Censorship Spiral: Right Now Wants to Shut Down Entire Smithsonian Exhibit

After Republican and Religious Right leaders clamored over who was more outraged about 11 seconds of video in the Smithsonian’s new “Hide/Seek” exhibit, censorship advocates now not only want the Smithsonian to remove the video in question (which they have) but to close the whole exhibit.

Georgia Republican Congressman Jack Kingston, who earlier called for congressional investigations into the Smithsonian, told the rightwing website CNSNews that while the museum’s removal of artist David Wojnarowicz video was a “positive” step, he does not think the Smithsonian went far enough: “No, I think it should be closed.”

Rep. Kingston implied that the people behind the exhibit on depictions of homosexuality in art, which was completely privately-funded, wanted to draw the attention of children:

“So you move from Elvis to the presidents of America and the civil rights display and tucked in between we have ‘Hide/Seek,’” Kingston said. “And so now you’re explaining to your 10-year-old what homoerotic art is.”

…

“I think they let the kinky push logic out of the way and they know that,” Kingston said. “I don’t think these are stupid people. I think this is an ‘in your face’ exhibit and ‘aren’t we cool,’ and ‘we’re doing this and not only are we doing something edgy, but you’re paying us for it -- ha, ha.’”

Brent Bozell of the rightwing Media Research Center said on CNN that since in his opinion the majority of Americans would disapprove of the exhibit, it should not be featured in the Smithsonian at all. “It’s not about one piece,” Bozell claims, “it’s about an entire exhibit full of all sorts of pieces.”

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