Sarah Palin would not approve!

A Missoula, Montana, library board voted 5-0 this week to keep The Joy of Gay Sex on the shelves after local readers balked at the "pornographic" material:

Board chairwoman Carole Byrnes acknowledged the book, titled The Joy of Gay Sex, included graphic pictures and descriptions but said she viewed it as an instructional, education manual that shouldn’t be censored.

Helena resident Paul Cohen found the book during a visit to the library in February and requested that it be removed. He described the book as “pornographic” and said the library was negligent in providing a “safe place” for children and adolescents.

The library’s collection review committee recommended keeping the book, and director Judy Hart agreed. She said it was the library’s obligation to provide information to all elements of society.

Yes, even the buggers.

There's a reason they're called the funny books!

Mainstay comic Tales From The Crypt gets political this week by putting Republican running mate Sarah Palin on the cover. In case you can't read the fine print, the Alaska Governor's swinging a hockey club at the witches and shrieking, "Didn't we get rid of you guys in the 50s?" That's a reference to Congress' attempts to censor comic books, especially Tales, back in the 1950s.

Tales' editorial team says they chose this cover specifically for Palin's attempts to ban books from her local library in Wasilla, Alaska. Some of the books were of the gay variety.

From NYDN:

The cover is a jab at Palin's reported brush with banning books at the Wasilla public library during her time as mayor of the town, says Jim Salicrup, editor-in-chief of Papercutz, the publisher of the comic.
…
"Anything that touches on banning books and censorship we're very sensitive about at 'Tales of the Crypt,'" said Salicrup. "When there were reports that Gov. Palin - back when she was mayor of Wasilla - looked into banning books at the library, that's what caught our attention. We felt we had to say something."

Some are dismissing the Palin cover as nothing more than a gimmick meant to sell issues, which is no doubt true, but - c'mon! Who doesn't want that?!

Virginia-based Christian activists are crying "censorship" after a local library rejected their ex-gay texts.

Backed by the anti-gay Family Research Council, organizers in Fairfax, Virginia sent reviews of "pray-away-the-gay" books to their local library, but the library coordinator Susan Thornley flat out refused to consider the divisive texts, saying, "Donations should not be at the expense of minority populations or make the reader feel inferior… These books were not research based. There were not facts to back it up."

Gay foes failed to understand Thornley's argument, of course, and gathered yesterday to protest the library's allegedly anti-Christian stance. And, of course, they sent out about forty students to do their dirty work.

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Remember how multiple source said Republican presidential candidate Sarah Palin inquired about banning gay-themed books while mayor of Wasilla, Alaska? Funny, because she doesn't.

From an interview with Alaska paper the Frontiersman:

As people there know, all questions posed to the library director were asked in a context of professionalism, regarding the library policy that was in place. Before I became mayor, there was conversation in our community about what sorts of books were appropriate for the public library. I asked the librarian about the process for answering that question as a way to familiarize myself with city staff and the issues being discussed in Wasilla at that time. I certainly never advocated banning books.

You may not have endorsed such behavior, Sarah, but we're sure the thought crossed your little mind.

So, you know how Sarah Palin tried to censor her local library while mayor of Wasilla, Alaska?

Well, here's ABC News' report on the matter, including a bit about at least one of the books were of the gay variety. This lady scares us.

Republican running mate Sarah Palin says she's a reformer, but of what sort we cannot say…

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Singapore's media police have been all about the queer crackdown.

Cable company StarHub found itself fined earlier this month after airing a music video featuring a lesbian kiss. The nation-state's Media Authority wagged its finger at StarHub, saying the showing was "in breach of the TV advertising guidelines, which disallows advertisements that condone homosexuality."

Now another channel has been fined $11,000 for broadcasting an episode of fix-it-up show, "Find and Design," which included a gay couple looking to refashion a game room into a nursery for their freshly adopted baby.

Again, officials claim the offending network illegally promoted gay ways.

Singapore's media officials don't appreciate lesbian love. The nation's Media Development Authority fined cable company StarHub about $7,200 for airing a music video featuring girl-on-girl action:

The music video of the song, titled "Silly Child" by Mandarin singer Olivia Yan, shows an intimate kissing scene before one of the women rejects her boyfriend at the end of the clip.

"This is in breach of the TV advertising guidelines, which disallows advertisements that condone homosexuality," the media authority said.

Because apparently depiction automatically qualifies as advertisement. Ridiculous!

A gay film festival's poster sparked a brief culture war in St. Lawrence County, New York. Out at the Movies festival originally placed an advertisement on a public board at the Department of Social Services, but "offended" employees objected and got the poster removed. What was so offensive? Titles like Butch Jamie and Itty Bitty Titty Committee, apparently.

Now the gays are going ape-shit. Said one irate activist, "The real issue is that we know in our society there is homophobia. County policy cannot be that we give into that ignorance."

County administrator Karen M. St. Hilaire insists they're not trying to oppress the gays, but are honoring public servants: "This is not about pitting gays and lesbians versus people who are heterosexual. This is about what's appropriate in the workplace." St. Lawrence County's attorney Peter Lekki didn't find the posters harassing and said they should be reposted, although some words have now been edited out.

Protesters still aren't happy, however, and have asked supporting politicos to wear rainbow pins in solidarity. Democrats Patrick Turbet and Tedra L. Cobb, Canton agreed. Said Cobb: "I think all of us should be cognizant of the fact that we did not act appropriately." That lady obviously knows there's nothing wrong with itty bitty titties.

• We love everything about this picture of Pamela Anderson. Everything.

• Did you know that gay news is "adult"?

UK-based Vodaphone, which has interests around the world including a joint venture, Verizon Wireless, in America, puts a block on access to this site – and on the highly-reputable Gay City News in New York – deeming the content to be “adult” in nature.

We understand the world's an ugly place, but this is just ridiculous!

• Indiana Jones mania begins at Vanity Fair. Next stop: the world!

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BBC Radio 1 ain't fucking around when it comes to the word "faggot". Radio 2, however, sings a different tune:

BBC Radio 1 has said it will stand by its ban on the word "faggot" from the Pogues' 1987 Christmas hit Fairytale of New York to avoid offense.
…
The ban does not apply across the BBC. Radio 2 said it would be playing the full version of the track.

Listeners have had mixed reactions. While one gay fan described Radio 1's ban as "offensive," gay activist Peter Tatchell called Radio 2's full play "shameful".

Bah humbug!

Too pious for Xtube and too sanctimonious for YouTube, right wing religionists often take to GodTube to voice their conservative grievances. And, like so many good nutjobs, many of the users use their home videos to blast the blasphemous gays. The site, however, won't publish the word.

Good As You offers the queer details:

…"Gay" gets banned as is it a curse word; "fag" and "dyke" are totally fine! And clearly SOMEONE had to have inputted the code and made the choice of which words to ban and which to allow. It's quite telling what their mind deemed offensive, and what it found kosher.

Kosher? Ha!

By the way, the censored words in the image above are: damn, shit, gay, fuck and whore.

A group of right wing Christians are suing BBC and an independent producer for blasphemy after the network aired Jerry Springer: The Opera. What's so blasphemous about the musical hijinks? Shit.

Stephen Green, national director of Christian Voice, said in 2005 that the show portrayed Jesus as a "coprophiliac sexual deviant". A coprophiliac is someone who is sexually aroused by faeces.

This reminds us of a discussion in Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being: if we're created in God's image - as this Green man no doubt believes - then why are we so ashamed of our bowels? Just a little philosophy to get things moving…