Alabama Would Prohibit Gay Books in Libraries

Hello again folks in 'netland. Here is something that a friend of mine sent to me, and I thought it very worthy of posting. I do not know the original source of the article, whom I gladly acknowledge. Anyone with knowledge of the author, please post a comment so that they can receive credit.

Now read and prepare to get very, very, very fucking angry:

A bill introduced February 1 by Alabama State Rep. Gerald Allen
(R-Cottondale) seeks to prohibit public libraries, schools, and
universities from purchasing books or other materials that promote gay
culture or feature gay characters. HB30 would make it a Class A
misdemeanor to purchase, produce, or promote “printed or electronic
materials or activities that sanction, recognize, foster, or promote a
lifestyle or actions prohibited by the sodomy and sexual misconduct laws
of the state.”

Allen had announced the bill at a press conference last November, two
months before the legislative session began, explaining that his intent
was to remove from library shelves any novel with a gay protagonist or any
college textbook that suggests homosexuality is natural. “I guess we dig a
big hole and dump them in and bury them,” he said in the December 1
Birmingham News.

University of Alabama Associate Theater Professor Peder Melhuse said in
the January 10 Crimson White campus newspaper that he doubted the bill
would pass, but “if it did go through, I would certainly go out of my way
to choose and vote for [productions] that went right in the face of the
law.”

The bill contains language asserting that it is not a “prior restraint of
the First Amendment protected speech” since it applies only to public
institutions “in the use of public funds and public facilities.” It also
makes its provisions severable, meaning that if any part of the law is
declared invalid or unconstitutional, other parts would not be affected.