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.
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.
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