More on a few on-going book challenge/ban situations.

On The Dirty Cowboy in Pennsylvania:

Despite community outcry, national media coverage, letters from the American Library Association and the National Coalition Against Censorship and numerous pleas to reconsider, including a petition signed by more than 250 local parents and taxpayers, the board refused to take up the matter again, citing concerns of causing a countercontroversy. 

Although ACSD board President Tom Tschudy stated that he felt “reasonable minds can disagree,” he asked one parent if he would like him to bring Hustler magazine into the elementary library. 

Is comparing a children’s book about taking a bath to Hustler magazine a reasonable comparison?

On The Family Book in Illinois:

Erie, Illinois Mayor Marcia Smith now has said on the record that elementary-school-aged children being raised by same-sex parents are welcome in the town.

Previously, Mayor Smith would not say whether or not such families were welcome.

On In Our Mothers’ House in Utah:

She argues that limiting access to the book is sending a message to children of same-sex families that their families are not OK.

"Kids who live with straight parents, they can go to any old shelf and can pull out a book about families that look like theirs," she said. With LGBT-themed books behind the counter, it makes kids wonder "what is wrong with my family that books about us have to be back against the shelf? Are we a bad family?"