Back in April, four members of the library board at the West Bend Community Memorial Library in West Bend, Wisconsin, were dismissed from the board for refusing to remove controversial fiction and nonfiction books about homosexuality from the young adult section after two patrons complained to the West Bend Common Council about their pornographic nature. One of the aldermen on the board justified his vote by saying that he was “concerned about the morality of this city.”
When I first read this blurb on the National Coalition Against Censorship website, I actually had to walk away for a bit before coming back to write my blog. At an age when gay, lesbian, and questioning teens need all the resources they can get, the West Bend Common Council in West Bend, Wisconsin, took it upon themselves to not only remove all the resources, but to dismiss the four library board members who supported the material. That sends the message to that extra vulnerable population that if they would have been interested in those books—or had already read them—that they must be obscene and in need of restriction, too.
Beyond the topic of the specific topic of the censored books, who died and made the West Bend Common Council the information gods? As the NCAC pointed out in their letter to the West Bend Common Council, just because a book is on the shelf does not mean anyone has to read it – or that it’s even appropriate for everyone to read. But those books with the controversial topics—whether it be sex, drugs, homosexuality, or whatever—can be lifesavers for anyone questioning, especially teenagers and young adults.
The blurb on the NCAC website can be found at: http://www.ncac.org/Free-Speech-Groups-Criticize-Wisconsin-Library-Board-Dismissals. A link to the letter that was sent to the West Bend Common Council can be found there as well.
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6 comments:
Thank you for keeping this issue in the public eye. The visibility we received from outside the area was a great help in facing down this challenge to our rights as American citizens.
Best,
Mp
Beth,
It is unbelievable that four library board members who supported this material were dismissed by the West Bend Common Council. It looks like they will try to stack the library board with people who are willing to remove controversial books from the library.
Roger Barnes
You read such stories and you think--- no really, do things like that still happen today? Maybe in 1995, but today? It makes me angry because a few ignorant people on the Common Council now have become the morality police for the whole city. As if they were the pillars of decency and morals?!
Hopefully this issue doesn't blow over too quickly in West Bend, and that people use this as an opportunity to discuss the importance of allowing all ideas to be heard and read.
I read this last week, too, and was shocked that the board members were fired... what message does this send??? And to deny a group of people access to books that may interest them is wrong. Like you said, just because it's on the shelf does not mean it must read by everyone.
Did the board follow the procedure for challenged books or were they all summarily removed? Every time I hear about 'morality' in relation to GLBT I want to scream. How is a gay teen supposed to feel about himself when he reads stuff like this? It's just ridiculous.
I remember my best friend in highschool needed access to information like this. He is a wonderful musician, I wonder if people who listen to his playing now can tell that he's gay from the sound of his music? I don't think so. Censoring information and people as you mention, is so harmful to our whole society. We need perspectives and all points of view to be a healthy society. No wonder we haven't had a "golden age" for so long. We will more likely have a "Cubic Zirconium" age if censorship is allowed to prevail. It is amazing that people want to stomp out any information at all, especially after so many wars have been fought for the freedom we enjoy in this country. How these few but vocal people can fail to see that their desire to regulate information is anti-American, is hard to fathom. I call it the bandwagon psychology; just pull up a bandwagon, any bandwagon will do, and someone is bound to get on it. Kind of like lemmings in a way...
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