ACLU Sues School District
for Removing Gay Biographies
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing an Anaheim, California, school district for removing 10 biographies of gay people from the shelves of a junior high school library.
The suit, filed December 21 in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California, says that staffers at Oceanview Junior High School were shelving new books when a history teacher told librarian Christine Enterline to remove the 10 titles in the “Lives of Notable Gay Men and Lesbians” series, which profiles such figures as economist John Maynard Keynes and novelist James Baldwin. The Los Angeles Times reported December 22 that the principal sent the books to the district office, where they remain despite Enterline’s efforts to get them back.
ACLU attorney Martha Matthews said the suit, filed on behalf of two students who claim there is an antigay bias on the campus, is aimed at protecting children’s First Amendment rights from “viewpoint-based censorship” imposed by adults who disapprove of homosexuality.
“No parents objected to the books, and there was no formal challenge made to any of these books,” said library staff member Tom Kovac, who originally contacted the ACLU. “A teacher just came in and made some flippant comment and the books were gone. And you can’t do that.”
Posted January 1, 2001.
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