https://www.advocate.com/politics/georgia-senate-ala
The bill’s sponsors blamed the group’s new “Marxist lesbian” president for the legislation.
I love that this piece of shit read something that said his local library was working to increase literary representation for black and gay people, and he was like: "NOPE! NOT IN MY STATE!!!". He even had the unfettered temerity to say "I'm a pretty tolerant individual, but this has gone too far!"
Christ, what an asshole.
And his kids will grow up with cement braces on their brains, knowing nothing actual or helpful about black history or human sexuality, and teen underage pregnancy will rise quickly along with STDs, and people will scratch their heads and wonder why. "After all, we banned all books and literature about such things, how could this happen?!?"
the suffering is the point. from AIDS to HPV to COVID-19 conservatives haven't seen a disease in decades that they didn't like
It's horrifying true, because in their warped perception they believe these diseases wipe out the "vermin" around them, the people they dislike and are told by their religion to discriminate against. Facts don't enter into their brains at all, including the fact that their own kids are more likely to be the ones coming down with all these diseases, which are spread through ignorance and lack of sexual education.
Wow. Looks like Georgia doesn't want to be left out of the fascist fun states like Florida, Texas, Arkansas, etc. are doing.
We fought to abolish legal segregation (in these states) and eventually won. Keep fighting; we can win this too
Except it never happened here in Utah. Church and state are intertwined in every way here, the legislature withholds money from any schools that don't teach "christian" values or that try to include any actual truth about history. Everything here is controlled by the church, from what you buy in stores to how your kids can dress or talk or who they can hang out with.
Well it's a bit of hyperbole. But as an example, the legislature was considering a bill to demand that all schools have the 10 commandments prominently on display (whether christian, muslim, or any kind of school). There was such outcry from the public that they instead settled on a curriculum telling teachers they have to include teaching about the 10 commandments in every classroom instead.
After all how better to instill a sense of guilt and not living like Jesus than to force that down kids' throats at every turn?
Exactly, it's one reason the mormon church does not encourage women to read or have opinions. They know that intelligence leads to discovering the church is a big sham.
The bill had 22 primary sponsors, including Republican state Sen. Larry Walker, who told NPR he was upset to learn his local library worked with the ALA to increase literary representation for the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities.
“I feel this is kind of being forced on our children and kind of shoved down our throat," Walker told NPR. "I'm a pretty tolerant individual, but this has gone too far."
NPR must have misquoted Sen. Larry Walker given he was a primary sponsor of this absolute asinine piece of legislation.
I think what he really said was, "I'm a pretty intolerant individual and this has gone too far! "
These cowards are acting like the ALA are instructing librarians to slip LGBTQ+ or BIPOC books in kids backpacks while they are busy playing Minecraft on the Library computers.
It is kind of funny that the ALA president made a point of calling herself a "Marxist lesbian" when she won.
I think that's great, and ultimately we want to be in a place where someone can proudly declare that identity. Still I think about my industry's professional association which is essentially beholden to big corporate sponsors and which isn't really democratic. Our president would immediately catch flack for that sort of comment. (Marxist, not the lesbian part) But of course librarians have held the right positions about a lot of things for a long time.
The most pathetic thing about this is that the Nazis had to invent made up race "science" and conspiracy theories about jews to justify their book banning/burning, while the Republicans will do the same for "look, some people have different concepts about gender attributes than us"...
The point is to make the organization waste resources fighting this.
Just make an organization called, "Christians for literacy" or some shit and do the exact same thing.
Here in shitty Baboon's-Ass Red utah, we have the same situation, the legislature is trying to make it easier to ban any book that may contain references to relationships, sexuality, or LGBTQ (yet apparently the mormon literature about polygamy can stay). Luckily there's been a lot of counter-revolutionary bookstores specifically offering "banned" books and LGBTQ books popping up around the state in response. They aren't state owned, so these miserable cretins are now meeting to find ways to shut them down for improper licensing, building regulations, or other made up problems.
I agree that we need to make sure kids have access to these books. I'm not sure they all need to real all of them, but if they are interested and want to read these books, they need to have that option.
It's so funny that (here in Utah) in the 8th grade, I was reading a new book that had just been published called "The Exorcist" (this was before the film came out). And one day my teacher said, I wasn't allowed to bring that book into class anymore, it was not considered "decent" reading material.
There is the word "masturbate" in the book "The Exorcist," but that's about the only "bad" word in it. And I knew what "masturbate" was long before i read that book. And I wasn't reading the book out loud to classmates or anything, I just thought it was so lame to be told I couldn't read it.
Kids are much smarter and more resilient than these book banners give them credit for. They can read adult themes in books without it "corrupting" them, and in fact, they need to have some knowledge of such things. The whole "banning" thing is such a political stunt, and it hurts kids the most.
So all of this is because the president of the organization is a Marxist lesbian? Does this mean we can start banning right wing organizations for having literal fascists at the helm?