Our tax dollars supporting a “literary queer festival”?
Posted on November 1, 2009 by Mary Grabar
Yes, coming to the Decatur Library through the Georgia Center for the Book (a federal program).
I have no problem with Outwrite Book Store hosting a “Queer Literary Festival.” But imagine another group, like the heterosexual writers of America, trying to book a room at the library that DeKalb County taxpayers’ support. How fast can you say ACLU, LAMBDA, etc., lawsuit?
Many homosexual writers have contributed to our rich heritage of letters, but their sexual orientation was only incidental. The writing was primary.
But this event seems to be focused less on writing and literature than on using writing to promote a gay agenda.
Read about the line-up here: http://www.atlqueerlitfest.blogspot.com/
When Flannery O’Connor’s correspondent and friend Betty Hester “came out” to her, O’Connor wrote back that that fact did not in any way diminish their friendship or her estimation of her. O’Connor, of course, was a devout Catholic who attended mass every day.
But, sadly, the entire “Queer Literary” event marks the general degradation of literature and its relegation to a tool for groups with grievances.
This is another way the Georgia Center for the Book and the DeKalb Public Library is diminishing books and literature, and bringing us closer to being an illiterate society.
Tags: Books, DeKalb County Library, Gay Agenda, Georgia Center for the Book, Queer
Comments (5)
Ms. Grabar:
Lesbianism and self-proclaimed extreme interest in sexual deviancy seems to run rampant throughout Georgia State’s Women’s Studies faculty. It shouldn’t be a surprise, for in this vital area of higher education it seems to be the norm. As is indoctrination with the narrowest world view known to man. Or woman.
Who sets the rules of the game is documented on Georgia State’s web site, which reveals “women’s studies” for what they are by unabashedly detailing the research “interests” of its faculty outside the classroom.
For example, Mindy Stombler, a senior lecturer, lists her main outside interest as “researching the social meaning of cunnilingus”. This heavy thinker is teaching America’s
daughters. It also makes you wonder how long Ms. Stombler would be employed by Georgia State if she was straight and male and included a like-minded exposition on the college’s departmental web site.
About five minutes. Or less.
Greetings, Ms. Grabar! We’re very pleased you’ve taken an interest in the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival, now in its fourth year. As Co-Director of AQLF, I welcome your discussion and debate.
Toward that end, let me begin by disabusing you of the notion that “your tax dollars” are “supporting the gay agenda.” Georgia Center for the Book / Decatur Library is a non-monetary sponsor, meaning they provide us with a venue and nothing more. Anyone with a valid library card is entitled to reserve the venue, including your example of “Heterosexual Writers of America.” If you have an issue with the permissiveness of the library’s policy, I suggest you take it up with them–but do remember, I pay taxes just like you do, and am glad to know my local library provides space for issues of concern to my community.
I appreciate your acknowledging the fact that homosexual writers have “contributed to our rich heritage of letters,” but strongly beg to differ when you say that “their sexual orientation was only incidental.” This is a much longer argument than a tiny comment box will permit. Should you wish to engage in a more open dialogue, The Atlanta Queer Literary Festival would be glad to provide a venue (at the Decatur Library, of course!) for us to come together and debate the merits of your position, which is not entirely fleshed out in your short article. If you wish make your complaints known in a more constructive manner than you are able to do here, please feel free to contact me at any time.
Sincerely, Megan Volpert
Thank you for writing, Ms. Volpert. Again, my concern is with the fact that this event by its title focuses on only one group. I am a taxpayer too, but I doubt that were I to try to hold a such a function explicitly excluding gay writers that I would be welcome. I am certain that I would receive wide condemnation. In fact, it would go against this institution’s policy of exclusion on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender orientation, etc. I love good poetry no matter who writes it. It’s the poetry that matters, and if our tax dollars are going to support it, it should not be exclusionary. (I learned about this event through the library’s email list, which means someone was employed to book the event and to write up the notice and send it–expenses beyond physical space.)
I am glad to know that people are still writing and reading poetry!
Thanks again, Mary
Deliberately PRESENTNG only literature produced by GLBTQ authors isn’t exclusionary: it’s focusing on a theme (necessary for any literary event I can imagine). Because Atlanta Queer Literary Festival events are open to the public (as library sponsors require, and as they should require), and because therefore no individual or group is excluded from ATTENDING the festival’s events -and because no individual or group forced to attend – means, to me, anyway, that arts-supported government funding is permissable. (As long as 100% of any agency’s arts support isn’t devoted to one theme, one group of art-producers, etc.)
Our local newspaper was full of bloggers defending “Gays”. It upset the populous so much, comments about the validity of their cause, were deemed abusive. It seems quite a few activists were employees of the newspaper and used that too their advantage. When I pointed out to their corporate administrators that over 99% of their readers found this obvious favoritism reprehensable and it soon would have a negative effect on the financial future of the paper, I saw a dramatic change almost immediately.
The question still remains: Do two bulls beget a calf?