Transcript Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or.

Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech or of the press;
or
the
right
of
the
people
Hannah Mueller
peaceably
to
assemble,
and
to
petition
the
Katherine Houghton Hepburn Center
Internship
Government for a redress of grievances.
Summer 2009
About NCAC
275 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001
www.ncac.org
The National Coalition Against Censorship is an
alliance of fifty national non-profit organizations,
including religious, artistic, professional, educational,
labor, and civil liberties groups, united in their
defense of freedom of thought, inquiry and
expression. Founded in 1974, NCAC is the oldest
civil liberties coalition in the United States and the
only national organization devoted exclusively to
fighting censorship.
(2008 Free Speech Matters)
Participating organizations include the American
Library Association (ALA), the ACLU, the
Modern Language Association (MLA), PEN
American Center, and the Student Press Law
NCAC Issues (partial list)
• Academic Freedom
• Sex Education
• Book Censorship
• Government Secrecy
• Copyright Law
• Science
• Hate Speech
• Visual and Performing Arts
• Political Dissent
• Rating Systems
• Pornography
• Internet Filtering
Topics with which I was most
involved
Recent NCAC Projects
• Filed amicus brief in U.S. v Stevens
• 2009 Youth Free Expression Network
Film Contest:
“Free Speech in Schools: Does It
Exist?”
• Various publications in the past few
years:
• Censoring Culture: Contemporary
Threats to Free Expression
• Censoring Science: A Stem Cell
Story
West Bend, WI Book
Challenge
This ongoing controversy over books with
“homosexual themes” in a Wisconsin public
library has been the major book challenge
of the year.
In February, a local parent called for several
books to be moved from the Young Adult to
the Adult section, including The Perks of
Being a Wallflower and Baby Be-Bop.
Some library patrons petitioned to burn the
books. Four library board members lost
their positions when the Common Council
accused them of promoting “the overt
indoctrination of the gay agenda.”
In early June, after much debate and a
read-in organized by local students, the
new library board voted to keep the books
on the YA shelves.
82 books are now blacklisted for
removal or re-shelving. Two
groups, the West Bend Citizens for
Safe Libraries and West Bend
Parents for Free Speech, continue
to face off.
LGBTQ Right to Read
Resource
The West Bend controversy is only one
of the numerous recent attacks on
books with “homosexual themes” in
school libraries, classrooms, and public
libraries. I helped the Kids’ Right to
Read Project launch a new section of
the website that addresses these
controversies:
“This guide is intended to
prepare you to talk about and
respond to challenges aimed at
materials by, for, or about
lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, and queer/
questioning youth.”
“Gay characters can’t be relegated to
some dark corner of the shelf that
you need a map to find and an ID to
check out. To do so is basically
saying to the gay kids, ‘There’s
something dirty about you.’ Anyone
who would say that is the true
filthmonger.”
- Author Maureen
Johnson
in an interview with the
Kids’
Right
to Read
The LGBTQ
Right
To Read
Resource
Projectan introduction/background,
includes
case studies, a links page, interviews,
and an action page. We are going to
fully “launch” it before Banned Books
The picture book And Tango
Makes Three has been at the top
of the ALA’s most-challenged
books list for three years in a row.
Why? It’s the story of the real-life
“relationship” between two male
penguins at the Central Park Zoo.
I wrote a case study of the Tango
controversy for our LGBTQ site.
“I believe strongly that books are myths. And that, more than movies, the
kind of storytelling that happens when you read a book is really internal it happens on a deep, mythic level...
Tango creates a NEW myth, that two boys can grow up, fall in love, and
have a child, and that child can grow up strong and healthy and happy!
Books are POWERFUL myth creators, and we need to fight to keep them
available!”
- Lee Wind, author of the blog I’m Here, I’m Queer,
What the Hell do I Read?, about YA teen books.
I interviewed Lee for the Right to Read Resource and the KRRP
collection of author interviews, Voices Against Book Censorship.
Blogging Censorship
My other main project was researching and writing blog entries for the
NCAC blog, Blogging Censorship.
• Libel tourism: When U.S. citizens are sued in other countries,
should they keep their First Amendment rights?
• Book challenges in Florida, New Hampshire, and West Bend, WI
• Judge Sotomayor’s record on First Amendment
• Why should U.S. computer manufacturers care about Internet
censorship in China?
• Board of Ed. v. Pico: Anniversary of the 1982 Supreme Court case
marking school libraries as specially-protected spaces for free speech
• High school student sues Amazon for deleting 1984 from his Kindle
A blog conversation:
“Hemingway, King, Sedaris kicked out of
New Hampshire high school classes”
LITCHFIELD, NH, JUNE 19: “A couple of recent censorship
attempts at public libraries have been squashed, but yesterday
a group of parents succeeded in banning four short stories from
high school classrooms in Litchfield, New Hampshire. School
Superintendent Elaine F. Cutler stated that stories by authors
including Stephen King, David Sedaris, and Ernest Hemingway
will be removed from the “Love/Gender/Family” unit of a senior
English class at Campbell High School.”
“NH” responds: Um this was not about ‘censorship’ but about the taxpayers
who FUND THE SCHOOLS having a right to ensure that anything taught
concerning these issues is done clinically without the use of blatant
pornography which has no socially redeeming benefit other than to shock
and upset.
“JerseyFresh” says: This is unconstitutional and straight up lame.
These young people have to learn about these topics eventually
anyway! so why not under the guidance of a professional educator?
The Virtual Coalition Against
Censorship (VCAC) in Second Life
I spent 2 to 4 hours per week in SL as the “in-world scout” of the VCAC. My
goal: to start a conversation about free speech in virtual spaces. I contacted
artists and activist groups with questions like these:
• How can we maximize personal freedom in SL, which is both a privately-owned
platform and a public sphere?
• Why do we need ratings? What are the gray areas between Adult, Mature, and
PG?
• Do you ever self-censor online?
A Conversation with Toni Morrison
The Free Speech
Leadership Council, a new
fundraising and outreach
initiative at NCAC, launched
with this incredible event.
Toni Morrison was the
honored guest, along with
Fran Lebowitz. They spoke
about the power of the
written word and its
importance for humanity,
and for democracy in
particular.
Professor Morrison recently edited Burn This Book, a collection of
essays on censorship by contemporary writers.
I helped with this June 3 event by editing promotional material, helping
to set up, and checking coats.
Skills I Learned and Improved
• Researching and writing: Blog entries were like short op-ed
pieces. By the end of the internship, I was writing them more
quickly and clearly.
• Revising and editing: The LGBTQ Resource introduction took
several weeks of rewriting before the project director, the other
intern and I were all satisfied with it.
• Planning and conducting an interview for publication
• Using Second Life as a tool for networking and advocacy
• Working with membership databases and mass mailings
• Working with HTML, website and blog design
What Else I Learned
•
•
•
•
•
Censorship is a pervasive problem because it is
usually invisible.
Obscenity is always in the eye of the beholder.
There is no such thing as a “safe” library. Upholding
the First Amendment means upholding it for
everyone. Letting every author have their say is
never “safe,” but the alternative is much more
dangerous.
Despite the problems we have with censorship,
freedom of expression in the U.S. is very healthy
compared to other countries, including China and
Iran, where government censorship amounts to
gross human rights abuses.
As the Internet and digital media allow different
forms of free expression, they also enable new kinds
of censorship: internet filters, tampering with search
engines, and remote control of private intellectual
property. These will be the major anti-censorship
battles of the near future.