Thursday, June 22, 2006

Gay authors condemn book-burning

Gay authors condemn book-burning
Copyright by The Chicago Free Press

“I was born into a generation of gay and lesbian people whose words and lives were so marginalized and silenced that we were made to feel utterly alone with our identity. Through the first brave pioneers who dared to put the truth of our lives on paper, we found each other. Our burned books will be replaced—I will donate an entire set of my books to the Merlo branch of the Chicago Public Library—and more and more and more books will come after mine. To the book burners of this world, this message: Never, ever again will we be silenced.”
—Katherine V. Forrest
 
“Arson of books—anybody’s books, no matter what the subject matter—is the action of a coward. People who commit arson against books are cowards because they hide behind secrecy and stealth. They don’t even have the gall to stand by a public bonfire and make themselves visible as they throw books into the flames. Not to mention the fact that they lack the courage to defend real democracy, where differing views are respected. How pathetic that the religious believers who now go around trying to destroy free speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people were originally persecuted refugees coming to the New World where they hoped to create free speech for themselves. The lesson of history that bigots like these book-burners never seem to learn is that nations where book-burning is allowed—like Nazi Germany, like Fascist Spain—always eventually crash and burn themselves.”
—Patricia Nell Warren
 
“The burning of gay and lesbian books last Tuesday, June 13, at the Merlo Branch of the Chicago Public Library is an outrage. The burning of these books is a vicious attack on the entire gay and lesbian community. Those who hate us prefer to silence the rest of us, to destroy the life of the mind, to eliminate our free expression. What is important is that we not be silent, that gay and lesbian authors keep on writing and speaking out. This feeble and pathetic attempt is an expression of right-wing hatred and shows the level of stupidity and desperation to which they will stoop. The 19th century German poet Heinrich Heine in his play ‘Almansor’ wrote, ‘Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.’”
—Mark Zubro and Ellen Hart

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