Gay penguin book shakes up Ill. school

[TechBear_Seattle]

Gay penguin book shakes up Ill. school

SHILOH, Ill. - A picture book about two male penguins raising a baby penguin is getting a chilly reception among some parents who worry about the book's availability to children — and the reluctance of school administrators to restrict access to it.

The concerns are the latest involving "And Tango Makes Three," the illustrated children's book based on a true story (emphasis added) of two male penguins in New York City's Central Park Zoo that adopted a fertilized egg and raised the chick as their own.

Complaining about the book's homosexual undertones, some parents of Shiloh Elementary School students believe the book — available to be checked out of the school's library in this 11,000-resident town 20 miles east of St. Louis — tackles topics their children aren't ready to handle.

Their request: Move the book to the library's regular shelves and restrict it to a section for mature issues, perhaps even requiring parental permission before a child can check it out.

The full article can be found at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061117/ap_on_re_us/gay_penguins_book_flap

[sui generis]

1. I'm heartened by the defense, for the most part.

The well-intentioned parents who are saying they want to wait "until the right time" to discuss it are mildly delusional though, unfortunately.

Having two mommies or two daddies is not about sex, so there's nothing to wait to discuss. How hard is it to say "when two people love each other and want to live with each other that makes a family"????

Families are families are families. And what about the kids of same-gender parents? Do they need to wait to discuss all those opposite gender parents? Why should there be a double standard?

Same gender families are not better, are not worse, just another family. Just like there are yellow doggies and black doggies and pine trees and oak trees and all kinds of wonderful different things in the world that make it interesting and good.

How hard is that?

[phantom power]

2. Uh Oh. Not...

penguin-on-penguin action!

Somewhere, I imagine Santorum passing out.

[dmallind]

3. The horror!

Just think this will make our children want to have sex with antarctic flightless birds OF THE SAME GENDER!!!