Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 9, 1994 TAG: 9411090047
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Tempers occasionally flared Monday night at a forum on whether the book, which illustrates a child's visits to the home of his divorced father and the man's gay lover, should remain where it is.
About 70 people packed the Falling Branch Elementary School cafeteria to hear the viewpoints of Nita McNerlin, the Blacksburg mother who wants the book placed where it wouldn't be as easily available to children, and Karen Dillon, the director of the library system, which says moving the book is a form of censorship. Phil Keith, the county's commonwealth's attorney, also was on hand. The Montgomery County Council on Human Relations hosted the forum.
McNerlin's and the library's arguments have evolved little since March, when McNerlin discovered a copy of the book at the Blacksburg branch library.
A book that condones homosexuality - and by inference the sexual acts, including sodomy, which state law still condemns - shouldn't be located where children can reach it, McNerlin argued.
"Those actions accompanying the gay lifestyle - we all know what that is," McNerlin said early in the 11/2-hour long forum. "I don't want my child to have access to that book without my approval.
"If we don't set some kind of standard at this point, we're going to deal with this over and over again," McNerlin said.
But Dillon, after hearing Keith say that some sexual acts associated with homosexuality could be characterized as illegal whether committed between a man and a woman or two people of the same sex, suggested that McNerlin's argument on that front was irrelevant.
Dillon invoked the American Library Association's "Library Bill of Rights," and said that "there are established criteria" for choosing books, criteria which specifically place the book where it belongs.
"This particular book is meant to be read by an adult to a child," she said. She provoked some jeers when she responded to the question of what justifies placing the book in the children's section with the answer, "because it meets the definition of a picture book."
She said Tuesday that she was referring to the fact that the book, a thin, 29-page effort of simple sentences and illustrations showing the two men sleeping, hugging and shaving - but not having sex - together, is meant for preschoolers, who normally would not be able to interpret or perhaps even read it themselves.
McNerlin admitted Tuesday that her discovery of "Daddy's Roommate" while browsing for books for her 4-year-old daughter suggests that she, through her own actions, upheld the library's position that it is the parents' responsibility to be aware of what their child is reading.
"Parents, and only parents, have the right" to restrict their children's access to certain books, Dillon said Monday night.
But McNerlin said some parents may not be able to take the time to do that, and that children in day care may not be watched closely enough to make sure the wrong reading material doesn't fall into their hands.
Asked if her daughter would be able to discern the meaning behind "Daddy's Roommate" without McNerlin's help, she answered: "I don't know that they would figure the whole picture out but it would definitely start it."
The crux of the issue is not one of censorship but of political beliefs, Keith said.
McNerlin agreed, and later added, "there is no way [to silence this issue] besides an actual vote on this."
Dillon said Tuesday she wouldn't agree with a popular vote on the subject, saying "there's firm legal basis for the fact that access [to the book] can be tied back to our Constitutional rights."
In April, the library board voted 5-3 to keep the book where it was.
"The board has made its decision," Dillon said Tuesday.
In June, McNerlin took a 1,000-signature petition to Montgomery County's Board of Supervisors and asked them to withhold funding to the library system until it removed the book to another section. The county grants the library system about $900,000 a year in tax money. The supervisors took no action on McNerlin's request, but are expecting similar demands once they begin the budget process this winter.
McNerlin said Monday that the government needs to take more responsibility with citizens' tax dollars.
by CNB