Meme Dump

The Funny Papers

Clay Bennett, John Cole, Kevin Kallaugher, Michael de Adder, Nick Anderson, Ed Hall, Benjamin Slyngstad, Ted Littleford,  Gary Markstein, JD Crowe, Lalo Alcaraz, Marc Murphy, Darrin Bell,

Books! When Are We Gonna Ban Books!?!

Yes, there is such a thing as Banned Book Week, and now it is just wrapping up for another year. Of course, as with most years, any books that feature LGBT stories, or characters, are right at the top of the list, which is where Candi Cushman, an "education analyst" for Focus on Family, wants them:

“Every year, the [American Library Association] and other liberal groups use this trumped-up event to intimidate and basically silence concerned parents… the truth is, parents have every right and responsibility to object to their kids receiving sexually explicit and pro-gay literature without their permission, especially in a school setting.”

Everyone knows the best way to make sure kids don’t get their hands on something is to tell them they can’t have it. Like books with LGBT storylines. So, here, now, courtesy of Queerty and the National Coalition Against Censorship, is a brief rundown of titles that folks like Cutesy Candi Cushman, and the FoF, want removed from public libraries, schools and, yes, bookstores:

And Tango Makes Three

(Justin Richardson and Henry Cole, Simon and Schuster).
About two male penguins who raise a chick in the Central Park Zoo, this is one of the American Library Association’s most challenged titles. It especially dangerous in the eyes of homophobes because its based on a true story.
The true story of penguins and baby chicks!

Baby Be Bop
(Francesca Lia Block, HarperCollins)
Among the various provincial groups demanding the the recall of this teen-lit coming-out story for its “graphic language” and for “promoting a homosexual agenda” was the Christian Civil Liberties Union (CCLU) who filed suit against West Bend, Wisconsin for carrying the book in public libraries. But they didn’t just want the book reshelved in the adult section, as others had requested. Saying elderly library-goers had been “damaged mentally and emotionally” by Baby Be Bop’s presence, they claimed “it’s inappropriate to have it in the library, and we want it out or destroyed.”

Geography Club
(Brent Hartinger, HarperCollins)
The American Booksellers Association named this oft-banned title one of their favorites, so you know it just has to be soul-damaging. Community members from Tacoma, WA (Hartiger’s hometown) to West Bend, WI complained about its “immoral”gay content.

Coming Out in College: The Struggle for a Queer Identity
(Robert A. Rhoades, Bergin & Garvey)
Parents in Fayetteville, Arkansas petitioned to have this fairly stuffy primer removed this from school libraries. Because “The John Birch Society” was already taken, they formed Parents Protecting the Minds of Children and objected to the profane language and depictions of sexuality in the book. They also said anyone who disagreed with their stance was, naturally, promoting a homosexual agenda.

Daddy’s Roommate
(Michael Willhoite, Alyson Books)
Sarah Palin got her panties in a bunch over this children’s book being available in public libraries in her old stomping ground of Wasilla, Alaska, even though she admitted she had never read it.
So to be clear:
Daddy being gay and having a longtime partner = bad.
Daughter having child out of wedlock and everyone in the family trying to make a buck on reality television = good.

The Education of Harriet Hatfield
(By May Sarton, Norton & Co)
Not only was this book—about a lesbian who faces bigotry and discrimination when she opens a bookstore in a blue-collar neighborhood—taken off the shelves at a New Hampshire high school, an English teacher was fired for refusing to comply.

King & King
(Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland, Tricycle Press)
Another children’s book, this fairy tale fell into the crosshairs of North Carolina and Pennsylvania conservatives for two reasons: It presented the story of a young prince who, when forced to marry by his mother, chose another prince. And two, it’s originally from the Netherlands—and nothing decent comes from Europe.

Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin
(John D’Emilio, University of Chicago Press)
Why do we need legislation like California’s FAIR act? Because homophobes don’t just want to prevent positive depictions of the LGBT community in schools—they want to delete our very existence from the history books. When gay activists in Oklahoma City donated copies of this biography of Rustin, a major player in the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, the haters cried bloody murder. (The school board voted to keep the books). Lets hope no one proves Abraham Lincoln was definitely gay or else kids will never know who signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

Rainbow High
(Alex Sanchez, Simon & Schuster)
Bigots in Arkansas must have a lot of time on their hands: Parents Protecting the Minds of Children, the same cabal that wanted Coming Out in College banned, cried foul over this young-adult book series, which featured gay-teen protagonists and the kind of language most teens use (i.e. vulgar). In fact, they were just some of the titles on the list of 55 books PPMC petitioned to be removed from school libraries. You gotta wonder if The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was on that list—Jim and Huck spend an awful lot of time together rafting down the river. We’re just saying.

Stuck Rubber Baby
(Howard Cruse, DC Comics)
A groundbreaking graphic novel that addressed growing up queer in the South, gay liberation and the advent of the AIDS crisis, Stuck Rubber Baby won Cruse worldwide acclaim and numerous awards. Naturally, the Library Patrons of Texas weren’t having it and demanded it be pulled from local libraries. The book was moved to the adult section of the library, but not banned. Score one for us!





Excuse me while I dash out to my local bookstore or library and get me some new reading material.

History Never Repeats.......Or Does It

Book burning. That's what they want to do with their time in West Bend, Wisconsin. well, maybe they don't want books burned, but one couple wants to tell you what you can, and cannot, read. And, of course, the books are all about The Homosexual!!! And S-E-X!!!

It seems af though all of West Bend is in on the fight, arguing on blogs, the radio, town meetings. Must be nice to live in a town where all you have to worry about are books. No economic crises, apparently. No foreclosures or crime sprees. Just naughty books on library shelves.

One man has suggested that the city's library director he should be tarred and feathered.

Yes folks, it's the 1700s all over again in West Bend, Wisconsin.

All the brouhaha began back in February when Jim and Ginny Maziarka objected to the content of a few books in the young-adult section. Then they petitioned the library board to move any sexually explicit books --the definition of which would be debated, although Jim and Ginny have named themselves experts-- from the young-adult section to the adult section and to label them as sexually explicit. The Maziarka's also asked the library board to obtain books about homosexuality that affirmed heterosexuality, such as titles written by "ex-gays."

We need to affirm heterosexuality because it's on the decline apparently. And those poor heteros are feeling put upon and discriminated against. Let's build them up.

"All the books in the young-adult zone that deal with homosexuality are gay-affirming. That's not balance," Ginny Maziarka said.

Yes, Ginny Maziarka thinks gay-affirming books are bad, especially these days with gay kids being bullied to death. We shouldn't be telling these kids that they're okay; we should be giving them books to tell them how to change their evil ways and be like the rest of us....or at least like the Maziarkas.

But the library did not agree with the Maziarkas' suggestions, and did not relabel or segregate books according the Maziarka System. So, Ginny set down the plate of biscuits she normally would be eating while she watched Oprah and began a blog championing her cause of book banning.

Maria Hanrahan, also a West Bend mom whose mind isn't nailed shut, set up a rival blog to argue the other side. "I'm against any other party telling me what's appropriate for my child and what isn't," said Hanrahan, 40, who also created a West Bend Parents for Free Speech group. "We don't mean to say these are appropriate for everyone, but we don't feel they should be set apart from other materials or restricted from the young-adult section."

What's this? Rational thought in West Bend? Go Maria!

"If you told me we would be going through a book challenge of this nature, I'd think, 'Never in a million years,' " said Michael Tyree, director of the West Bend Community Memorial Library.

With the debate raging, the city council voted in April against renewing the terms of four library board members, in part because council members thought the board was dragging its feet, library director Tyree said.

And the Maziarkas continued their obsession with books about sex, and have identified 82 questionable titles--more than double their original list. They asked the library board to label and move to the adult section any "youth-targeted pornographic books"--including books that describe sex acts in a way unsuitable for minors.

"We're not talking about educational material. We're talking raunchy sex acts," Ginny Maziarka said, obviously referring to one book in particular that has her back hairs in a twist: "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," in which a fictional teenage boy tells about his freshman year in high school, including rape and homosexual and heterosexual sex between teens.

Michael Tyree said book excerpts found on Maziarka's blog had been taken out of context and, in the case of "Wallflower," the criticism missed some of the book's points. "In this book, there were consequences of ... rape, of indiscriminate sex. Those were not portrayed so glowingly," he said.

But Ginny kept going after the books like a kid after Halloween candy, and by the June 2nd library board meeting she had collected over 1,000 signatures; but so had Maria Hanrahan. After listening to dozens of speakers on both sides of the issue, the board--which still included the outgoing members--unanimously voted to keep all policies the same.

The Maziarkas and their supporters are gearing up for another go at the library, in part because the board now has its four new members. They do not want books burned, but they do want action. They want books segregated and kept away from anyone who might be interested in them because Jim and Ginny don't like books that talk about sex

"We want parents to decide whether they want their children to have access to these books ... and we want the library's help in identifying [them through labeling and moving]," Maziarka said. "It's just common sense."

No, Ginny, common sense would be to let parents police their own children, not the library, or the schools, or the babysitters and the day cares. Just because you don't want your children to have access to books you don't like doesn't give you the right to segregate literature.

Step away from the brownies, Ginny, and parent your own children.

The Good Old Days Of Book Burning

A book about a young gay man struggling to come to terms with his sexuality has provoked the wrath of a US Christian 'civil liberties' group who say it should be burned.

Yes. Book burning. Where have we seen that before........?

The book is Francesca Lia Block's Baby Be-Bop, in which the protagonist, Dirk, struggles to come to terms with his identity and is beaten up by a group of homophobic men.

A group which calls itself the Christian Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit demanding the right to publicly burn the book. The CCLU--no affiliation, obviously, with the ACLU--say that the book is "explicitly vulgar, racial [sic], and anti-Christian".

Get me a match! Because, when i have the option to read or not read something i find vulgar, I don't choose the option not to read, i search out gasoline and a match.

The CCLU, a group of elderly men from Wisconsin filed a claim against the West Bend Community Library, which had the book on display in which they say that the book, yes, a book, "constitutes a hate crime, and that it degrades the community". The men go on to say that "their mental and emotional well-being was damaged by this book at the library."

They seek damages of $120,000.00. Because they don't like a book. If that's how it works, Stephen King owes me about a half million dollars, and so does Anne Rice.

In a letter to the West Bend Common Council, members of the National Coalition Against Censorship and American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression argued that “The Constitution prohibits a public library from censoring material because some people find it offensive or distasteful”.

Francesca Lia Block says it was her intent in the book to “expose racism and homophobia, not promote it" by including offensive words such as the n-word, and 'faggot.' She also said,

"I'd like to show my support for the librarians....[t]hey're the unsung heroes in our society. My brother works on a hotline for gay youth and every night he's talking people down from suicide because they're gay and they're not accepted by the communities they're in."

The city council insurance company is currently evaluating the Christian Civil Liberties Union claim.

I have a suggestion for the CCLU.

If you find a book offensive, don't read it.

If you find a TV show vulgar, change the channel.

If you have nothing better to do than suggest we go back to the days of book burning, then shut up.