A Bentonville, AK resident is suing for trauma allegedly caused when his two sons stumbled across a sex guide book shelved with the military books at the library:
A Bentonville man asked the city to pay his two sons $20,000 and to fire the library director for including what he called “pornography” in the Bentonville Public Library collection.
“The Whole Lesbian Sex Book” by Felice Newman was removed from the library shelf after Earl Adams of Bentonville complained it is “patently offensive and lacks any artistic, literary or scientific value,” according to a letter he wrote and faxed Feb. 16 to Mayor Bob McCaslin.
Adams said his 14- and 16-year-old sons, Kyle and Ryan, looked at the book while the 14-year-old was browsing for material on military academies. He requested the city pay him $10,000 per child, the maximum allowed under the Arkansas obscenity law.
Author Felice Newman said in a press release today:
Boys have been pouring over sexually explicit materials in libraries since – well, since there have been libraries. Why was a copy of my book in the military section? Well, sometimes young people browsing the library shelves will tuck away a favorite book where they can find it later. These two young guys are the very reason libraries must be uncensored, and librarians must be free to order the books they feel will benefit the public.â€
I pulled the the Library Journal review off Amazon.com:
Newman’s sex guide for lesbians is superb. Why can’t more heterosexual sex manuals be this good? Newman, who, as the publisher at Cleis Press since 1980 has edited many other sex books, covers oral, manual, anal, and insertive-vaginal techniques with loving care. She includes a whole chapter on breast play, addresses safety repeatedly and thoroughly, and discusses transgender and bisexual orientations, SM, group sex, masturbation, and sex toys–all while acknowledging that some women prefer monogamy, some polygamy. Her bibliography and resource list are simply outstanding. Newman’s work updates and embodies the best of the half -dozen other lesbian sex manuals in print) all acknowledged in her bibliography). Even though this book is aimed at lesbians, it’s extremely suitable for heterosexual women (to enhance their own eroticism) and men (to tell them what turns women on). For all public libraries.
(reviewed by Martha Cornog, Philadelphia. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc)
You can send a message of support to the Bentonville Public Library here.
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