Leslea Newman has been called the "most dangerous writer in America."

The author of the 1989 book "Heather Has Two Mommies," which describes a playgroup of children with a variety of family make-ups, spoke in HUB-Robeson Center's Heritage Hall last night as part of Pride Week.

Newman wrote the book after a lesbian approached her, knowing she was a lesbian writer, and said someone should write a book to which her daughter can relate.

The book faced a lot of opposition as people tried to stop public and school libraries from keeping it on the shelves, and it was the ninth most banned book in the 1990s.

She said the book was ironically never on the shelves of many libraries because the controversy created popularity and there was always a list of people reserving it. Newman said another good outcome of the controversy is that many lesbian families who may not have heard about the book did.

"I didn't write a controversial book; I wrote a book that became controversial," Newman said.

She said her goal was not to get all children to read the book, but that it should be available for them if they want to.

"If you don't want to read a gay book, don't read a gay book," she said. "Kids' worlds are very, very big, and it's important to be as inclusive as possible," she added.

Newman discussed many examples of gays and lesbians fighting for the right to get married or adopt children. She said the differences in the outcomes of the court cases show why national laws on the issues are needed.

"She presented a very powerful speech on how far we have to come to get equal rights," said Amanda Tomlinson (sophomore-animal bioscience), the educational director of Lambda Student Alliance.

Anthony Barth (junior-English), multicultural executive of Lambda Student Alliance, said that even though he did not know anything about Newman before her visit, she is the kind of advocate he aspires to become. "Her general message had such an impact," he said.

The speech started about 15 minutes late, as people continued to slowly trickle in, with the crowd growing to about 50 attendees. "I was a little disappointed. I expected a larger turnout," said Tomlinson, who organized the event.

Newman began, as she said she begins every speech, with a tribute to Matthew Shepard, a University of Wyoming student who was killed because he was gay.

Newman was the keynote speaker for the Wyoming's Coming Out week in October 1998, the same week Shepard was killed. She said she keeps a picture of him in her wallet to remind her why she speaks at universities.