Books that positively depicted gay parents were returned to the shelves in the children’s section of Wichita, Texas public libraries last week after a federal judge struck down a local censorship law. The city ordinance allowed library cardholders to petition to move any children’s book in the public library to the adult section. Both Heather Has Two Mommies, a story about a girl with lesbian parents who learns about her conception and birth, and Daddy’s Roommate, the tale of a boy with divorced parents who meets his father’s gay boyfriend for the first time, were relocated to the adult section after members of the First Baptist Church of Wichita Falls solicited petitions. The Church’s original intention was to remove “any literature that promotes or sanctions a homosexual lifestyle.” Judgy Jerry Buchmeyer called the ordinance an unconstitutional burden on free speech. The case, argued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), was brought on behalf of 19 individuals, including three children, who opposed the censorship law.
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