According to sources in Wasilla, Alaska, Palin tried to use her sway as mayor to censor the local library. Though then-librarian Mary Ellen Baker tells ABC News Palin didn't specifically ask her to censor any specific titles, journalist Paul Stuart attests that Baker, who was later fired, had named names. And - surprise! - one of the books had gay themes:
"Stuart told PolitiFact that in a conversation with [Baker] after his article ran, she listed three titles. He said he could recall only two, and initially said they were I Told My Parents I’m Gay and I Asked My Sister. We looked for these titles; they don’t appear to exist.
“Mary Ellen told me that Palin asked her directly to remove these books from the shelves,” Stuart said. “She refused.”
Asked later if the first book could have been Pastor, I am Gay, a controversial book written by a pastor who lives just outside Wasilla, Stuart said that was it.
Howard Bess, author of Pastor, I am Gay and former pastor of Church of the Covenant in nearby Palmer, recalls that his book challenging Christians to re-examine their ideas about and prejudices against gays and lesbians was not well received in Wasilla when it was published in 1995 — the year before Palin was elected mayor."
Coincidentally enough, Palin's church at the time, Wasilla Assembly of God, had been campaigning against Bess' book.
These details suggest two things. One, Palin's not so clear on that whole church, state separation. And, two, Palin's easily - and irresponsibly - swayed by outside forces, not a good trait for a politician, national or otherwise.
Via queerty
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