Highschoolers in one of the most conservative parts of the country fight back against stupid homophobes.

Elsewhere, Neil Gaiman talks about homophobia in Alabama:

I was astoundingly unimpressed to find that in Alabama a lawmaker is proposing to prevent libraries from having books on their shelves — books that contain gay characters. (This reminded me of a comics story I wrote in 1987 called FROM HOMOGENOUS TO HONEY, for Alan Moore’s AARGH, which Bryan Talbot drew, about removing homosexuality from culture and history.)

If the bill became law, public school textbooks could not present homosexuality as a genetic trait and public libraries couldn’t offer books with gay or bisexual characters.

When asked about Tennessee Williams’ southern classic “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof,” Allen said the play probably couldn’t be performed by university theater groups.

Allen said no state funds should be used to pay for materials that foster homosexuality. He said that would include nonfiction books that suggest homosexuality is acceptable and fiction novels with gay characters. While that would ban books like “Heather has Two Mommies,” it could also include classic and popular novels with gay characters such as “The Color Purple,” “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and “Brideshead Revisted.”

The bill also would ban materials that recognize or promote a lifestyle or actions prohibited by the sodomy and sexual misconduct laws of Alabama. Allen said that meant books with heterosexual couples committing those acts likely would be banned, too.

The Sexual Misconduct laws of Alabama, by the way, apparently defines sexual misconduct as “a misdemeanor banning acts of oral or anal sex between adults not married to each other”. So you know.

(I wonder, in a multi-series book, would a librarian have to yank early books in which you didn’t know a character who later turned out to be gay appeared without any reference to his or her sexuality.)