How to make friends and influence people, Christian fundie style: book burning

[Martinus]

Christian Group: Burn "Gay" Book
By Julie Bolcer
A group calling itself the Christian Civil Liberties Union filed a claim with the city of Milwaukee seeking the right to burn a public library's copy of a young-adult book with gay content, according to the American Library Association.

The CCLU presented trustees of the West Bend Community Memorial Library with the complaint on June 2, asking for the right to burn or otherwise destroy in public a copy of Baby Be-Bop. The group also demanded $120,000 in damages for being exposed to the book on display, and requested the resignation of West Bend mayor Kristine Deiss for allowing the title to be viewed by the public.

Baby Be-Bop, written by Francesca Lia Block, tells the story of a teenager struggling with his homosexuality and an attack by a homophobic gang. It has been the subject of local complaints for months, and has thus far survived attempts to eliminate it.

The CCLU claim describes Baby Be-Bop as "explicitly vulgar, racial, and anti-Christian," and charges that the four plaintiffs, "all of whom are elderly, claim their mental and emotional well-being was damaged by this book at the library" because the book contains the word "nigger" and derogatory sexual and political epithets that can incite violence and "put one's life in possible jeopardy, adults and children alike."

The plaintiffs want a grand jury to determine whether the book should be declared obscene and whether making it available is a hate crime.

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid91076.asp

Wtf. I mean, it's one thing to be a retarded Christian fundie calling for a book's removal from the library, but book burning? I don't know about America, but here it would invoke the worst imagery out of the nazi Germany. Why would anyone want to do it, unless they are clinically insane? It's like a PR suicide to me.

[Camerus]

what if:  we set a quota on how many gay themed posts Marty could make each week?   

[Martinus]

what if:  we set a quota on how many gay themed posts Marty could make each week?   

Only if we set one on how many retarded posts you can make, too.

[katmai]

Here Marti just to make you all warm inside with more hate of USA

Gay rights measure's changes criticized

ASSEMBLY: Both sides find fault in latest revision as public testimony continues.

By MEGAN HOLLAND
[email protected]

Published: June 17th, 2009 10:15 PM
Last Modified: June 17th, 2009 10:16 PM

Hundreds of people gathered outside Loussac Library for a second night of demonstration Wednesday, and scores lined up to testify at a special session of the Anchorage Assembly considering an amendment to the city's anti-discrimination law that would extend the law's protections to gays and lesbians.

Meanwhile off camera, efforts to redraft the proposed law to appease opponents had some original supporters backing away. Successive drafts not only water down the law but set into stone the discrimination it is meant to fight, they say.

Those who oppose any extension of the city's existing anti-discrimination law do not seem appeased by the re-drafts.

The hot-button issues -- where some city lawmakers are trying to find middle ground -- are employment, religion, and the definition of "sexual orientation."

Three drafts of the ordinance now floating among Assembly members differ on these points. Supporters of the original proposal seem divided on a second draft, but they all object to a third draft.

"The added language in the third version guts the intent and the integrity of the ordinance," said Jackie Buckley, spokeswoman for Equality Works, the group that backed the original initiative.

She says that version would actually make people of a different sexual orientation second-class citizens by specifying that employers can discriminate against them but not against other protected classes.

Opponents of any change, led by Rev. Jerry Prevo, of the Anchorage Baptist Temple, don't like any of the drafts.

All three versions "are asking us to approve a lifestyle that 99 percent of all mothers in Alaska and the world would not and do not want their children to be involved in," Prevo said.

Prevo said he would "possibly" consider supporting an amendment if the word "sexual orientation" was removed and in its place was written "straight, gay and lesbians," and if iron-clad exemptions were given to not only religious organizations but also religious people.

The original proposed ordinance, designated No. 64, simply added the words "sexual orientation" and "veteran's status" to the list of protected classes that is already city law -- race, color, sex, religion, national original, marital status.

The addition of "veteran's status" as a protected class has since been tabled indefinitely.

The first draft defined sexual orientation as being "actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality or gender expression or identity." That definition would have protected transgender people. The latest rewrite narrows the language to heterosexuals, homosexuals and bisexuals.

The second version of the ordinance, called No. 64-S, was written by Acting-Mayor Matt Claman, who favors the law. It was meant to appease opponents while still protecting people of a different sexual orientation. But it left original supporters on the fence by allowing small, home-based businesses to discriminate against all protected categories, including race.

That worried East Anchorage's Assemblyman Mike Gutierrez.

"In one way, we are taking a step forward, but we are also taking a giant leap backward," he said at the time.

Upsetting to supporters is that the most recent version backs off from protecting gays, lesbians and bisexuals in the workplace.

"Taking out employment as a protected area is totally unacceptable," Buckley said. "It's a deal breaker."

"If you exempt employment, really, there's no point," Gutierrez said.

Assemblywoman Elvi Gray-Jackson, who represents Midtown, was a solid supporter of the original ordinance, calling it a human rights issue and saying she was absolutely going to vote yes. Now, though, if her only choice is the third version, she says she would vote no.

The workplace, she said, is where the protection is most needed.

"That's one of the biggest areas where discrimination exists, in the workplace. I know first hand ... being an African-American. In the workplace is a big issue."

She said her constituents are telling her to vote to extend equal rights. "I feel really good about that," she said.

Assemblyman Chris Birch, who represents South Anchorage, said he has been leaning toward voting no all along. The proposed amendments are not changing his mind.

Assembly members are rushing it through, he said, to get it passed while Claman holds office rather than face a possible veto of Mayor-Elect Dan Sullivan, who takes over July 1.

With public testimony scheduled to continue at least through Monday, Claman doesn't know that he will get a chance to weigh in on gay rights while he is the mayor. Wednesday, he declined to take a position on any of the versions.

"We'll just see what it looks like when it's done," he said.

[CountDeMoney]

Europeans who live vicariously through America because they're too ignorant do to anything important in their own backwards ass country all need to die of AIDS after being beaten by neo-Nazis.

[saskganesh]

get even. burn a bible, then post a news story about it.

[Slargos]

It's just a book.

Go buy some new tampons, take a long soak in the bath and you'll be right as rain, Martina.

[Martinus]

get even. burn a bible, then post a news story about it.

I don't like burning books, even if they contain fairytales.

[Eddie Teach]

what if:  we set a quota on how many gay themed posts Marty could make each week?   

Only if we set one on how many retarded posts you can make, too.

Well, you clearly have him beat, as you make way more than 32 gay posts a week.

[Neil]

I don't know about America, but here it would invoke the worst imagery out of the nazi Germany.

The civilized peoples don't get as hung up on the whole Nazi thing as you do.

[Malthus]

The odd part is that they are asking permission to hold a book burning.

Isn't a book-burning something conducted by either a brutal authoritarian regime or an enraged lynch type mob?

[alfred russel]

Has anyone heard of the "Christian Civil Liberties Union"? It seems anyone can make the international news these days: just  form a faux organization that meets some horrible stereotype.

[garbon]

just  form a faux organization that meets some horrible stereotype.

Marty, here is your chance!

[grumbler]

The odd part is that they are asking permission to hold a book burning.

Isn't a book-burning something conducted by either a brutal authoritarian regime or an enraged lynch type mob?

Nope, it also is proposed by organizations that just want lots of free publicity.  My gues is that the concept of book-buring is perfectly okay in these peoples' minds, even if the Nazis did it, too.

[PDH]

Nope, it also is proposed by organizations that just want lots of free publicity.  My gues is that the concept of book-buring is perfectly okay in these peoples' minds, even if the Nazis did it, too.

Being polite is important.  Remember, folks still like the Civil War for a reason.