Seems like there’s always something in the morning paper to make my blood boil.
This morning it was a story about a legislator from Slidell who wants to get “gay books” out of the children’s section.
The book that sparked this particular episode is King and King, which seems to have provoked a federal legislator to propose similar legislation on the national level.
I’m not sure what angers me most about this: the silly waste of time and energy, the encroachment on the free exchange of ideas, or the sheer hatefulness. I think it’s the last. I’m really frightened by the increasingly strident homophobia in American society. These misguided people need to stop hating gays. They need to recognize that same-sex love has always been with us, always will be, and there ain’t nothing wrong with it. It’s just another facet of life.
But Rep. Crowe’s insipid resolution makes me so mad, I hardly know what to do about it. Write a letter to the editor? Buy a copy of King and King? Or maybe I should make a TV show about it…
I disagree with you. The fact that something has been around forever doesn’t make it right. One could make the same comments about slavery or prostitution. Just because something is right from one person’s perspective doesn’t necessarily make it right for everyone. Nor should that person’s perspective be imposed on everyone-especially children. King and King isn’t just a cute story, it has an agenda that it is trying to promote. Anyone who thinks differently is deluding him/herself. Would you also be enraged if, for example, a series of children’s books with a christian theme were the target of the legislation?
You’re correct of course — longevity doesn’t make anything right. And the book does have an agenda. I like the agenda, though: tolerance and compassion. That’s what King and King is about. It’s saying that sometimes people of the same sex like each other and want to get married, and that’s OK. I agree with that moral, but I take it that you don’t.
Of course, many children’s stories have morals. The question is: what do we do with a children’s book which has a moral we don’t like or agree with? Do we take it off the shelf?
I don’t think writing or publishing a book, or having it freely available in the library, amounts to imposing a viewpoint on others.
I would certainly be outraged if someone tried to ban Christian books. There are a bunch of Christian books at the library right now. If someone tried to ban them there would be a huge outcry, and I’d be right there with the Christians, protesting.
But it’s hard to imagine such legislation in today’s political climate.