It's a story that kinda kicks the cinderblocks out from under the rusty ol' car that is "gays ain't natcherl." Tango Makes Three is the true story of Roy and Silo, two male penguins who've been in a committed, monogamous relationship for nearly six years, who try their darnedest to hatch a rock. When sympathetic zookeepers realize what the couple's trying to do, the get an abandoned egg from a female penguin, which Roy and Silo promptly adopt. And hatch. And raise as their own. That'd be Tango, I guess. Anyway, while it turns out there are gay penguins everywhere, this particular gay penguin family lives in the Central Park Zoo. The book is written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson and illustrated with pages and pages of cutey cute penguins by Henry Cole.
I'd seen about this book quite a lot during the debates over gay and lesbian marriages in the US. People were so angry about it! Its funny how books that don't represent what is "socially acceptable" are criticsed for pushing a social agenda on children through education (I'm pretty sure all books we read in shcools do this to some extent).
ReplyDeleteOne of the books authors made a mockery of his critics when he was asked wasn't he worried that it would encourage children to enter into gay relationships.
"We wrote the book to help parents teach children about same-sex parent families. It's no more an argument in favor of human gay relationships than it is a call for children to swallow their fish whole or sleep on rocks."
Ha! Touche!
To Catherine,
ReplyDeleteIt seems like we are on the same page. It does seem so silly how people make a big deal out of something so small. Really they should focus on making the world a better place to live than "preaching discrimination or hatred".
I really like the way you think, we definetlely think alike. By the way, I tried to leave a comment when you wrote about Margaret Thatcher a few weeks ago but for some reason it kept disappearing(3times -.-) But I will try it again :) See you in class ~^^