Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, the children’s book about a young guinea pig named Chloe and her uncle who marries his boyfriend, has received its first challenge. A patron at Douglas County Libraries in Colorado asked that the book either be removed from the shelves, placed in a special area, or labeled “some material may be inappropriate […]
(Originally published in Bay Windows, July 10, 2008.) Two new works offer much-needed guidance for families with transgender members, but each approaches the subject from a different perspective. One addresses parents of transgender children, while the other targets children of transgender parents. The Transgender Child, by Stephanie Brill and Rachel Pepper (Cleis, 2008), is subtitled,
Helen and I talk about Family Outing, the funny, raunchy new memoir by a man whose mother was outed to him by her ex-girlfriend when he was 10 years old. (Not the recommended way of doing things, might I add.) We also share more highlights of our recent vacation to California, including San Francisco Pride’s
When I had the pleasure of interviewing Meema Spadola, director and producer of Our House: Kids of Gay and Lesbian Parents, she mentioned a little LGBT-inclusive children’s book that had slipped under my radar: Everywhere Babies, by Susan Meyer and illustrated by Marla Frazee. The book shows images of babies of many shapes, sizes, ethnicities,
Helen and I share the story of a Pride brunch hosted by the mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who is herself a lesbian mom—and grandmother. I even go so far as to show off my t-shirt from the event, the only pink piece of clothing I’ve owned in my adult life. We then bring you our
Tango had two dads. Now, an unnamed Little Blue Penguin at the New England Aquarium has two moms. Okay, that’s a bit misleading to readers of this blog. I had the same misconception, though, when I read the headline “Penguin ‘mothers’ make daily care a labor of love” in today’s Boston Globe. The article explains:
Helen and I bring you the first signs of what could be growing ultra-right opposition to Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, a new children’s book featuring gay guinea pigs. (Regular blog readers will know about this from my earlier post; since this video is crossposted at After Ellen, though, there’s sometimes a little overlap in order to
Sarah Brannen, author of Uncle Bobby’s Wedding (about which see my Saturday post, if you haven’t been following the story), was kind enough to let me share this e-mail message she sent me: I read the book to a group of young children at a school book fair yesterday. They had a lot of questions:
Sometimes, I hate being right. It wasn’t a stretch of the imagination to foresee that the new storybook Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, by Sarah Brannen, would be a target for the right. I didn’t imagine they’d quote me while doing so, however. The conservative publication Town Hall just published the article “Librarians Against Censorship,” by Brent
For the second year in a row, the children’s book And Tango Makes Three, about two male penguins who care for an egg and raise a chick together, tops the list of the American Library Association’s (ALA) 10 Most Challenged Books. Personally, I think the guinea pigs will give them a run for their money
