Anti-gay Raleigh group gears up to censor books
The anti-gay Called2Action group, based in Raleigh, is gearing up again this year to challenge the Wake County Public School System on books they find “objectionable” due to vulgarity and sexuality… books like The Color Purple.
Called2Action, which has supported a number of blatantly anti-gay efforts in the past (including the promotion of the “Day of Truth,” a cheap, prejudiced rip-off of the Day of Silence), is looking for parents who want to serve on its Parents Council. The parents would cross-check books on reading lists from the public schools with lists of “objectionable material” put together by groups like themselves from across the nation.
While this group isn’t now requesting the books be removed and are simply asking for required parental notification, their little campaign last year started off with a demand that these “objectionable materials” be removed entirely from the school. The Color Purple… objectionable? It is a classic!
I have a question… If they don’t want their kids reading something, then why don’t they just not let their kids read it? Why must they try to enforce what they see as “morality” (and what is really just ignorance, prejudice and hate) on everyone else? Furthermore… why are they just perpetuating this ignorance, prejudice and hate and passing it on to their children? If anyone is doing these children a misfavor, it isn’t the school system… it’s the looney and radical parents.
Matt, 22, is an LGBT journalist, activist and youth advocate currently living and working in Charlotte, N.C., where he serves as the Editor of Q-Notes, the Carolinas' LGBT news source. A native of Winston-Salem, N.C., Matt attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is still continuing to pursue his bachelors degree. He is the Owner & Editor of InterstateQ.com and has been active in LGBT advocacy work since the age of 14.
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