I am the author of a gay teen novel,
GEOGRAPHY CLUB, and its sequel,
THE ORDER OF THE POISON OAK. Last week, I wrote how GEOGRAPHY CLUB had been banned at a school district in my hometown.
Today the s##t hit the f#n in the form of an article on the front page of the daily
newspaper. It's behind a free-subscription firewall, so I'll quote some of the article here:
:
UNIVERSITY PLACE DISTRICT BANS NOVEL ABOUT GAY TEENS
by DEBBY ABE, The News Tribune
Acting on a parent complaint, University Place schools Superintendent Patti Banks has removed a novel about gay teens from district library shelves.
Banks said her decision had nothing to do with the theme of homosexuality in "Geography Club." Instead, she was alarmed by the "romanticized" portrayal of a teen meeting a stranger at night in a park after connecting with that person - who turns out to be a gay classmate - through an Internet chat room.
While the book has been challenged by other schools for its sexual content, author Brent Hartinger of Tacoma said this is the first time he's heard it challenged on the chat room issue.
"We want to send a strong consistent message to all our students that meeting individuals via the Internet is extremely high-risk behavior," Banks wrote in a letter Nov. 2 to two parents who requested the book's removal.
Later in the article...
"This is the most bogus thing I've heard of," parent Connie Claussen said of Banks' reasoning.
You can read the rest at my own blog
The Big Gay Picture.