A Selective Timeline of Art Censorship in the U.S.A.: 1996

The Blumenthal Arts Center in Charlotte, NC is attacked for its production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America. The following year the Mecklenberg County Commission votes to abolish the Charlotte Arts & Sciences Council which had an annual budget of $2.5 million. The vote is a response to conservative outrage over Arts Council support for the staging of Angels in America.

A suit is filed in Amherst, MA to ban the exhibition, Love Makes a Family: Living in Lesbian and Gay Families, from further showings in public schools. U.S. District Court Judge Frank Freedman refuses to stop the exhibit.

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is removed from the curriculum in Merrimack, NH, because it violates the school board's decision not to teach about alternative lifestyles.

The Communications Decency Act prohibits posting "indecent" or "patently offensive" materials in a public forum on the Internet, including web pages, newsgroups, chat rooms, or online discussion lists. The Child Pornography Prevention Act outlaws all depictions (including computer simulations) of those "appearing to be" minors engaging in sexual activities.