'Alarmists leveraging hate in the guise of common sense are not loving children, they are hating people like me.'
In 1988 I was brushing a rare dusting of snow off the four-foot high papier-mâché elves I had made for a commercial display at the Williams Centre in Tucson. As I brushed off snow in the display, a man on the sidewalk cynically commented that “Of course the elves have to be of different races.”
When I see all the hubbub about including a range of gender identities and sexual orientation in children’s literature, I think of that man’s discomfort. Was I imposing my value of inclusion on him in a way that threatened him, that diminished him? Why did seeing an elf in Santa’s workshop with other than white skin make him resentful? I currently hear a clamoring of people asking us to be afraid of what is in some children’s books.
In one of the book’s illustrations, two women lovingly listen as Aaron Slater struggles to read words that “are just squiggles.” In David Roberts’ illustrations, I see that Aaron Slater has two moms. Maybe I see that because I am gay, and I want to see images of same-sex parents in children’s books. It is certainly not explicit. When looking at that picture, a child might recognize an echo of themself; “Oh, Aaron has two moms like I have two dads.
Of course, from an adult perspective, it is just common sense that sexual orientation and gender identity are way too complicated and fraught with nuance to be discussed in the early grades. And there we have the wolf in sheep’s clothing — alarmists leveraging hate in the guise of common sense. We are not talking about adult conversations. We are talking about a classroom of young children. I think a teacher’s skill set includes reason and good judgment.
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