Mike Tidmus

The Wasilla, Alaska public library (Photo: Wasilla Public Library)

The author of Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy, Frederick Clarkson reminds us that Banned Books Week will take place between September 27 and October 4, 2008.

For the second consecutive year, Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell’s award-winning And Tango Makes Three tops the list of the American Library Association’s 10 Most Challenged Books of 2007. The colorful children’s book is about two male penguins caring for an orphaned egg. According to the ALA, the book was challenged due to it’s alleged anti-ethnic, sexist, homosexual, anti-family, incorrect religious viewpoint, and unsuited to age group content.

The 2007 top ten includes :

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell 
   Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
2. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier 
   Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence
3. Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes 
   Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language
4. The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman 
   Reasons: Religious Viewpoint
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain 
   Reasons: Racism
6. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker 
   Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language
7. TTYL, by Lauren Myracle 
   Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
8. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou 
   Reasons: Sexually Explicit
9. It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris 
   Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit
10. The Perks of Being A Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky 
    Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

Just who is attempting to ban these books? From the list above, it should be clear it’s not the gays, the liberals nor the secularists.

Noted professional anti-gays Peter LaBarbara and Linda Harvey recently published screeds blaming gays and liberals for censorship in American libraries.

According to LaBarbara, “All the charges of book-banning and censorship of books like ‘Daddy’s Roommate’ obscure the Left’s role as the nation’s leading Institutional Censor in keeping traditional and faith-based books on homosexuality and other issues OUT of public libraries.” He continues, “I’ll take the liberals’ charges of ‘censorship’ seriously when they offer to help us in correcting the massive pro-homosexual book bias in local libraries.”

And Harvey is sure she sees evidence of the mythical gay agenda in play: “Little children can choose the infamous “Heather Has Two Mommies” or “And Tango Makes Three,” which is supposed to teach children the valuable lesson that if two male penguins in Central Park Zoo can pair up and adopt a baby penguin, same-sex coupling must be OK for humans, too.” She finishes with a scantily-veiled threat: “It’s time for us taxpayers to remind librarians, for those who’ve forgotten, that they report to us.”

For additional information on book challenges and censorship, visit the ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom’s Banned Books Week web site. The festivities begin on Saturday; Christianist book banners are advised to reset their clocks ahead to the Middle Ages.