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Facebook Fan Page Reinstated


FRANK ANTHONY POLITO BAND FAGS X390 (FAIR AND COVER) | ADVOCATE.COM

A gay author whose Facebook fan page was removed because of the title of his book says the social networking site's administrators have reinstated the page.

Frank Anthony Polito said last week that Facebook issued him a notice that the title of his novel Band Fags, about two teens in the 1980s, was in violation of its terms of use. Polito told The Advocate that the Facebook page was created in 2008 and that he hit no roadblocks when setting up the URL, Facebook.com/bandfags. 

"What bothers me about the whole Facebook thing is ... it's like they have some robot scanning through all of the pages on the site looking for 'offensive' words," he said last week. "When they came across 'fag' attached to mine, no one bothered to investigate why it's there. They just assumed that I'm some hateful gay-basher and took down my book's fan page."

The fan page was reinstated Wednesday night. An administrator wrote to Polito that the page was deleted erroneously.

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Reader Comments
  • Name: Kevin
    Date posted: 4/8/2010 6:20:40 PM
    Hometown: Oakland

    Comment:

    I was a "Drama Fag" in high school, and I thought the title of Band Fag was humorous in context. I think that people need to understand the context of the title before jumping all over the novel. I would add, that it is a good book and I hope more people pick it up. The title is not a put down designed to shock readers into picking up the novel, in my corner of the world "band fag" was an expression that was used quite frequently in the 1980's. I image anyone from the eighties who was a "band fag" will remember it (though not always fondly). Since the novel seemed to be, imho, aimed at gay men of a certain generation, I think the title was appropriate and ironic. I can't get angry at Facebook for guarding against abusive language. I think they were right to look into the situation, and at the end of the day I am content with their decision.

  • Name: ArtNOLA
    Date posted: 4/8/2010 5:37:58 PM
    Hometown: New Orleans

    Comment:

    @Frank, I appreciate what you are saying, the point of my comment was that of course Facebook is going to have a blanket censorship of derogatory or inflamatory words without investigation. I'm sure they don't have the manpower to review every profile that is created and I don't think that it is fair to fault them for doing so especially if something is potentially harmful. I am glad that they reinstated the page after they determined that it was not antigay. While I am not a fan the word "fag", for the reason I stated, I amd a fan of freedom of speach and have no problem with you using it in the title.

  • Name: Frank Anthony Polito
    Date posted: 4/8/2010 5:04:09 PM
    Hometown: Brooklyn, NY

    Comment:

    From my statement to the Advocate last week: "As anyone who has read the book knows, in the story ALL kids in the band are called 'band fags,' not just the gay ones. But for the gay ones, the moniker especially stings because the 'fag' part is true." Growing up, I was one of those Band Fags. I wouldn't have given my book this title had I not been.

  • Name: ArtNOLA
    Date posted: 4/8/2010 4:05:51 PM
    Hometown: New Orleans

    Comment:

    Of course Facebook has an electronic censor to scan for offensive/abusive words. Can you imagine if the profile had been antigay and Facebook would have let it stay on, I can't even imagine the outcry over that one. I personally have issues with us using "fag" within our own ranks, if we don't want to be refered to as "fag" by the rest of society. It's just like some blacks calling each other "nigger", but they don't want anyone else to say it, (FOR GOOD REASON), doing so puts yourself in the position of being a second class citizen. It does seem to be the younger members of any group who are more prone to do that, but unfortunately it resonates through the rest of society.

  • Name: Marcus
    Date posted: 4/8/2010 3:36:28 PM
    Hometown: Modesto

    Comment:

    And maybe if he'd give his book a title that didn't contain such ridiculous language, I'd read it. But considering I got multiple concussions and broken bones for being a "band fag" in high school, no thanks.

  • Name: Don Charles
    Date posted: 4/8/2010 3:30:00 PM
    Hometown: Kansas City

    Comment:

    I knew the anti-political correctness crowd was going to have its way on this one. I'm glad I closed my Facebook account. Chalk one up for freedom of speech, but tough luck for responsible speech. Soon, the efforts of patriots like Frank Polito will give us a liberated America where everybody and his grandmother feels comfortable calling Gay men "fags". Gosh, isn't that exactly what the Gay Rights pioneers wanted? Excuse me while I hurl.

  • Name: Manny C
    Date posted: 4/8/2010 2:39:56 PM
    Hometown: Los Angeles

    Comment:

    Kudos to Facebook for having that feature of not having any Discriminatory Pages. Personally the title of the book that he used Band Fag is offensive to some men in the gay community. To me is not an issue, but just because we are gay doesn't mean we can bash each other like that by calling each other queer, fag, and so forth. By us using that language people will assume that is ok to say it and that you didn't mean it in a bad way. Good publicity for the writer of the book, he got his 10 seconds of Fame :-D



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