Dive Brief:

The South Carolina House of Representatives has denied attempts to restore funding that it stripped from two colleges as a penalty for their inclusion of gay-themed books in reading assignments.

The budget committee of the legislative body had removed $52,000 and $17,000 from the College of Charleston and University of South Carolina-Upstate, respectively. The books: "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic," an illustrated memoir by Alison Bechdel, and "Out Loud: The Best of Rainbow Radio," edited by Candace Chellew-Hodge and Ed Madden.

Next up: Another proposed budget amendment would withhold $1 million from each college until they banned “pornographic content” in classes and stopped requiring students to take classes that had nude models.

Dive Insight:

Now let’s watch the sales of these books climb the charts, shall we? And how many students in South Carolina are contacting their state representative to complain about nude models in the classrooms? Democratic lawmakers tried to restore the funds, and representatives from both Democratic and Republican parties criticized the funding cuts as inappropriate government micromanaging and limiting of the views that college students can be exposed to. But the amendments to restore the funding were voted down by nearly two-to-one ratios.