-country and don't you DARE enjoy it sex, he's agin' it.)
Mind, I don't think this stands a snowball's chance of going anywhere. Even if Alabama's legislature passes the law, and even if the governor signs it, libraries and booksellers would challenge it as unconstitutional censorship before the ink dried, and they would win. (With a little luck, the various courts along the way would get increasingly snooty about it.)
It might even pass, though. After all, Alabama is the state which bans all possession and sale of vibrators within its state borders. Wouldn't want people to actually enjoy nonreproductive sex with the aid of mechanical devices, after all. Wouldn't want people to have nonreproductive sex, period. Breed, straight people, breed! It's what you're there for! ... er, well, yes.
Anyway, I think it can safely be said that Alabama's legislature has an interestingly narrow view of personal liberties. One wonders how long it will be before they really do start acting as thought police. And how long it will be before this sort of thinking shows up elsewhere in the country.
Posted by iain at December 01, 2004 05:02 PM
