The northern Italian cy of Padua has started removg the nam of non-blogil gay mothers om their children’s birth certifit unr new legislatn passed by the “tradnal fay-first” ernment of Prime Mister Grgia Meloni.
Contents:
- THE GAY HISTORY OF AMERI’S CLASSIC CHILDREN’S BOOKS
- ALL OF YOUR FAVORE CHILDREN’S BOOKS ARE GAY
- GAY AUTHORS BOOKS
- [WATCH] UNSEEN FOOTAGE OF KG VON CLAIMG HE’S GAY TO BE PLACED PRISON PROTECTIVE CTODY
THE GAY HISTORY OF AMERI’S CLASSIC CHILDREN’S BOOKS
The gay wrer who was banned om visg a London school discs why young LGBT+ people need reprentatn more than ever * gay children's author *
” It’s about a t who liv wh two gay men; you n tell by the book, then jt published, was evintly meant to help normalize already borgly normal fai like ours by g the tradnal substutn of animals for people orr to illtrate how much fun havg gay dads n be.
) And if you stopped to thk about , “Lucy” seemed to argue that the gay dads, however full of fun, were aquate: When the pa chips were down, they need rcug, too. Among gay-themed children’s stori, they preferred “Frog and Toad. ” No, I know: “Frog and Toad” — a seri of four picture books by Arnold Lobel, origally published between 1970 and 1979 — is not gay-themed.
But ’s not not gay-themed eher. They get to scrap separately but get out of them together, which is not a bad fn of left: Jam Marshall, “Gee and Martha, ” urty of Houghton Miffl Harurt; Arnold Lobel, “Frog and Toad are Friends” © 1970 Arnold Lobel, ed by permissn of HarperColls Publishers; Jam Marshall, “Miss Nelson is Missg!, ” urty of Houghton Miffl HarurtOur boys loved the stori, as did we — but not bee Lobel was gay. They ntued to make books together for years: a Frog and Toad tale if ever there was, Lobel’s gayns, when I learned of much later, seemed like somethg I should have known all along; lurked everywhere his words and pictur.
ALL OF YOUR FAVORE CHILDREN’S BOOKS ARE GAY
Books shelved as gay-thors: Adventure-Pom! by Sean Dryn, On Earth We're Briefly Geo by Ocean Vuong, The Importance of Beg Earnt by Osr Wil... * gay children's author *
Which is not to say Frog and Toad uld turn you gay. They suggted, no ls to as gay parents than to our sons wh their polar personali, how separatens uld bee solidary and oddns acmodatn.
However d the books’ gay ntent, was no surprise once d. It’s also that all of their thors were gay. As if that weren’t enough, he referred to the gay muny, who took him as one of their own whether he liked or not, as “l boys.
GAY AUTHORS BOOKS
Sss and Shel Silverste were prumably heterosexual, no matter that Silverste glowered om the photos on his book jackets like a hot Scff by permissn of HarperColls, urty of Children’s Lerature Collectn, UMNBut remas the se that the thors of many of the most succsful and fluential works of children’s lerature the middle years of the last century — works that were formative for baby boomers, Gen-Xers, lennials and beyond — were gay. At a time when those wrers wouldn’t dare (as Paola recently told me) walk hand hand wh a lover, when only a straight children’s thor like Silverste uld get away wh publishg a story Playboy about life the homophile En that is Fire Island P, they won Caltt and Newbery Medals for books that, whout ever directly speakg their tth, sent out a secret language that was somehow accsible to those who need to receive .
The works forted the proto-gay but also tenrized the proto-straight a way no other lerature ABOUT WHAT was happeng unr the ver of children’s lerature. The msage: Leave me alone wh my imagatn and I’ll be mt have lighted Sendak to know that, spe the ocsnal censorship kerfuffle, an Ameri terrified of gay fluence on children was vourg his ovre as fast as he uld whip up. ) While the Save Our Children csar Ana Bryant and the Foc on the Fay attack dog Jam Dobson were huntg down homosexual propaganda schools and stateho, Sendak and the others were hidg the one place no one bothered to look: on their children’s night this wasn’t a liberate strategy of subversn, wasn’t a cince eher.
[WATCH] UNSEEN FOOTAGE OF KG VON CLAIMG HE’S GAY TO BE PLACED PRISON PROTECTIVE CTODY
Photos by Joshua Stt; Tomie Paola, “Oliver Button is a Sissy, ” urty of Houghton Miffl Harurt But wrg om a gay perspective for the unr-12 set was tricky. The first young adult novel to pict a homosexual enunter — John Donovan’s “I’ll Get There.
It Better Be Worth the Trip” — did not e out until 1969; the first picture book to get near the word “gay” was Paola’s “Oliver Button Is a Sissy, ” 1979. Roughly enpassg the first 10 years of the morn gay rights movement, the books (and their thors) uld only dream of a world which “Lucy Go to the Country, ” by a male uple who announce themselv as such on the flap, would seem monplace, or which a picture book lled “Stonewall: A Buildg.