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Tulsa School Refuses to Ban Gay-Friendly Book


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A school district in Tulsa, Okla., refused to ban a gay-friendly book after the parents of one student made multiple complaints to the school.

Buster's Sugartime, a condensed version of a 2005 episode of the Postcards From Buster TV series that featured the titular rabbit visiting the children of a same-sex couple, was targeted for banning by Don and Mary Danz. The couple argued that the book's discussion of a same-sex couple came into conflict with Oklahoma law that bans same-sex marriage.

After the Union Public Schools materials review committee refused to ban the book in October, the Danzes took their complaint to the board of education, which Wednesday voted 3-1 to keep the book, the Tulsa World reports.

"If legality in Oklahoma was an issue we were to use in criteria, then we would have to get rid of a lot of books in our library referencing things like pirates and robbers and cattle rustlers and many other topics that are certainly in popular fiction not only for children but for adults," school superintendent Cathy Burden said.

Board member Ed Payton added, "I don't see the advocacy here. I see the reflection of reality here."

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Reader Comments
  • Name: Billygoat8
    Date posted: 1/29/2010 2:14:23 PM
    Hometown: Taylor, Texas

    Comment:

    Are you sure this is in Oklahoma? There has to be some mistake.

  • Name: raven
    Date posted: 1/29/2010 3:54:27 AM
    Hometown: Provincetown, MA

    Comment:

    Good for this Tulsa School Library and the Librarian!!! Applause!!! The people who want to ban books should look to history. Every time books were burned and banned they were done by governments who eventually slaughtered thousands of their own citizens. The Nazi book burnings, the Communist book burnings in Eastern Europe, in North Korea, in Tibet, in Tien Bien Square of China, and in the United States during the Abolishionist movement are just a small list. Book bannings and burnings still go on today as a form of limiting what people can read. The one really good thing that the internet has provided us with is the putting of books on the internet. The list is just beginning, but someone out there wants to get ALL BOOKS of ALL KINDS onto the internet where anyone can get to them. Now, we just have to get more people to own their own computers. Bill Gates and his crew gave us the ability to expand our freedoms. We no longer are alone and un-informed.

  • Name: Joe Allen Doty
    Date posted: 1/29/2010 12:23:33 AM
    Hometown: Tulsa, Oklahoma

    Comment:

    Union School District is in Tulsa and in Tulsa, County, too. It used to be poor country school when I was in high school and in college. It is now a richer school district that Tulsa Public Schools. People in this town have tried to be books banned from the Tulsa City-County Library System. But, by the time a child is 12 years old, the child can check out any book in circulation in the system. And since there is a self check-out available, only the library's computer knows what books a person checks out.

  • Name: Esther
    Date posted: 1/28/2010 10:33:56 PM
    Hometown: Beaverton, OR

    Comment:

    I don't know about the book compared to the show that was on TV several years ago, but guess what, Mr. and Mrs. Danz? - the lesbian couple in the TV show WAS NOT MARRIED (hence no same-sex marriage to worry about) because people like you all across America won't allow them to get married. I don't think you have much of an argument here. Do your kid and all the other kids a favor and find another hobby. Kudos to the school district!

  • Name: ttt
    Date posted: 1/28/2010 10:27:06 PM
    Hometown: Illinois

    Comment:

    Apparently the mere depiction of gay people in books is illegal? Ugh...the lengths people will go to justify their bigotry...

  • Name: David Greene
    Date posted: 1/28/2010 9:53:55 PM
    Hometown: Canton Ohio

    Comment:

    We're pissing off the right wing. Praise God! We must be doing something right. Thank you, school board.

  • Name: Brad Bailey
    Date posted: 1/28/2010 9:40:53 PM
    Hometown: Fayetteville, AR

    Comment:

    Kudos to Ms. Burden, Mr. Payton and the Union County School Board! Thank you for giving religious dogma a backseat to pragmatism. You may very well have saved lives with this decision.



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