Today’s smackdown of the so-called “moral values” crowd comes from Ms. Nielsen-Hayden over at the always-insightful Making Light: Gerald Allen is stupider than dirt. You see, Mr. Allen wants to ban books that positively depict homosexuality, as they might (gasp!) lead children to believe that gays are people, too. The horror! The horror!

My favorite graf is reprinted here:

[Gerald Allen is] no better than those people who pretend they’re hardcore Christians when they’re really preaching Satan Triumphant. I mean the ones who think that after years and years of weekly church services, with hymn-singing and Bible-reading, the least little exposure to some kind of encoded Satanic reference—seeing pictures of rainbows or Ganesha, or taking in the afternoon matinee of the latest Harry Potter movie, or hearing a rock song with muddled lyrics they can’t make out anyway—is tantamount to throwing open the door to Satan.

It’s time for me to drag out my worn copy of Fahrenheit 451 again and remind myself that it has always been this way.