op-ed
Christian Grantham was a student activist in the late 90s and later was a consultant to domestic policy forums for the Clinton Administration as well as events for HRC and GLAAD.
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December 01, 2004

As if the state's 2004 election battle to defend segregation wasn't embarrassing enough, now Republican lawmakers in Alabama are moving to burn books with homosexual content. The moral majority is stirring.

A bill by Rep. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, would prohibit the use of public funds for "the purchase of textbooks or library materials that recognize or promote homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle." Allen said he filed the bill to protect children from the "homosexual agenda." "Our culture, how we know it today, is under attack from every angle," Allen said in a press conference Tuesday.

Allen said that if his bill passes, novels with gay protagonists and college textbooks that suggest homosexuality is natural would have to be removed from library shelves and destroyed.

"I guess we dig a big hole and dump them in and bury them," he said.
[Gay book ban goal of state lawmaker - Birmingham News - 12-01-04]

Book burying, the Republican kissing-cousin of Nazis book burning, aims to cleanse culture of homosexuality.

If the bill became law, public school textbooks could not present homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle, college theater groups would not be able to perform plays like the Tennessee Williams classic "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" where homosexuality is a theme, and public school libraries could not display books that include lesbianism such as Alice Walker's "The Color Purple."
[Bill would bar use of state funds for promotion of homosexuality - Decatur Daily - 12-01-04]