And if he does will he talk about condoms, safe sex, AIDS, etc.? Somehow I doubt it. And how shocking is it for an 11 year old to see full frontal male nudity? And how do you determine if looking at a book is 'harmful to minors'?

Gay sex book stirs up trouble for C'ville bookstore

By Kevin McKenzie
Memphis Commercial Appeal
Sunday, June 15, 2008

A book about gay sex left open on a table at a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Collierville has outraged a conservative Christian talk radio host who happened upon it with his 11-year-old son.

Brannon Howse, 39, now is waging a campaign demanding that the nation's largest bookseller keep such items behind a counter or in an area for adults only.

That message has the backing of the American Family Association, a Tupelo, Miss., advocate of "traditional family values."

The publicity also comes at an opportune time for Howse. He recently announced that he is running for mayor of Collierville in the November election.

However, Howse said he preferred that his candidacy for the mayor's office not be mentioned. He said he is challenging Barnes & Noble as a father.

"It just happened to be that this father has a national radio program, and friends who are national talk show hosts, and access to a national e-mail alert list of three million people," he said.

Mary Ellen Keating, a spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble in New York, said in a statement that a customer had removed the book -- "Ultimate Gay Sex," by Michael Thomas Ford -- from its proper location.

"In fact, the book is to be shelved in a section that includes sexual reference material and guides for the gay and lesbian community that is, by design, located remotely from our children's section," Keating said.

Still, Tennessee obscenity law requires that sellers of material "harmful to minors" must take precautions to ensure that it can't be seen by anyone under 18, said Tom Cates, Collierville's town attorney.

Violating the law is a misdemeanor. Howse reported the June 5 incident to town police.

However, Cates said the town won't prosecute.

Police didn't witness it, prosecutors would have the burden of proof and the book isn't in evidence. Store officials said someone bought it, Cates said.

But last week, a town representative delivered a letter to the Barnes & Noble, located in The Avenue Carriage Crossing shopping center.

The letter highlighted steps that the state law, Tennessee Code 39-17-914, requires to protect minors. The list ranges from shelving items at least 51/2 feet from the floor to sealing them, obscuring portions of covers, keeping them under a counter or in an adults-only area.

Since the encounter with the coffee-table book with photographs of full frontal male nudity, Howse has verbally pummeled Barnes & Noble.

"I agree that there are First Amendment issues involved in it; I also believe they have a responsibility to restrict minors' access to this material," Laughlin said.