Big doings in Topeka.
From the Topeka Capital-Journal:
The library's board of trustees voted 5-3 Thursday evening in favor of restricting minors' access to "Sex for Busy People," "The Lesbian Kama Sutra," "The Joy of Sex" and "The Joy of Gay Sex" because they deemed the material "harmful to minors."
The article is worth reading -- it sounds like discussion got very intense, with one of the board members in tears by the end. No word on how the books will be restricted, if they'll be kept behind the desk or on a special shelf or in the back room. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out, if people will request that other books be restricted, etc. It sounds like there'll be a lawsuit in the works soon.
My favorite part of the article:
"Cover your ears," Washington told the room of onlookers gathered in Marvin Auditorium at the library.
He then read several explicit lines from a book he found online. The material wasn't from one of the contested books.
"I'm going to stop there," Washington told the board. "You have two pages of this. We have youngsters who are coming to the library who are exposed to this."
Except the excerpt he read wasn't from any of the challenged books! So he wasn't just taking something out of context to complain about it, he was taking something completely unrelated and using it to complain about the books.
Crazy times.