Book banning alive and well in Utah

Ok, so this is not directly related to my buddy Gayle and her Eagle Forum storm troopers, but I reserve the right to comment on any Gaylesque news.

An elementary school librarian in Davis County put a copy of the book In Our Mothers’ House on the shelf when she realized that one of her students had two female parents.  She thought that it would help the other students understand the student’s home life better and hopefully relieve some of the bullying.

A parent complained, the district voted 6-1 (the one dissenting vote was the district’s library specialist) to remove the book from the shelves.  Students can still check it out, but only if they present a parent permission slip.

But it doesn’t stop there.  The district also removed the book “Totally Joe”, a book, written specifically for elementary aged kids, that deals with the bullying of students that are perceived to be gay.

And it doesn’t even stop there.  The district has all librarians scouring their books for any that contain gay themes or any gay characters.  Remove them all.

You can’t really blame the Davis School District, state law prohibits curriculum from showing homosexuality in any positive light.

You also can’t blame the librarians, who are trying to get a ruling that they are not constrained by the curriculum rules.  They argue that they do not provide just curriculum related reading, that part of their mission is to also provide recreational reading.

DEAR PARENTS,  You may not like it, but your child is going to meet students who are being raised by two mothers, two fathers, a single parent, their grandparents and even a sibling.  As they grow older they will be interacting with these students, and ones that are gay themselves.  At school, and later at their jobs, they are going to have to deal with people who fall into all those categories and also atheists, agnostics, communists, socialists, anarchists, liberals, conservatives and even the occasional intellectual.  Their job, their relationships, their happiness, may depend on knowing how to get along to all kinds of people, not everyone they are going to have to interact with is going to have the same beliefs and values.  Teach them your beliefs, instill in them your values, let them know that you don’t agree with all these different alternative lifestyles.  But don’t hide them from it, they need to know how to interact with differences.  You’re not protecting them, you’re hurting them.