If it is true, as Barry Goldwater famously said, that "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice," then count The Malcontent as a "First Amendment extremist."
America's freedom of expression is probably my greatest source of pride in my country of birth. I constantly marvel at countries such as China, where practically half the Internet is inaccessible to the populous for political reasons. Or in much of the Middle East and other totalitarian regimes such as Cuba, where certain opinions ensure lengthy prison terms or even death. Even in supposedly enlightened European countries, there is an overly sensitive attitude toward expression and a notion that people must be "protected" from select ideas.
In fact, the only comments I have ever deleted from this blog were from spammers, and one that was making rather generalized death threats against gay people.
So that is why I am always disappointed whenever American troglodytes crawl out of their holes to propose speech codes or, just as odiously, to ban books – as has just happened at a school outside Tacoma, Wash.:
Acting on a parent complaint, University Place schools Superintendent Patti Banks has removed a novel about gay teens from district library shelves.
Banks said her decision had nothing to do with the theme of homosexuality in “Geography Club.” Instead, she was alarmed by the “romanticized” portrayal of a teen meeting a stranger at night in a park after connecting with that person – who turns out to be a gay classmate – through an Internet chat room.
As you might have discerned by the headline, the author of "Geography Club," Brent Hartinger, coincidentally became a sponsor of my blog recently with the sequel, "The Order of the Poison Oak." Hartinger has been following the book-banning story over on the new blog, Big Gay Picture, to which he is a contributor.
As he wrote in an email to me, the chat-room excuse seems to be a flimsy pretext, at best:
I’ll concede that the superintendent may be sincere in objecting to this element of my book. And sure, not every school can or should stock every single book.
That said, I don’t think that internet scene is the real reason my book was banned. According to the Marge Ceccarelli, president of the Curtis PTA, the parents who complained were initially upset with the book because it would “turn straight kids into homosexuals.” Those parents compiled a long list of objections, only one of which the superintendent agreed with. But surely it was the book’s gay theme that led to this intense level of scrutiny.
I think that the issue of Internet predation is a red herring, in this case. I am nearly a couple of decades removed from my teenage years, but even I am aware of the central role the Internet, instant messaging and chat rooms play in the lives of young people. Yet we never hear about censorship involving these themes when straight students are the subjects. Hartinger's books, on the other hand, have won awards and have been praised for their quality and sensitivity to gay issues and young people.
The best way to fight the bigots, of course, is to "vote with your pocketbook," as they say. You can find Hartinger's new book, "The Order of the Poison Oak," here, or "Geography Club" here
While you're at it, please keep our other fine, freedom-loving sponsors in mind:
- Brazil Chic: hot tees, hoodies, tanks and accessories.
- LoginToMe.com: crude, lewd and hilarious T-shirts.
- Homo Mojo: The good things in life.
- and Gay.com: More than meets the eye.
Even if Brent Hartinger weren't a sponsor of this blog, The Malcontent would be in his corner. Some people are so afraid of gays that it drives them to literally un-American ends, but they need to be told that our nation will never quite be the "land of the free" until we truly become the "home of the brave."
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