The South Carolina House Budget Committee has cut funds for the College of Charleston’s summer reading program because of legislators’ objections to Alison Bechdel’s award-winning graphic novel Fun Home, according to the Charleston Post and Courier.  The title appeared on a reading list for incoming freshmen at the College.

Representative Garry Smith (R-Simpsonville) told the paper that the college was "promoting the gay and lesbian lifestyle," and that the college was telling students that didn’t want to read it that it was going to "shove it down your throat anyway." 

College of Charleston faculty defended the choice.  "The committee recognized the book might be controversial for a few readers, but the book asks important questions about family, identity, and the transition to adulthood," professor Christopher Korey, who oversees the reading program, told the paper.  "These are important questions for all college students."

The reading program costs $52,000, the amount removed from the college’s budget by a 13-10 vote in the committee.  The funds could be restored when the budget goes to the full House. 

USC Upstate, another state-funded college, was docked $17,142 by the same committee this week because it assigned Out Loud: The Best of Rainbow Radio, on the topic of South Carolina’s first gay and lesbian radio show, as reading for a required freshman course. 

Fun Home, released in 2006, continues to be a top seller, charting in the Top 20 Graphic Novels in bookstores as recently as January (see "January BookScan--Top 20 Graphic Novels").  The title won an Eisner in 2006 (see "DC Dominates Eisners"), but began attracting controversy almost immediately, including a library challenge shortly after publication (see "Graphic Novels Removed from Library").