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Idaho Trustees Asked to Revisit Joy of Gay SexA group of concerned citizens urged the Nampa, Idaho, city council May 14 to press the city library board to revisit for a third time its decision to retain the Joy of Gay Sex in the library collection. “We have a lot of kids in there,” Mayor Tom Dale said, according to a May 17 Associated Press report. “We need to have a safe place for them.”Explaining that Nampa Public Library must “meet the needs of a diverse group in our community,” board Chair Sharon Brooks explained that trustees refused complainant Randy Jackson’s request for reconsideration twice “based on the principle of freedom of information rather than that book.” Jackson told Fox-TV Boise affiliate KTRV May 14 that he browsed the title after learning that a 15-year-old boy had reported to his mother that he had found Joy of Gay Sex on a library table. “One of the chapters is titled daddy-son sexual fantasies about two people having sex together and pretending they are father and son,” Jackson said. He has also called for the removal of eight other titles, including the Joy of Sex, because he finds them “very pornographic in nature [with] very explicit and detailed illustrations and photographs.” Jackson has gained support from the Idaho Values Alliance, whose website on May 19 posted an e-mail Mayor Dale sent to area resident Tracy Mattox. “I will be working in the days before the next Library board meeting to help the board understand that they do have broad authority in determining the books placed in the library collection, and their status therein,” Dale wrote. “My preference would be for the books with explicit pictures, and particularly with chapters advocating breaking the laws of our state and nation, to be totally removed from the library. We do not need to provide them to anyone.” Acknowledging the authenticity of the e-mail, Mayor Dale told American Libraries that Mattox’s was one of many messages he had received regarding the controversy. He emphasized that while he has “no statutory authority to tell the board what to do,” he has “the same rights as any other citizen to address the board with my concerns.” Nampa library trustees may also receive input from defeated Boise city council candidate Brandi Swindell of Generation Life. She wrote on her blog May 15 that, acting on a tip from Randy Jackson’s wife Lynette Jackson, Swindell’s group would draft an open letter to ask an anonymous potential donor to NPL’s capital campaign to “hold funds until these books are no longer accessible to children.” Posted May 19, 2006. |
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