Monday, February 18, 2008

The penguins are doing it, so why can't we?

You can read the full article here, but here's the gist of it: The book is called And Tango Makes Three. A parent complained that it was pushing a gay agenda and asked that it be banned. A committee said, "Whatever, bitch, don't get your panties in a twist." The parent appealed. The next committee said, "You better check yourself you fear mongering parent who can't take responsibility for your own child and must get authorities involved to also tell other parents what to do." Then the Superintendent said, "I'm the boss here, and I hate gays, too, so buh-bye book!" Other parents in Loudoun County were all, "Censorship bad!!!" But there is no system in place to allow them to ask that the book be put back on the shelves.

Yeah, you like my summarizing skills?

I totally want to read this book now and had never heard of these penguins. Thank you, crazy homophobic parent, for getting the word out on this book. I appreciate it.

The book is based on a true story of Roy and Silo, two male penguins at NYC's Central Park Zoo. They become penguin partners, and when all the other penguins start making babies, they want to as well, so they get an egg-shaped rock and try to hatch it. One of the zoo staff sees this and gives them an actual fertilized egg to hatch and take care of. The two dads and baby girl are still at the zoo being their adorable selves. I think it's very heartwarming, and anyone who sees something wrong with that beautiful story has something wrong with themselves.

I think if a child read that story, and then you told them, "Penguins choose one penguin and spend the rest of their lives together. Could you imagine if the zoo people didn't approve of two male penguins being mates and they separated them? The penguins would probably become very sad and miss their friend." The child would probably ask why the zoo people would do such a thing. What would you say?

I think now is a good time to tell my reason why I feel so strongly about GLBT rights. It's actually quite simple. When I was a very little baconyum and I first learned that some couples are two men or two women, I didn't really think much of it. I wasn't surprised. It made total sense to me. Why wouldn't there be couples of two men or two women? What's your point??? Then when I learned that there are people who hate them for it and even kill them for it, that's the part I didn't understand. That's the part that enfuriated me and saddened me and made me question good vs. evil.

Children don't need to be taught love, kindness, and acceptance. They are born with it. But somehow children are taught to hate and become narrowminded and judgmental. One of my professors in college was chatting with us one day and was talking about his son. Across the street lived a gay couple. His son asked him, "Why aren't they married?" And my professor said to us, "Wow. Now that's being openminded." And I thought, 'Yes. It's called being a child.' Trust me. People aren't born hating people.

1 comment:

Maxie said...

awww that's adorable that the two penguins were given an egg :-)

and i totally agree with you of course about the important stuff... but i can't get over the cuteness of penguins, lol