“Public policies should prevent children from learning about these things,” bill sponsor Rep. Gerald Allen (R-Cottondale) asserted during a November 30 press conference. He went on to say that if the bill becomes law, materials dealing with gay life would have to be pulled from academic, school, and public library shelves. “I guess we dig a big hole and dump them in and bury them,” he said in the December 1 Birmingham News.
“Half the books in the library could end up being banned,” Jaunita Owes, director of the Montgomery City-County Library, told the News. “It’s all based on how one interprets the material.” Characterizing the bill as “alarming and discouraging,” American Library Association President Carol Brey-Casiano stated December 2, “Not only is the bill unworkable, it is discriminatory and unconstitutional.” She added, “We trust that Alabama legislators will stand up to this latest attempt to censor our library collections.”
Posted December 3, 2004.