Glenn Beck Group Fuels Gay Book Ban

Members of a local New Jersey chapter of the 9.12 Project, the conservative watchdog group formed by Fox News host Glenn Beck, managed to have a book on teenage homosexuality labeled “obscene” Tuesday, and they want to bring their momentum to other school boards in the state.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the efforts by Gerry Grabinski, a 9.12 leader in Burlington County, New Jersey.

“The campaign at Rancocas Valley Regional High School to pull Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology and two other books dealing with teenage homosexuality is unlikely to be the last time county residents hear from Grabinski and his members—358 according to the group's Web site.

“They're already looking at petitioning the removal of the same book from the Lenape Regional High School District, which with four high schools and about 7,500 students is the county's largest school district.”

This week, the Rancocas Valley board of education banned Revolutionary Voices, but it decided to keep the other two challenged titles, Love and Sex: 10 Stories of Truth; and The Full Spectrum: A New Generation of Writing About Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Other Identities.

9.12 members identified the titles last year from a list of books recommended by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund is assessing the situation of the book ban, reports the Inquirer.

The 9.12 Project seeks to return the United States to what the group calls a more united time, the days immediately after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.