UK paper: President Bush wants 'pro-homosexual' drama banned

[rainbow4321]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1369643,00.html


What should we do with US classics like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof or The Color Purple? "Dig a hole," Gerald Allen recommends, "and dump them in it." Don't laugh. Gerald Allen's book-burying opinions are not a joke. Earlier this week, Allen got a call from Washington. He will be meeting with President Bush on Monday. I asked him if this was his first invitation to the White House. "Oh no," he laughs. "It's my fifth meeting with Mr Bush. Bush is interested in Allen's opinions because Allen is an elected Republican representative in the Alabama state legislature. He is Bush's base. Last week, Bush's base introduced a bill that would ban the use of state funds to purchase any books or other materials that "promote homosexuality". Allen does not want taxpayers' money to support "positive depictions of homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle". That's why Tennessee Williams and Alice Walker have got to go.


<snip>

Cutting off funds to theatre departments that put on A Chorus Line or Cat on a Hot Tin Roof may look like censorship, and smell like censorship, but "it's not censorship", Allen hastens to explain. "For instance, there's a reason for stop lights. You're driving a vehicle, you see that stop light, and I hope you stop." Who can argue with something as reasonable as stop lights? Of course, if you're gay, this particular traffic light never changes to green.

But more than one gay playwright is at a stake here. Allen claims he is acting to "encourage and protect our culture". Does "our culture" include Shakespeare? I ask Allen if he would insist that copies of Shakespeare's sonnets be removed from all public libraries. I point out to him that Romeo and Juliet was originally performed by an all-male cast, and that in Shakespeare's lifetime actors and audiences at the public theatres were all accused of being "sodomites". When Romeo wished he "was a glove upon that hand", the cheek that he fantasised about kissing was a male cheek. Next March the Alabama Shakespeare festival will be performing a new production of As You Like It, and its famous scene of a man wooing another man. The Alabama Shakespeare Festival is also the State Theatre of Alabama. Would Allen's bill cut off state funding for Shakespeare?

"Well," he begins, after a pause, "the current draft of the bill does not address how that is going to be handled. I expect details like that to be worked out at the committee stage. Literature like Shakespeare and Hamlet could be left alone." Could be. Not "would be". In any case, he says, "you could tone it down". That way, if you're not paying real close attention, even a college graduate like Allen himself "could easily miss" what was going on, the "subtle" innuendoes and all.

[RubyDuby in GA]

1. Y'all wouldn't know what to do without Alabama and Georgia

providing you with all this entertainment, would you??

I love Alabama. They make us look that much better (which ain't sayin' a whole helluva lot).

:crazy:

[tx_dem41]

8. Funny...in Louisiana, we said the same thing about Mississippi. n/t

[China_cat]

2. Hamlet could be left alone?

With Rosencrantz and Guilderstern?

[villager]

10. or with his mother!

Maybe they'll like that "subtle theme" better...

[China_cat]

11. Gertrude was just an adultress and murderer, evidently

Rosencrantz and Guilderstern were flaming fags in every production I've ever seen. And that's what they're trying to keep people from seeing.

And the incest theme is just a bit TOO subtle for most folks to catch.

[villager]

12. the "murderer" would be okay with the red state crowd, but

by God, the adulteress part -- I mean, since she's a woman -- would require stoning!

[tanyev]

3. I wonder if this clown

knows about Lynne Cheney's book Sisters.

[ExclamationPoint]

4. HE WOULDN'T DARE!

Lets ban all books that promote being a fascist, conservative, republican idiot instead of shakespeare! They are now trying to rid the world of intelligence by disguising it with freakish "moral values".
If he touches shakespeare, England better come over and blow up his freak little brain! I have never gotten this angry over a bard.
I doubt Gerald Allen has even read shakespeare.

[rkc3]

5. To top it off...

Allen gets his 5th visit with the pres.

Do you remember how many meetings Richard Clarke has with bush? That's right - none.

We must remember to keep our priorities in line.

[louis-t]

6. Sniff, sniff, smells like the book burners are back.

Just don't 'call' it censorship.

[rainbow4321]

7. He toned it down after the meeting...

Wonder if it was per chimp's request...funny how the meeting topic went from sex to taxes.


http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/


According to an interview Allen gave to The Guardian, just a few days after word of his proposed legislation hit the news, President Bush invited him up to the White House. Allen was supposed to be there just yesterday, Monday the 13th.
Perhaps Allen was just blowing smoke. But I'd be curious to know more about this meeting and whether it took place. Did Karl want pointers on how he could bring Allen's bill to the big leagues?

Late Update: Another blog got Gerald on the horn and asked him how his visit with the president went. Apparently they just talked about taxes, not gay sex. Oh well.


http://www.outletradio.com/grantham/archives/cat_exclusives.php

Yesterday, Alabama state Rep. Gerald Allen met with President George Bush. Before boarding his flight home today, I spoke with Rep. Allen about whether his proposed bill to ban homosexual content from public libraries and schools ever came up.

"The President is strong on moral values. I don't think anyone has a question about that," Allen said. "But my bill never came up, and I won't have anything more about that for another two months."

Another two months? Allen dismissed my question of whether the White House asked him to tone down his rhetoric in favor of higher priorities. "The bill simply didn't come up. Now, we talked a lot about tax reform, but had the issue come up, I'm certain the President would have a lot to say about the moral values that got him elected."

[gratuitous]

9. In Europe, these troglodytes are laughed at

Here, they get to meet with Simpleton W. Bush hisself.

Oh well, the liberal media, fully understanding the implications of this lunatic idea and clearly seeing the slippery slope this embarks on, will loudly denounce Gerald Allen and buttonhole every conservative guest and commentator to do the same or be subject to the worst approbation and innuendo.

Right?

[hopein08]

13. Somebody send him a copy of "Sisters"!

I'd like to hear what he's got to say about Lynne Cheney's book. There's even a website that has the whole thing up. He could read it during his "spare week" when he goes on the Internet(s). I wonder what he does during spare weeks on the internet? Yuck, I bet I don't want to know.

[msongs]

14. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof hardly a "positive description" of any lifestyle...

The allegedly gay character is a conflicted alcoholic, the heterosexual wife is a castrator, the heterosexual brother and family are toxic, and "Big Daddy" is a towering monument to greed.

better to read those positive role models like the bible, with all its rape, torture, murder, adultery, and incest.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[shrike]

15. Yep

Hell of a play, though.