In West Bend, Wisconsin, a Milwaukee-based Christian group is urging readers to burn a book from the “Weetzie Bat” series by YA author Francesca Lia Block.
According to Salon.com, local residents handed in two petitions about books in the library, including Block’s “Baby Be-Bop” novel–a petition with 700 signatures asking to move “books containing sexual references” to the adult section, and another a petition with 1,000 signatures opposing that measure. The West Bend library board voted that the books should stay in the YA section, but now the Christian Civil Liberties Union (CCLU) is urging the destruction of the book.
Here’s more from the article: “Since attempts to label the novel as ‘pornographic’ have failed, the (somewhat shadowy) CCLU hopes to brand it as hate speech … [they] claim that Block’s novel is ‘explicitly vulgar, racial [sic] and anti-Christian.’ They want the library’s copy not only removed but publicly burned.” (Via CShamberg)
NOTE: This post has been corrected thanks to reader commentary. A portion of the reader’s clarification follows after the jump.
A West Bend reader writes: “First, the CCLU, may be ‘local’ from a national perspective, but actually is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and consists of four right-wing, fundamentalist Christians who claim they were personally harmed because a copy of ‘Baby Be-Bop’ is in the West Bend library, 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee.
“Second, the petitions mentioned in the article involved an entirely separate issue being debated in West Bend that the CCLU used to piggyback their likely frivolous lawsuit to draw attention to themselves.
“A group calling themselves West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries, associated with a national fundamentalist Christian, anti-gay movement called Safe Libraries, wants books containing sexual references moved from the young adult section to the adult section and labels sexually explicit material. They also want more restrictions on the library’s access to the Internet, and a link to a list of gay-themed books removed from the Libary’s Website.
“A second local citizen group, called West Bend Parents for Freedom of Speech opposes efforts to restrict access to the YA books and other restriction demands on access to information.”