07.29.10
Tell Burlington County (NJ) to end the campaign of homophobia and book-banning
Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology
Revolutionary Voices
The Booklist magazine said:
Gr. 9-12. “This is for the idea that I am only a sexual being. . . . This is for the idea that queerness only has to do with sex.” Jason Roe’s prose poem opens this anthology with words that get in your face and under your skin. Not all of the young writers featured here may be revolutionaries, but they all embrace a queer youth culture that is about gender, race, and class as much as it is about sexuality. The voices are raw and sometimes unpolished, and the language is passionate, powerful, and only occasionally graphic. What holds these selections together is the writers’ urgent need to define themselves in their own terms. In “Impossible Body,” Lisa Lusero confesses that she purposely cut her hair so people would know she was a lesbian: “Passing for straight makes me feel invisible. And I hate that. I want to be seen clearly and explicitly for who I am. Don’t assume your world is mine. Then again, don’t assume it isn’t.” These are classic YA voices. Randy Meyer
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Amazon.com’s editorial review says:
This groundbreaking, multicultural collection of stories by the queer and young should be required reading for every jaded adult–teachers, parents, politicians–and anyone who fears for the future of our country. In fact, 22-year-old editor Amy Sonnie should run for Congress. Her introduction to this touching, funny, and sometimes sad anthology is smarter and more thoughtful than any political rhetoric this old queer has heard lately. While the work is wildly diverse (one of my favorites involves a mother who bakes a cake to help her queer daughter celebrate Ellen DeGeneres’s coming-out), all of it speaks to the isolation and fear of being queer and young. A boy lies awake at night practicing to be more masculine. An intersexed gay boy comes out to his high school. A butch girl tells of years of daily bashing. Fear, though, is not the overriding emotional tone to this collection. The contributors exhibit a belief in themselves, a well-placed youthful confidence that speaks as loudly as the most poignant writing. Their determination to survive and thrive despite a homophobic society comes through loud and clear. It’s the perfect antidote to adult cynicism about youth. –Jack Connolly
The book has been praised and welcomed for its unique insight into a difficult topic. Young writers delicately balance the questions of sex and sexuality while addressing issues such as coming out to friends and family and facing discrimination, hatred, and abuse.
Though it had been in circulation for some time, the book was recently removed from circulation at Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly (Burlington County, New Jersey), as well as from all Burlington County public libraries. It was removed as a result of the protest of one woman, Beverly Marinelli, a member of Glenn Beck’s 9.12 Project. Marinelli decried the book as “pervasively vulgar, obscene, and inappropriate” and convinced the library director that the book was “child pornography.”
All copies of the popular book were withdrawn and banned from circulation without any hearing or opportunity for the public to weigh-in on the issue. The library system has a formal process for addressing controversial library materials; however, this process was circumvented with the help of a member of the library commission, who is also a member of the 9.12 Project alongside Marinelli:
The School Library Journal reports that the Burlington County Library System has a formal process for removing books from the library:
BCLS’s formal process for handling controversial materials, as found in documents obtained by the ACLU, states that patrons must fill out a Request for Reconsideration form, and then a “committee of staff selectors as designated by the Library Director will review the material in question.”
…In the case of BCLS’s removal of Revolutionary Voices, an informal, rather than formal written request appears to have been made. In addition, Sweet’s email indicates that the committee was made up of her and one other person. Assistant director Margaret Delaney confirmed that she is the “Marge” mentioned in Sweet’s email as also recommending the book’s removal, but she’s not allowed to talk about the situation.
A key player in circumventing the formal process appears to be Patrick Delany, a member of the library commission. He has also been identified by the National Coalition Against Censorship as being a member of the same local 9.12 group as Beverly Marinelli, the woman who lodged the informal complaint.
(Box Turtle Bulletin http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2010/07/28/24741)
For more in-depth look at the scenario, check out this article.
To view copies of original emails between Marinelli and library staff, follow this link.
Please consider taking action by contacting the following officials in Burlington County:
Mr. Michael R. Cormier
President, Rancocas Valley Board of Education
mrcormier@verizon.net
c/o RVRHS
520 Jacksonville Road
Mt. Holly, NJ 08060
Other members of the Board of Education
Dr. Michael D. Moskalski, D.Ed.
Superintendent and Principal
Rancocas Valley Regional High School
email
520 Jacksonville Road
Mt. Holly, NJ 08060
609-267-0837
Gail Sweet, Director
Burlington County Library System
email
5 Pioneer Boulevard
Westampton, NJ 08060
609-267-9660, ext. 3021
Burlington County Department of Cultural Affairs and Tourism
CulturalAffairs@co.burlington.nj.us
PO Box 6000/Smithville Road
Eastampton, NJ 08060
609-265-5068
Mr. Tim Tyler
Burlington County Clerk
ttyler@co.burlington.nj.us
Courts Facility – 1st Floor
49 Rancocas Road, PO Box 6000
Mt. Holly, NJ 08060
609-265-5122
wilbur said,
July 30, 2010 at 6:38 am
Praise for something does not, in and of itself, mean that the object praised is of value to the public. Literary reviews of “queer” writings by an “old queer” is hardly the way to garner much approval except for the queers. That is like Democrat saying that taxes are good things in the middle of a recession. It just doesn’t float.
What is missing throughout this entire argument is the queer response to the issue of pervasive vulgarity. If the book meets that standard, does it belong on the shelves of our tax-dollar supported high schools or libraries? Please, if you can, respond to the issue of the value delivered from the queer side of the argument.
And, by the way. This popular book was checked out 19 times in eight years. So much for popularity, or does that offer proof that no one, except the “intelligent queers,” really care that this next congressional candidate published a book at all?
Robert Goodis said,
August 6, 2010 at 10:25 pm
The only reviews I saw where the book was called “pervasively vulgar” were ones written by bigoted homophobes.
The emails written by the library staff regarding the removal of this book from their facilities indicated that they intended to get the books out of circulation and prevent them from being checked-out by people on a waiting list for the book. That suggests, to me, that the book is popular. They also described it as though there were multiple copies in circulation.
If you would like to cite any of your sources, that might help your argument. I’d also recommend you cool down on the Democrat/tax rhetoric. Not only is it invalid in this case, it’s simply embarrassing.