Tim, that’s interesting – and telling – what you say about Strassman. It’s worth noting that the report was inaccurate in one important respect. CBS, as one reader pointed out to me, had another Dan Rather moment: the proposed legislation did not include a ban on books merely because the authors were, horrors, homosexual.

Nevertheless, even if the context of the article was part of a continuing effort to portray all southern conservatives as Neanderthals, what was proposed was idiotic. This report has more:

“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.”

Sigh.