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Virginia Patron Loses Borrowing Privileges for Defacing MagazineThe 77-year-old patron who tore off the front cover of the Williamsburg (Va.) Regional Library’s copy of the November 11 issue of the Advocate will lose his borrowing privileges for a month. John Callaghan objected to the photo on the cover of the gay-interest news magazine, which depicted two bare-chested male Cirque du Soleil performers, one black and one white, on the verge of kissing each other. If the library had chosen to prosecute Callaghan on the charge of damaging a library magazine, a Class I misdemeanor in Virginia, he would have faced up to 12 months in prison, up to $2,500 in fines, or both. In a November 21 letter, the library informed Callaghan that his privileges would be suspended from November 24 to December 24. “Everyone is deeply concerned about this issue and is concerned that library policy, as well as Virginia Code, was violated,” said Library Director John Moorman in the November 24 Newport News Daily Press. “It’s an issue I think of tolerance and respect for the wide variety of individuals that live in our community.” Posted November 26, 2003. |
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