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Yet another Southern town has considered banning LGBTQ content from its libraries after complaints from an outraged citizen who unwittingly rented a documentary about a gay escort.
Kathy LaFleur of Lafayette, Louisiana was scandalized when she rented a DVD called Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood from her local library, thinking it was a documentary about Hollywood history. Which it is, in a sense, just not the type LaFleur thinks should be in her local library. The film is the story of a bisexual male Hollywood escort.
So LaFleur marched down to a meeting to prevail upon two of the town's librarians and a member of the local Library Board of Control to have the film removed.
And thankfully, this time the powers that be were like "NOPE."
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood documents the true story of Scotty Bowers, a bisexual former marine who became an escort to the stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood and later, a sort of male madam all the way up until his death in 2019.
In the extensive interviews included in the film, Bowers tells the tales of sleeping with some of the biggest male stars in Hollywood history, including Laurence Olivier, Vincent Price, Cary Grant and Rock Hudson.
Fascinating, right?
Well, not to LaFleur. She called the film "appalling" and "trash" during the meeting she attended and expressed her outrage at the title's inclusion in the library's roster, telling the committee:
“I was appalled that y’all would actually have something like that in the library..."
LaFleur was careful to stipulate that she's fine with smut in books, just not videos, for whatever reason.
As she put it:
“When you’re reading vulgarity in books, that’s fine. But when you’re watching something and you’re seeing a clip of an actual video of this going on in a movie at a library, I just couldn’t get over that.”
If you're assuming this is because LaFleur is homophobic, you are dead wrong—she was quick to point out that she can't be homophobic because her daughter is gay.
On social media, people found LaFleur's request absurd and applauded the library's decision to deny it.
Thank you, Acadiana, for showing up and showing how much you value #FreeSpeech! THIS is our community standards. Free access. Freedom of Expression.https://twitter.com/KLFY/status/1501777558022782976\u00a0\u2026— Lafayette Citizens Against Censorship (@Lafayette Citizens Against Censorship) 1646919588
More great news from my library https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/news/education/article_72a058e4-a030-11ec-8ee8-cf8b31dba319.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share\u00a0\u2026— Matty J. Brockovich \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udf0a\u270a\ud83c\udffd #FREEMATTY (@Matty J. Brockovich \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08\ud83c\udf0a\u270a\ud83c\udffd #FREEMATTY) 1646933974
Remember - if you remove anything gay it means people won't be gay.\n\n#republicanlogichttps://twitter.com/ClaireTaylorACA/status/1501945054872551427\u00a0\u2026— Raymond Camden (@Raymond Camden) 1646927501
Michael Lunsford AKA #PervertLunsford \u2018s minions get a second swipe at burning a DVD. #HateGroup #censorship of an #LGBTQ documentary. #GayRights #LGBTQIA rights #DontSayGay #https://twitter.com/clairetayloraca/status/1501945054872551427\u00a0\u2026— truthlafayette (@truthlafayette) 1646927361
This is f\u00fck\u00efng exhausting.— truthlafayette (@truthlafayette) 1646927400
Last night we didn't just save a DVD; we saved another piece of our library. Thks to everyone who showed up and spoke out\u2014the energy was amazing! We nd to keep up the public pressure-there will be MORE attempts @ #censorship! @ncacensorship @ALALibrary @EveryLibrary @PENamerica— Lafayette Citizens Against Censorship (@Lafayette Citizens Against Censorship) 1646919250
First they came for the drag queens,\u2026.https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/news/article_820f72ca-9e36-11ec-91ab-6f911e38b467.html\u00a0\u2026— truthlafayette (@truthlafayette) 1646714019
Woman wanted library to pull documentary on gay Hollywood calling it "appalling\u201d and \u201ctrash"\n\nWhat was she expecting? 'Behind the scenes of Sesame Street?' \n\nhttps://www.katc.com/news/lafayette-parish/committee-denies-request-to-remove-gay-documentary-from-lafayette-library\u00a0\u2026\n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qn6HxTJp0k\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/an6FQXNHaT— Dane B. McFadhen (@Dane B. McFadhen) 1647016401
Several locals applauded the committee's decision, including resident Madison Price, who said "access to knowledge" is "the entire point of the library." Hear hear!