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Nampa Library Keeps Joy of Books, Loses DonorBusiness owner Larry Knapp has announced that he will withhold a $10,000 donation he had considered making toward a new library facility to protest the Nampa Public Library board’s decision to retain The Joy of Sex and The Joy of Gay Sex in the collection. “Why would you want to create a larger problem?” Knapp said in the June 27 Nampa Idaho Press-Tribune, noting that the library officials’ decision was an unpopular one and “from a business perspective that’s a bad policy.”Trustees acted in response to a complaint by area pastor Randy Jackson, the latest in a string of objections over several years to gay-positive materials on library shelves. In a prepared statement issued after the meeting, Board Chairwoman Sharon Brooks said, “The majority of trustees agreed that these texts, however some might feel about their graphic nature, were intended as legitimate sources of information rather than as an appeal to prurient interests.” While the motion to ban the books failed to get a second, the board subsequently voted 4–1 to relocate the books, along with some 60 others primarily about sexuality, to the highest shelf out of children’s reach and have the staff immediately remove them when they are left on library tables. Knapp’s announcement was applauded by pro-life activist Brandi Swindell of Generation Life, who has called for all libraries in the Boise metropolitan area to remove materials that some might consider sexually explicit. “This is not censorship,” Swindell said in the July 3 Boise Idaho Statesman. “A public library is a place where kids should be able to explore and be safe.” She went on to say that the issue “is something that the library board in Boise should be thinking about” as they weigh whether to seek a capital bond issue in 2007. Posted July 7, 2006. |
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