Book Battle

CNN's Jason Hanna has an excellent piece summarizing the kerfuffle in West Bend, Wisconsin over certain books in the young adult section of their local library. Last February, Ginny and Jim Maziarka visited the library and decided that certain books were too sexually explicit to be made available for 12 to 18 year-olds. How they sniffed these books out is anyone's guess, but their reasons for getting all huffy aren't quite so mysterious. See, some of these books talk about homosexuality, which makes Jesus cry. Not only that, but none of them portrayed homosexuality in a negative light. The Maziarkas petitioned the library board to move these gay-ass books somewhere the sun rarely if ever shines and make them unavailable to minors. They also asked that the library pepper the YA section with books by "ex-gays" (i.e. men who flog their boners while weeping for Christ's forgiveness) that made it clear dudes and dudes shouldn't fuck. The board, which is made up of reasonable people who can and do read, rejected this petition. Being a blowhard, Ginny Maziarka set up a blog to rile support from her fellow morons. Fans of free speech and other Satanic ideals rallied behind the library board as well, and the debate has been tearing the community apart. Even their Fourth of July parade was marred by controversy, as one float featured a washing machine to represent how the library needs to be cleaned up. Since their initial petition, the Maziarkases have created a blacklist of 82 books they believe to be "pornographic". And the fight has spilled outside of West Bend as well. Three self-described elderly men in nearby Milwaukee filed a lawsuit claiming the simple act of hearing about these books has damaged their "mental and emotional well-being". I'm assuming this is because their ancient circulatory systems can't handle the rush of blood to their decrepit loins when they hear the words "gay sex". In particular, they've taken offense at a book called Baby Be-bop about a gay teenager, which they claim is "explicitly vulgar, racial and anti-Christian". This may well be true, but so is the book of Genesis. The whole piece is worth reading, but it's heartening to know that the library is standing their ground and seems to have plenty of community support. In the meantime, I encourage all homosexual Wisconsin residents to take a moment this weekend to kiss their same-sex loved ones in public. Ten points for every old bastard who drops dead. More details here.