Glenn Beck’s 9.12 Project Graduates to Book Banning
Glenn Beck’s homophobic, atavistic 9.12 Project has apparently succeeded in getting a library in New Jersey to remove a book for gay high school students, even though no formal challenge to the book was ever filed: NJ Library, Citing Child Pornography, Removes GLBT Book.
A New Jersey public library has ordered the removal of all copies of Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology (Alyson, 2000) from its shelves—despite the fact there was no formal book challenge—and its library director has referred to the title as “child pornography,” according to emails obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey through a Freedom of Information Act.
Gail Sweet, library director of the Burlington County Library System (BCLS), in April asked Library Commissioners to approve the removal of the book after a member of the conservative group 9.12 Project contacted Sweet requesting that it be taken off shelves.
While direct calls to Sweet were not returned, she did respond to an email request explaining BCLS’s decision to take Revolutionary Voices off its shelves.
“Thank you for your interest but I have nothing to say on the topic,” Sweet wrote.
Created by American television and radio personality Glenn Beck, the group vows to defend the constitution of the United States-and is the same organization that advocated Revolutionary Voice’s removal from New Jersey’s Rancocas Valley Regional High School this Spring.
In the strange world of Glenn Beck followers, “defending the Constitution” equates to banning books.