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When conservative groups address the issue of gay-themed books in school libraries, they often advocate for their removal from the shelves. But that is not the case with a Chicago-based organization.
  Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, an advocacy group for those who claim they are no longer gay, argued that its donation of books discussing the supposed successes of the ex-gay movement had been uniformly rejected by public schools around the nation.
  PFOX executive director Regina Griggs claims the books, including titles like You Don't Have to Be Gay and A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality, are being "banned." She is demanding that the American Library Association defend the books' rightful place on the shelves.
  "Books about leaving homosexuality are censored in most high school libraries, although gay affirming books for youth are readily available," says Griggs.
  She wants her group's plight to be addressed during the ALA's Banned Books Week.
  "According to the ALA, the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if unorthodox and unpopular, is the reason for its Banned Books Week," Griggs says. "Every week is a banned books week for the ex-gay community."
  Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, says the allegations by Griggs simply "don't pan out." She says the ALA does not have a hand in any library's collection.
  She notes that some libraries she'd contacted had actually acquired some of the ex-gay titles.
  "We're not the library police and we don't advocate for or against any particular idea," Caldwell-Stone tells Guide magazine. "We advocate against censorship. There have been no recorded challenges to these books being in libraries and no one has tried to remove them. That's what we would be concerned with."
  PFOX says it will file lawsuits on the matter in the coming months.

Author Profile:  Joseph Erbentraut

Joseph Erbentraut is a Wisconsin-born freelance writer and editor currently living in Chicago. His articles on politics, music and culture have been featured in the Village Voice and other publications. He also blogs at Chicagoist.