3/4/09

"Balance" at the Local Library?

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Ginny Maziarka is a concerned mother from Wisconsin. She was visiting her West Bend Community Library, she became upset about the "pro-homosexual" books that her local library was stocking. She and her husband filed a complaint to have certain books deemed "pornographic", others moved out of the teen section and wants the library to add books about how some people have successfully left the gay lifestyle.
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First, this woman is trying to make a name for herself because she is actively promoting herself and her cause. She has a blog and I recommend that you visit it and let her know what your opinions are. She has a place for comments at the end of each post. Here is a link:

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She also has a video link from her blog to an interview that she gave to a local news station. Can you guess what her sinful lifestyle is?
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Here we have another example of a fundamental evangelical who is trying to make gays & lesbians (teens at that!) feel shame for being who God made them while she completely ignores the scriptures that deal with gluttony & sloth in her own life. Maybe she should stop policing the library and start taking care of her body. After all, it is the Lord's temple!

16 comments:

Queers United said...

thanks, i commented on her stupid blog. GLSEN is a danger oh gosh, this woman is a danger she is a nut.

SafeLibraries® said...

Instead of name calling, how about doing something constructive. Find out what the underlying problem is, if any, understand the concerned citizens viewpoint, then offer a suggested solution.

If it is true young children are accessing material that may be inappropriate for them, I'm certain you would not agree with that. What solution would you propose?

For example, if the material includes homosexuality and nothing else of a controversial nature, my suggestion is to explain why nothing will be done.

If the material is inappropriate for children due to sexual content, then decide if the material should be dealt with in some manner that provides parents with information needed for them to make their own decisions on what their own children should read, etc., etc., etc.

So what solutions would you propose?

Shannon said...

There is no name calling, just pointing out the hipocrisy.

What would I do? I would do what I have always done - I would be a parent and look at what my kids are reading. I don't need to rely on people like Ginny to screen books for me or add religious propaganda to the shelves and call it "balance".

ReneeG said...

Someone should probably tell Ginny that Censorship is Communism and lucky for us, we live in America. Obama is president and we have a democracy. Sorry, sister, take your attempts at removing our first amendment rights to China, they're not wanted here.

SafeLibraries® said...

Sinnerviewer, I fully understand you may not be getting the big picture here. The problem is the promotion of material that parents would find objectionable in a manner that bypasses even concerned parents. For example, the top awarded book of the year for 2006 for kids 12 and up contained oral sex yet no mention was made of that as the book was promoted nationally. I myself got the author of the book to admit he would not even give it to his own 12 year old if he had one. It is unfair to blame the parents while at the same time misleading parents as to the contents of the books, say by giving the book top awards. Would you agree that providing parents with reasonable notice about the graphic sexual content of the books is reasonable?

Shannon said...

Safe, I'm afraid that it is YOU that do not fully understand this issue. Who are YOU or who is anyone to decide what is appropriate but the parents of the children?

Mrs. Maziarkas' own blog has this quote:

"The Maziarkas had requested the Library to provide an equal balance of FAITH-BASED and ex-“gay” books that oppose a prohomosexual ideology, a change in a book recommendation list which is currently titled, “Out of the Closet,” the removal of two books for their explicit graphic sexual nature and...."

(this part GALLS me)

"the removal or password protection of a Web page that lists book titles about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender topics."

Why are these topics inappropriate when they affect children? Should children not have access to books that might help them understand their own sexuality or the sexuality of thoer peers?

Being gay isn't dirty, pornographic, naughty or bad. It's natural and normal for about every 1 in 10 children.

When will parents stop abdicating their responsibility to screen what their children read, see and listen to? This is NOT the job of librarians or YOU. It's the job of parents to decide what is appropriate for their children. Otherwise, who will determine what criteria to follow?

This is America, not Nazi Germany or Communist China. Burn your own books!

SafeLibraries® said...

Don't ascribe to me what others have said. And I suggested parents should be informed for themselves, not informed by me or misinformed by others. Please, be reasonable.

Shannon said...

Great! We agree. Parents, it's YOUR job to screen what your children read, watch and listen to. You don't need anyone else to make decisions about what is "appropriate" or "pornographic" for you or your children. Yay!

Anonymous said...

I'm embarassed to say I live in the same state as this woman. I swear the midwest is just too crazy for me.
And I'm just going to put it out there removing the books is ONLY gonna make the kids want to read the books MORE because they are banned material. Its how I used to think, something is banned especially at that age you're gonna do whatever you can to get ahold of it. At that age it is cool to rebel.

kandazzle said...

lame. it is people like this woman that give the midwest it's bad rap. not that it doesn't deserve it, because often it does...

upon my most recent visit to my local library in a smallish city in Missouri, I was really surprised to find the number of books fairly discussing the issue of gay marriage and gay families. i live right in the heart of the bible belt and there really were only a couple of books with a really skewed view of homosexuality. it made me a little happy!

m.m.sugar said...

There are many comments on this woman's blog from our community.

However, there are no comments from her to even one person.

Are we preaching to the choir?

Is she reading us at all?

I am wondering if the existence of the comments is to simply serve to prove that she is willing to print the view of others. It makes her APPEAR fair minded and balanced!

Me. Here. Right now. said...

I had a little discussion with Safelibraries today which I'm posting as it develops over at Hahn at Home.

Nice work on this one Sinnerviewer!

SafeLibraries® said...

Here's Hahn at Home's post: "Got My Rant On: Censorship."

Me. Here. Right now. said...

Thanks, Safelibraries. Looking forward to our continuing discussion.

Sinnerviewer, that woman at wissup whatever is a pretty sad woman. Clearly running on 6 parts diatribe 4 parts recycled ideas from her gestapo leadership at the AFA.

Shannon said...

She is very sad. A sad hypocrite who feels that it's her job to police what others read. She pretends that she wants to protect her own children (if that was the case, don't let them check those books out) and insists that this isn't a gay issue. However, the books that wants removed all have a "pro-homosexual" theme. As if being gay is bad, wrong or pornographic.

She can lust after her 15 minutes in the spotlight but she needs to be prepared to take the criticism from people that don't agree it's her place to decide what should be available to patrons.

Free speech - God Bless America!

QueenTracy said...

lol. I just blogged about how these kind of people piss me off. Is it okay if the preacher's wife says that? It is MY responsibility to screen what my kids read, watch and listen too. This woman must be LOVING her time in the spotlight. *rolling eyes* I hope her kids make it to adulthood without too many scars.