Alabama Rep Urges Ban on Pro-Homosexual Materials in Schools

by Jim Brown and Jenni Parker
December 9, 2004

(AgapePress) - Should Alabama taxpayer dollars be used to advance the homosexual agenda? One state lawmaker says "no way."

A bill proposed by State Representative Gerald Allen of Cottondale, Alabama, would prohibit the use of tax dollars to purchase the textbooks or library materials that promote homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle. The Alabama Republican believes pro-homosexual novels and textbooks are prevalent in the state's public and university libraries, and he views his legislation as a "good start" towards addressing the moral decline in American culture.

Rep. Gerald Allen

If Allen's proposed legislation becomes law, children's books, young adult novels, and even literary classics containing positive portrayals of homosexual characters would have to be removed from library shelves across the state and destroyed, along with any college-level books or texts that suggest homosexuality is natural or acceptable. The bill would also prohibit a teacher from handing out materials or bringing in a classroom speaker who promotes homosexuality, and it would ban all materials that recognize or promote any acts the sodomy and sexual misconduct laws of Alabama prohibit, homosexual or otherwise.

Critics of Allen's bill warn that its broad proscriptions would ban many important and popular works of literature, such as Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, as well as certain plays of Tennessee Williams, for example. But the Alabama legislator has been widely quoted as advocating that, for all pro-homosexual literature and educational materials found in public schools, universities and libraries, "we should dig a big hole and dump them in and bury them."

Allen says American society is unfortunately "in big trouble," due to a moral decay problem that has reached a critical stage. "Our culture is in crisis; it's been under attack for the last 40 years," he asserts, "and this piece of legislation, in my opinion, is just one single part of the big picture, sort like a spoke in the wheel."

The Christian lawmaker is adamant that Alabama citizens' hard-earned tax dollars should not be used to legitimize and promote behavior prohibited by the sodomy and sexual misconduct laws of their state. However, he says pro-homosexual activists have an agenda to "do whatever it takes to indoctrinate the hearts, minds, and souls of our children."

The aim of the homosexual agenda, Allen contends, is to influence the beliefs of an entire generation, so that "one day they will be the school board members, they will be the probate judges, they will be the state leaders, they will be the leaders in Washington, they will be sitting on the federal and state judicial branches of government -- and they will be in a place to develop public policy that will favor that lifestyle."

The conservative Alabama congressman feels his proposed law should have the support of the pro-family voters in his state. He says it stands to reason, if 14 states across the nation recently passed constitutional amendments protecting traditional marriage, that Alabama parents would support a bill that protects their children from homosexual indoctrination.

Allen is urging the people of his state to let their government representatives know where they stand on the bill. He says Alabama residents now have the opportunity to be passive and stand on the sidelines, or to actively engage in this debate.