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Louisiana Ponders Appropriateness of Gay LiteratureLouisiana became the third state this year whose legislature debated whether to keep books “containing the theme of homosexuality” from minors. Rep. A. G. Crowe (R-Slidell) introduced a resolution May 19 to make access adults-only for gay-themed and other “age-inappropriate materials that are publicly cataloged.” House Concurrent Resolution 119 states that “materials concerning human sexuality and those of an arguably prurient nature should not be readily available to children, nor should the distribution of such materials to children be supported by public funds.”Crowe said in the May 20 News Orleans Times-Picayune that he initiated the resolution after a constituent shared his concerns about his 4-year-old daughter borrowing King and King from the St. Tammany Parish Library branch in Slidell. “I am not espousing censorship,” Crowe asserted, adding that “there should be a way [to] keep children from picking out these types of books.” The complainant, Dan Danese, declined to file a request for reconsideration, telling the Times-Picayune, “I’m deciding to skip the whole useless step” and turn to lawmakers “to see if they will cooperate with the people’s will.” An Oklahoma lawmaker filed a similarly worded resolution May 11, several weeks after the Alabama legislature let a bill die that would have banned “printed or electronic materials or activities that sanction, recognize, foster, or promote a lifestyle or actions prohibited by the sodomy and sexual misconduct laws of the state.” Posted May 20, 2005. |
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