He’s Posing That Library Is No Place for Playboy : Magazine: A Redondo Beach man calls the publication pornographic. The library director calls it an important reference tool.

The Redondo Beach Public Library subscribes to Playboy magazine--and Stan Groman doesn’t approve.

Calling the men’s magazine pornographic, the 50-year-old Redondo Beach engineering contractor urged the City Council on Tuesday night to cancel its subscription and remove the remaining magazines from public library shelves.

“(Pornography) is very dangerous,” Groman told the council. “It’s a disease of the mind and it starts with material like this.

“I personally have been a victim of pornography. I was heavily involved reading that material. It destroyed my marriage,” added Groman, who said he later remarried his wife.

Shari Petresky, the city’s library director, said the library system has been carrying the magazine since 1990. She called it an important reference tool that carries in-depth topical interviews and often features the work of top fiction writers.

She said the city’s two libraries conduct an “open shelf” policy, which permits patrons to view Playboy upon request.

Like other magazines that are sometimes stolen, such as Consumer Reports, she said Playboy is stored behind the circulation desk and can be checked out only with the assistance of a librarian. Petresky said she has no plans to limit the magazine’s readership or stop the subscription, which is a gift from a library patron.

“I can see many parents complaining” if the library begins to censor what material is available for adults and children, she said.

Failing an outright ban of the magazine, Groman asked the council to at least prevent minors from gaining access to the publication, whose pictorials of naked women have helped make it one of the most popular men’s magazines for decades. Playboy and other magazines of a similar ilk devalue women and can lead to violence against them, Groman said.

“I feel the values of our family-oriented community are not really reflected by having this material so easily accessible in our public library,” Groman added.

Petresky said the library’s policy technically allows minors to obtain the magazine, although this has not been a problem.

“The reality has been that not one single minor (under age 18) has asked to check out the magazine,” Petresky said. “It’s been a non-issue.”

The council did not discuss Groman’s comments, and referred the matter to the city’s library commission. The seven-member panel serves largely an advisory role to the city library director and the City Council, which would have ultimate authority in banning the magazine at the library. Groman said he will make his case before the commission at its meeting March 18.

Before Tuesday’s meeting, Mayor Brad Parton, whose campaigns have been funded by Christian fundamentalists, sympathized with Groman’s concerns. But Parton did not see grounds to take Playboy out of the library.

“I think there’s a lot of things on the shelves of the public library I wouldn’t choose to read,” Parton said. “There’s a fine line between where you start to censor things and where you don’t. My main concern is access to minors.”

Parton, who faces a mayoral runoff May 11, doubts that Groman’s complaint will become a significant campaign issue.

“I don’t want to downplay it,” he said. “But I’m just sticking to key financial issues (in the campaign) and, as you can probably tell, I’m not jumping in on this one.”

Groman said he did not know the city library stocked Playboy until a month ago when he saw a patron returning a large stack of the magazines. He said he was even more incensed to find out that minors could check out the magazine.

“I don’t want to impose my view on others,” Groman said. “I strongly believe in free speech, that there shouldn’t be censorship and we should be tolerate to the beliefs of others. But balanced with this thinking is the need to prevent the spread of pornography.”

Groman said he blames pornography for ruining his marriage by creating an unattainable standard of beauty for women. He said it took a spiritual experience about 15 years ago to exorcise his demons.

“I destroyed every piece of pornography I owned,” he said. “I realized there is a God, that he is real. . . . I knew this (pornography) was not something he desired for me. It was literally a miracle I got out of it.”

Groman admitted that it is difficult to define exactly what is pornographic, but added that “I think any normal male would be able to recognize it when he sees it.

“And if you were to ask any children going into the library,” he added, “I don’t think they would tell you their intent in checking out (Playboy) was for its literary excellence. It would be to excite sexual feelings.”

Playboy spokesman Bill Farley said actions like Groman’s occur fairly frequently in communities across the country but have rarely succeeded in banning the magazine.

“If we had all the letters written protesting our magazine, it would stretch to the moon.”