HERE is a news story that horrifyingly confirms complaints about the decline of the public library.  The American Library Association announced today that along with the prestigious Caldecott and Newbery awards it will now honor an annual award for a children’s book about homosexuality.

The AP reports:

The library association issued a statement Monday saying that the Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award has been added to the ALA’s Youth Media Awards, watched closely by educators and librarians as they decide which books to add to their collections. The Stonewall prize honors “English-language works for children and teens of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered experience.” Stonewall awards for adult books were started nearly 40 years ago, but the children’s category only now.

The ALA’s decision comes even though childrens’ books with homosexual themes regularly provoke a high number of complaints by parents. Tough luck, says the ALA’s president Roberta Stevens. “Ours is a very inclusive profession and we represent a wide variety of viewpoints,” she told the AP. Do they represent the viewpoint that, say, burglary and vandalism are fun? Do they recommend books promoting drug use? Of course, they don’t. No children’s librarian represents all viewpoints and Stevens knows it.

The executive director of the ALA can be reached here. I urge readers to e-mail him immediately and complain. Our libraries are public institutions supported by tax dollars. They are being stolen out from under us by those who seek to undermine not just morality, not just our cultural heritage, not just the love of knowledge, not just the joy and edification to be found in great literature, but the innocence of childhood. Once the guardians and watchdogs of civilization, our librarians now seek to destroy it. They have betrayed a sacred trust.

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