Under his legislation, public funds could no longer be used to buy "textbooks or library materials that recognize or promote homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle."

Allen, who has sought to ban gay marriages in the state, says he offered the bill to protect Alabama children from the "homosexual agenda."

"Our culture, how we know it today, is under attack from every angle," he told reporters Tuesday.

If the bill becomes law, "public school textbooks could not present homosexuality as a genetic trait and public libraries couldn't offer books with gay or bisexual characters," said the paper.

"Heather Has Two Mommies" and other books aimed at overtly promoting or describing gay lifestyles would of course be banned.

But so, too, would some fiction-based literary classics such as "The Color Purple," "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and "Brideshead Revisited," each because they feature a gay character.

The prospective law also would ban any materials promoting sodomy or other acts prohibited by Alabama law. And it would prohibit books that feature heterosexual couples who also engage in similar acts.

Also, teachers could not hand out materials which featured homosexuality favorably or in a way that depicted it as a "normal" lifestyle.

Editor's note: