LGBT culture creeps in when you least expect it. No wonder the right wing is scared of us.
My son loves when my partner or I make up stories for him. He can be very specific in his requests, however, and often tells us what characters he wants in the story, where they should be, and what he wants them to be doing.
Islands seem to figure prominently in many of the tales he draws on for inspiration. Thomas the Tank Engine lives on the Island of Sodor. Clifford the Big Red Dog lives on Birdwell Island. The board game Cariboo takes place on Cariboo Island. It was only natural, therefore, that when he wanted us to make up a story about firetrucks, he requested, “Tell me a story about all of the firetrucks on [pause to think of a name] . . . Fire Island!”
I resisted the urge to begin, “Once upon a time, there was a burly lesbian firefighter . . .”
(For those of you unfamiliar with Fire Island: It’s a popular LGBT resort area near New York City.)
Interesting. ;-) Here’s a question. When you’re reading stories where families are involved, do you ever change the gender of one of the parents? Sometimes we substitute “Daddy and Papa” for “Mommy and Daddy.” I guess it’s because while there are more books for kids with LGBT parents than there used to me, there still aren’t a lot…
I do swap gender in stories sometimes, when it makes sense to do so. (If one character has a mustache, I probably won’t call him “Mama.”) I also make some other changes on occasion: In Dr. Seuss’ One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, there’s a line, “Don’t ask me why, go ask your pop.” I change it to “go ask Grandpop” to preserve the rhyme but make it relevant for my son.