LOUDOUN, Va. – A children’s book about penguins was pulled recently from general circulation at Loudoun County elementary Schools. The award-winning book, “And Tango Makes Three” tells the true story of two male Chinstrap Penguins in New York’s Central Park Zoo who raised an egg together. A parent at Sugarland Elementary in Sterling raised concerns about the book within the last few months, said Wayde Byard, public information officer for Loudoun County Public Schools. The parent filed a complaint with the principal, who reviewed the book and deemed it to be appropriate for children. The parent then appealed that decision, and a district-level committee made up of a parent, a teacher, a school librarian and administrators reviewed the book. They ruled it was acceptable for general circulation.
Superintendent Edgar Hatrick III had final say, though, and decided to override that decision. “Every child might not be ready for that,” Byard said. “They might not be mature enough to deal with that subject matter.” “And Tango Makes Three,” written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson was released in 2005. In 2006 it was named an American Library Association Notable Children’s Book. It was also one of the most challenged books of 2006, according to the ALA. In the book, male penguins Roy and Silo team up to care for another pair’s egg. As a family, they hatch and raise a chick named Tango.
You see, its a TRUE story. We must protect our children from learning about homosexual penguins, its just not natural.
Catshit, you make a lot of assertions in that post. got any data or research to back any of it up?
#31, bob,
Got any data to disprove me?
Actually, Mister Uncle Ben said it very well in #32. Good post Ben.
If this is “gay” propaganda, then what is the book Cat in the Hat? How about the book, Are You My Mommy? If you wish to get real deep, what about Huckleberry Finn? How many people have ever read these highly regarded and recommended books?
Fine it is all about the “gay agenda.” So what?
#15 Cursor – May I reminder you, neither the Rome nor Greece empires exist in the pomp and circumstance they basked in when the sin of homosexuality was prevalent. I wonder how much of their fall was a result of this perverted promiscuity? I want to make it clear – Homosexuality is a practice God deemed harmful to practice. Should we hate those who practice it? – NO. However, pushing such materials into the minds of young children as an acceptable practice is no different than pushing children to read the bible in a public school. Politically, they are both promoting religions – the religion of homosexuality and Judeo Christianity. Where is separation of church and state in this instance? Schools should be used for academics education only! If the majority of parents deem this material inappropriate, remove it. That is democracy, and in many cases wisdom, which we are short of these days. I just wonder if two homosexuals adopt a male child if they secretly do inappropriate things to that child? That may be a closet yet to be opened.
Mister Ben–good series of posts you are making here. Congrats.
As to Hillary C—I saw Mr Mustard post here last week–don’t know if it was THE Mr. Mustard, but I would love to hear his or Hillary’s (#36) explanation as to how homosexuality has become a religion?
Most would argue, unlike atheism, that it is not even a “belief system” so I’m interested in how many leaps and associations it takes to get there.
I thought #11 Awake summed it all up dispositively? I guess this is just another religious target that will be attacked not by facts or logic but rather by repetition.
#38, bobbo,
I agree.
#37, Mister Uncle Ben,
You have made some very astute posts. There are, however, those who want to claim homosexuality is a religion so they might attack it on that basis.
Later the Three Headed Cat will try to convince us that Left Handedness is also a religion and an attack on normalcy. After that he will probably try to convince the people that blue eyes are an exclusive religion of supremacists. Somewhere down the line I expect THC to rant about those with a unibrow are superior to those without one.
Ya, that’s the ticket. The unibrows have an agenda. They want to force us to accept one massive eyebrow as normal. Satan be upon you with two eyebrows !!!
***
And Mister Mustard. If you can read this, I miss your comments. We didn’t always agree but you brought an insight I respected. I’ve been thinking of changing my handle to Mister Mousedirt out of respect for a lost friend.
I hope you are well and rejoin us soon.
Mousedirt? Ha, Ha. Always the scatologist eh? Its good to have a core philosophy. Just a bit too “processed” for me.
#36, Hillary,
Schools should be used for academics education only! If the majority of parents deem this material inappropriate, remove it. That is democracy, and in many cases wisdom, which we are short of these days.
Very true, schools should be used to educate students. In this case however, a majority of parents DID NOT deem the book inappropriate. To the contrary, it passed two reviews before being nixed by the Superintendent.
Democracy also respects the minorities. Maybe you are too young to remember but 60 years ago a sizable portion of American citizens were not allowed to vote and were made to sit in the back of the bus just because of their skin color. If we followed your “democratic” ideals then Jim Crow laws would still abound.
The other problem you seem to have missed, very few parents have even read the book. So how can they pass judgment on something they don’t even know about?
*
#41, Mister Uncle Ben,
It isn’t. There are those that are so afraid of homosexuality that they claim there is an agenda and it is a religion in order to make their own bigoted position more tenable.
#40, Bobbo,
When I was a kid we gave nicknames to condiments. Ketchup was called catshit, mustard was mousedirt, and relish was realass. I won’t tell you about peanut butter, but, we never called it that around my mother.
Religion Definition- Online Webster Dictionary #4 for Religion: “a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.” This follows the “Homosexual movement” and others.
Where addressed in Bible? – Romans Chapter 1 – Called a “Shameful Lust”
#42 Mister Catshit- I did write “If”. Democracy does cover all, but harm to “normal” healthy values needs confronted.
If people want to practice this “religion” of Homosexuality, that’s up to them, It IS A CHOICE. I would not condemn them or you if you practice it, but don’t try and desensitize my children to thinking it is OK. Political correctness can do more harm than good and it shouldn’t be used to cover truth. Homosexuality is a harmful practice, though few of them would admit it – mentally and physically. God warns about this out of His love, not condemnation. God doesn’t condemn, we do it to ourselves.
Question – Those of you (Gay, etc.) who want a special marital status for tax benefits, are you Democrat or Republican? Just curious.
#45–Hillary==I can only wish you the blessing of Allah that your own children or husband if you have one make the choice to go homo thereby renewing your faith in that all loving god and the opportunities he/she/it gives you to reaffirm your devotion.
This post is offered in what I hope is the same spirit as your own droppings.
#28–Catshit==you say: There is no such thing as “age appropriate”. That is an artificial construct by parents that want to act their religion.”
Here is irrefutable proof you are WRONG: no one including yourself would give Penquin book to a one month old.
Here is ambiguous evidence you may be RIGHT: Yea, I can’t come up with what a reason not to do it is once the kiddie can understand the base info? So thanks, you’ve just made me more liberal than I already am. The key as stated repeatedly above is that 2 Dads is not a pro-gay book, but rather is an opening that the standard nuclear family is no longer the standard==plus, being gay doesn’t matter anyway unless you are brain dead looking to put some group beneath you.
“Religion Definition- Online Webster Dictionary #4 for Religion: “a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith.” This follows the “Homosexual movement” and others.”
Oh, good. Then GLBT people are completely protected from religious discrimination under the Constitution. I had no idea. Thanks for the tip.
Age appropriateness is irrelevant here. The book is recommended by school librarians for pre-school and up, and we are talking about K-5 elementary schools.
It’s also irrelevant because it has nothing to do with the objection, it’s just a convenient excuse. The same type of parent has also demanded the right to censor material in our high schools. The objection is to any acknowledgment that there are gay people in the world, period. But I now know, from Hillary C., that this is the equivalent of demanding that there be no acknowledgment of Christians or Buddhists or Sikhs in the world.
#46, bobbo,
Here is irrefutable proof you are WRONG: no one including yourself would give Penquin book to a one month old.
Wrong. When our daughter was only one month old, we would read her books. Although and Tango Makes Three was not among the books, there were quite a few on the list. Later, around six months of age, many of her books started to take on a “chewed” appearance.
#48–OMG! You gave a book to a baby?? Paper cuts, corner jabs—oh, the humanity. You are lucky the child protective services does not monitor these blogs==only Homeland security does and they don’t have CPS’s phone number.
Bobbo,
Yes, but she developed a taste for books at an early age. We make regular trips to the Library.
#45 “renewing your faith in that all loving god”
First, Allah is not a loving god. The beaten women and children and life of oppression the Islamic “faith” offers is not appealing or loving to me. To have a father kill his two daughters because they were having some relationship with a boy is evil. I wish they all had a mind capable of reasoning what is right and wrong, but seems a great many of them can not. How sick.
Your perception and ability to judge motive is quite lacking.
#47 – Boundaries for sharing the knowledge is best to apply. Young children have no need to know about other peoples personal lifestyles beit about sex, religion, drugs, etc. The parent has the right to this, not public educators. Parents should have the right to censor materials they deem inappropriate for their children. Free speech does not mean there are no boundaries. That is chaos. That’s why some free speech has to be paid for to hear.
As far as acknowledgment that there are gay people, come on – this is not a 19th or 20th century exclusive. They have been around thousands of years. The problem is they didn’t stay where they were usually – private to themselves. Now they think they have to have special rights.
#51–Hillary==you say: “Now they think they have to have special rights.”
And what special rights are those beyond being treated like everyone else?
This book seems pretty decent, and the only reason why anyone would be fretting over it is if:
(a)-They are too close-minded to accept and acknowledge the fact that there are other types of families and parenting besides growing up in a nuclear family.
(b)-They believe that homosexuality or anything among those lines is wrong, because they claim that’s what it says in their Holy Book.
You should accept that there are children who did not grow up in traditional families and that they turned out just fine.
Also, to you religious fanatics out there:
Not everyone has your beliefs and not everyone believes in God, so stop shoving your beliefs down their throats.
I’m sure that if God saw the horrendous homophobia that some of you people are promoting, He/She/It would not be very happy.
I thought religion taught love and tolerance for others!
Lastly, if you think you are ‘protecting’ your children from things you deem ‘abnormal’ then you are doing them a GREAT disservice.
They are SURE to find out sooner or later…
And guess who they’re going to ask, “Why did you not tell that this existed, Mom/Dad?”
….You.
#53 – Sugary P
>>They believe that homosexuality or anything
>>among those lines is wrong, because they
>>claim that’s what it says in their Holy Book.
Let’s not get all steamed up about the Holy Book, Sugar. Our very own High Priest of the Church of Atheism, who disdains the Holy Book and everything it stands for, considers gay marriage to be an abomination.
So there you have it.
Mustard, recall the religious right back in the 60’s fought against inter-racial marriage saying they were trying to protect the sanctity of marriage. They use the same argument today against gay marriage. Personally I like lesbians, just not the big ugly ones that have a better mustache than I do.
Ketchy – Who’s talking about the religous right? I’m religious left, and Bobbo seems to be like the Jerry Falwell of Atheists, at least with respect to gay marriage.
I’m kind of fond of lesbians myself, but it perplexes me why some of them choose to look like men, and others find that attractive. If you want somebody that looks like a man, just get a natural-born one. At least he’s got a dick. None of that strap-on monkey business.
Mister Mustard,
“Let’s not get all steamed up about the Holy Book, Sugar. Our very own High Priest of the Church of Atheism, who disdains the Holy Book and everything it stands for, considers gay marriage to be an abomination.”
I don’t care what some Priest of Atheism says about gay marriage, I’m not Atheist.
I’m a non-religious member of the Baha’i Faith.
I support marriage between two consenting adults and no amount of persuasion or bible-thumping will make me change my mind.
Sugar P;
>>I’m a non-religious member of the Baha’i Faith.
Well. Ain’t that peculiar. You’re a non-religions member of a religion? I knew Jews could do that, because they have the whole “ethnicity” thing going on. A non-religous member of a relition. Well, bless my buttons.
As to the High Priest of Atheism, what it says in “Holy Books”, etc., don’t get on your high horse about religious intolerance of marriage between consenting adults. There’s plenty of intolerance to go around, even among those who wouldn’t know a Holy Book if someone dropped it on their foot.
btw, Sugar P, in case there was any confusion, by “our own High Priest of Atheism”, of course I mean Bobbo.
“Well. Ain’t that peculiar. You’re a non-religions member of a religion?”
Well my Dad is Baha’i and my Mom is Muslim.
I detest Islam [and all other major world religions]
and Baha’i seemed like the tolerant religion of all, so I picked that.
But, I’m completely non-religious. I don’t pray regularly, etc.
That’s what I meant by that statement.
Well, Miss P, I guess that makes you a non-Baha’i then, doesn’t it? Just because you like dad’s religion more than mom’s, if you’re not a believer, then you’re not a Baha’i. It’s not passed on from mother (or father) to offspring, like Judaism.
Although, I’ve got to admit, the Baha’is have a darned good-looking temple in Wilmette.
http://tinyurl.com/6ctnlr
If you’re ever in Chicago, you should check it out.
I guess you’re right.
I realize that I’m cheating myself.
That’s a nice temple!
I will do so.
🙂