A children’s book has been flagged for censorship by Alabama officials – because the author’s surname is Gay.
The book, Read Me a Story Stella by Marie-Louise Gay, was placed under review at the Harris County Public Library due to its “sexually explicit” nature. But the story has no sexual content. It’s about a brother and sister reading books together as they spend the day building a fort.
Harris County Public Library executive director Cindy Hewitt said the book was incorrectly put on its list of books under review because the author’s last name triggered a keyword in the facility’s system.
“Obviously, we’re not going to touch that book for any reason,” Ms Hewitt said.
Nor should you, Ms. Hewitt, even if a book features a gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, polysexual, or pansexual character, because those are all perfectly fine ways for human beings to express their sexuality.
All of this, of course, leads me to my books and my last name.
If the last name Gay is being flagged by some bigoted computer algorithm as sexually explicit, what the hell will it do when it sees Dicks?
Honestly, I’d be honored to be flagged by some hate-fueled algorithm designed by a bunch of sexually repressed, morally reprehensible, small-minded monsters.
In honor of this stupidity, I’ll be sending Cindy Hewitt – who may be a perfectly wonderful person working in a repressive, intolerant system – half a dozen copies of Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend and several of my envelope-sized pride flags.
It will either serve as a donation in support of her library system (if she’s a good person) or as a means of poking fun at a bigot if she’s a bad guy.
Either way, I’ll enjoy it.
