US school district bans gay anthology
A South Jersey school district has banned a gay-themed book from its library after parents complained it was vulgar and obscene.
Board members at Rancocas Valley Regional High School unanimously voted to ban Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology.
The anthology is a collection of works by gay students and contains some explicit content. In 2001, it won the School Library Journal’s Adult Books for High School Students award.
Grandmother Beverly Marinelli helped organise protests against the book. She told the Philadelphia Inquirer it was “pervasively vulgar, obscene, and inappropriate”, although she said she was not homophobic.
Ms Marineli and others who protested are part of the 9.12 Project, a watchdog organisation promoted by right-wing radio host and Fox commentator Glenn Beck.
Rancocas Valley Superintendent Michael Moskalski said that students were unfazed by the controversy.
He said they told him: “Just because these books are in the library isn’t going to cause us to be gay. We have so much access to information, if we want to read something we’ll read it.”
