Paul Dorr is a cheap coward who has roused the righteous anger of librarians everywhere. He checked out books he personally disapproved of, and recorded himself burning them. Look, guy, you don’t like a book and want to express your disapproval? Buy a copy of your own and burn it. That’s fine. Robbing a library is not cool, and I hope you are tracked down, arrested, fined, and forced to repay the library the cost of the books. And then you should be permanently banned from the library. All libraries, if that were possible.
Dorr is one of those smug Christian fundamentalists who is greatly offended by the existence of gay/lesbian/transgender people, and wants the power to dictate who they are allowed to love, and most perniciously, wants to indoctrinate children in his bigotry. He’s a rotten little man. There is only one good thing about his actions: he has helped spread the word about good children’s books. These are books I knew nothing about, until now! Thanks for that, Mr Dorr, you asshole.
Here are some of the titles he burned.
- Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
- This Day in June by Gayle Pitman
- Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress by Christine Baldacchino
- Families, Families, Families! by Suzanne and Max Lang
Now this doting grandparent knows about these books, and Christmas is coming up. This Day in June and Families, Families, Families! both look roughly age appropriate for my little ones, so maybe they’ll get a book or two as presents (don’t tell them! You’ll ruin the surprise.)
I don’t care if those kids grow up gay or straight, I’m never going to tell them who they’re allowed to fall in love with. But by golly, I will work to make sure they don’t grow up full of hate!
They also need to grow up to respect libraries and librarians. What kind of savage raised Paul Dorr?
Down with this sort of thing!
Careful now!
We never got rid of the barbarians. Now, they just don robes or register as Republicans and continue their attacks on civilization.
Not just the cost of the books and any fines–he should also have to pay for the processing time–usually far more substantial than the actual cost of the book.
Book burning? How very Nazi! How very Catholic! I wonder if our bigot realises the company he has decided to keep?
Well, actually I don’t – he doesn’t strike me as the contemplative sort.
I imagine authors will be sending him advance copies of their children’s books now, in order to get his seal of approval. Anything this guy burns is bound to be worth reading. It’s like the old days of the index librorum prohibitorum, where all the stuff you should be reading was collected together by helpful inquisitors.
Now, now, the Catholic Church never burned anyone or anything: they just handed the offending people or materials over to the secular authorities for appropriate disposal! Yes, hardline Catholics use this excuse. (They get kind of pissy when you point to the Church’s history of interdicting– country-level excommunication, basically– countries that refused to toe the ecclesiastical line. The really anti-Semitic ones get super-pissy when you point out the Jews didn’t kill Jesus, they just handed him over to the secular authorities… 😈)
No idea if arresting the offender over their actions is possible. But since the bigot book burner seems to enjoy public displays, perhaps they could just post his name somewhere visible on or within the library itself, with the name of the books that he’s kept long past due, telling him how long past due he has kept those books. I imagine he’d love the idea of his neighbours and co-workers thinking how he reads such material. (Nothing wrong with THAT, just bother the hateful bigot by painting him with his own phobia.)
Maybe we can assemble a pyre of Fox News scripts and Murdoch newspapers and burn Paul Dorr at the stake.
The library should definitely fine him, and he refuses to pay send his file to a collections agency.
Though when I first read about this, it mentioned the library was going to seek some legal action:
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2018/10/22/iowa-man-burns-childrens-books-orange-city-pride-public-library-lgbtq-literature-aclu-iowa/1728786002/
The fundie xians do the same thing at my public library!!!
They check out books they don’t like and never return them.
AFAIK, they don’t burn them though, at least not publicly.
This library used to have 6 copies of Dawkin’s The God Delusion.
It was wildly popular and they were all usually checked out.
One by one the number of copies dwindled. “Lost”.
When they got down to one copy, they put it behind the counter.
You have to ask for it.
Not because it is restricted but because they don’t want fundie xians stealing it.
It’s not true that the Dark Ages are long gone.
For most of us, they are, but they still exist in fundie xian’s minds.
Thou shall not steal.
Cat Mara @ # 6: … the Catholic Church never burned anyone or anything: they just handed the offending people or materials over to the secular authorities for appropriate disposal! Yes, hardline Catholics use this excuse.
Ve vere joost givink orders!
Does anyone know if there is a donation link to this Library to provide funds for replacement copies? If nothing else, I always love supporting small town libraries.
Suggestion for your list: And Tango Makes Three.
chigau — Fun exercise? Go through the ten (or eleven) commands and cite examples, particularly contemporary, of Christians blowing right through them. “Thou shalt not kill” – Supporting America’s war machine, capital punishment, preventing abortions that lead to death of the mother…we could go on, right?
I wonder if Christine Baldacchino knew that Maurice Micklewhite is Michael Caine’s real name? Hmm.
Thou Shalt Not Steal
Their bibles come with a footnoted version of the Decalogue: IOKIYAR.
Dunno, I think I’d draw the line at “people who steal and burn books that teach kids about LGBTQ people”.
Years ago Mike Archer at the Uni of NSW read a recommendation in a creationist newsletter on how to fight evolution in libraries. This called for vandalising textbooks by cutting out our gluing together offending pages. He took a copy to the university librarians and sure enough it was happening on his own campus. I am not quite as naughty. When I see a pile of bound creationist toilet paper shelved in the science section of a library or bookshop I helpfully reshelve it in the religion section, usually among the astrology and witchcraft books.
I purchased three of four. Oh well.