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iRsSlw"><a class="RubricLk-gRWSOU fgWnkQ bric__lk" href="/books/page-turner"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Page-Turner</span></a></div></div></div><h1 data-ttid="ContentHearHed" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ContentHearHed-NCyCC iUEiRd NbxED hpJvIc">“Frog and Toad”: An Amphib Celebratn of Same-Sex Love</h1></div><div class="ContentHearAccredatn-lfctVB enhwXT ntent-hear__accredatn" data-ttid="ContentHearAccredatn"><div class="ContentHearDek-bIqFFZ Mtme">A seri of illtrated children’s books endur as a classic. Was also the thor’s attempt to e out?</div><div class="ContentHearByle-kmPyCa gvUmxJ"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI rponsive-asset ContentHearContributorImage-cvjZXn jKACOU"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa ContentHearContributorImage-cvjZXn jKACOU rponsive-image"><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="66px"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w" siz="66px"/><img alt="" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></picture></span><div class="ContentHearByleContent-dpPmNn DRFq"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl ContentHearByl-cZqgyJ bqbBYQ"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH ivtvgj byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span><a class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM ByleLk-gEnFiw iUEiRd ggMZaT cXqSTL eErqIx byle__name-lk button" href="/ntributors/l-stok">Col Stok</a></span></span></p></div><time data-ttid="ContentHearPublishDate" dateTime="2016-05-31T00:00:30-04:00" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ContentHearPublishDate-eIBicG iUEiRd kYZrFA kEBrdf">May 31, 2016</time></div></div></div></div><div class="LightboxWrapper-dxsWBV hhylRt"><div class="ContentHearLeadAsset-hGbumP iWPCcH lead-asset ContentHearLeadAssetWrapper-hfXHEc fTrSlG lead-asset--width-smallle" data-ttid="ContentHearLeadAsset"><figure class="ContentHearLeadAssetContent-kOfYSG dRGWbI"><div class="ContentHearLeadAssetContentMedia-bLEIpi jjhWdS lead-asset__ntent__photo"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW jvZaPI rponsive-asset ContentHearRponsiveAsset-bREgIb khLUzS"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz kevFkI"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO KhjZz ContentHearRponsiveAsset-bREgIb khLUzS rponsive-image rponsive-image--expandable"><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w, 1920w, 2240w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="In 1974 four years after publishg his first childrens book about the close iendship between Frog and Toad the thor..." class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></picture></div></div></span><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE iTuhkZ ptn ContentHearLeadAssetCaptn-hPWmSN kuCzGS"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo iXWezO ptn__text">In 1974, four years after publishg his first children’s book about the close iendship between Frog and Toad, the thor and illtrator Arnold Lobel told his fay he was gay.</span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnCred-ejegDm iUEiRd iicloT jbIJNS ptn__cred">Courty the Estate of Arnold Lobel</span></div></div></figure><div data-ttid="ContentHearLeadRailAnchor" class="ContentHearLeadRailAnchor-jYVcDc djtEof"></div></div></div></div></hear></div><div data-attribute-verso-pattern="article-body" class="ArticlePageContentBackGround-cNiFNN kbAoLA article-body__ntent"><div class="ActnBarWrapperContent-lasBkU cAHp"><div class="ActnBarWrapperComponent-cjwxLS bEeSLb"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="ActnBarWrapper-dhxmQh kNjTbQ viewport-monor-anchor"><button id="bookmark" aria-label="Save this story" class="ActnBarButton-dyFOZU hQrwCF bookmark large-screen"><span class="ActnBarSendaryButtonPrimaryIn-isbvyN cAwccV bookmark-button-in"><svg class="in in-bookmark" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Save this story

gay frog book

Gay Twter is rejoicg the adaptn of the children's book beloved, part, for s queer subtext.

Contents:

ALL OF YOUR FAVORE CHILDREN’S BOOKS ARE GAY

* gay frog book *

It’s touchg to know that baby gays were beg read the words of our fay before we even knew , sometim by queerphobic fay members who never would have allowed if they had known. As Tomie Paola put 2019 after g out later life, “If beme known you were gay, you’d have a big red ‘G’ on your cht… and schools wouldn’t buy your books anymore.

But now that thors like him we were able to e out more recent years, word needs to get around about the books bee n healg (and md-blowg) to know that gay thors were wh our childhoods.

THE GAY HISTORY OF AMERI’S CLASSIC CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Author Arnold Lobel, who lived wh AIDS, picted his beloved characters Frog and Toad as gay, acrdg to his dghter Adrianne" emprop="scriptn * gay frog book *

Arnold Lobel me out to his fay as gay 1974, four years after Frog and Toad Are Friends was first published. Gay thor-illtrator Jam Marshall was close iends wh Mrice Sendak, another thor-illtrator who appears twice below.

ARE FROG AND TOAD GAY? BELOVED CHILDREN'S BOOKS WERE 'THE BEGNG OF COMG OUT' FOR AUTHOR ARNOLD LOBEL, DGHTER SAYS

Mrice Sendak told the New York Tim 2008 that he never told his parents he was gay: “All I wanted was to be straight so my parents uld be happy. Gay thor Tomie Paola received the Children’s Lerature Legacy Award for his lifetime ntributn to Amerin children’s lerature 2011. The gay og has taken on a surprisgly proment role ntemporary environmental culture.

Primarily associated wh Amerin shock jock Alex Jon and the so-lled alt-right, fears of ogs beg turned gay by hormon water have neverthels entered the mastream, while gay og mem are shared onle by ers om across the polil spectm.

This article offers a genealogy of the gay og, suatg this recent moment the longer history of “sex panics” over gay animals scribed by queer elogists, and the ntext of an ongog backlash agast femism and trans liberatn. It argu that the potency of the gay og as alt-right symbol riv om the pacy of the og to stantiate racialized and sexualized anxieti about borr crossgs. By examg the role of humor gay og clips and mem, this article shows how liberal mockery of Jon has advertently mastreamed far-right beliefs and served to nsolidate alt-right notns of victimhood.

FROG AND TOAD, THE BELOVED CHILDREN'S BOOK CHARACTERS, HAD A SECRET GAY RELATNSHIP

In spe of this, argu that the ic potential of the gay og holds promise for queer elogists seekg to thk differently about sex and nature.

“Tap water, ” Jon roared, was a “gay bomb, baby. ” “I don’t like ’em puttg chemils the water that turn the eak’ ogs gay!

3 However, there has been ltle amic discsn of the recent rurgence of tert the gay og alt-right and mastream environmental polics and culture.

APPLE TV+ SAYS GAY RIGHTS, MAK FROG AND TOAD SHOW

The appeal of the og also mers further article outl a genealogy of the gay og, suatg Jon’s rant the longer histori of environmental health, sexualy, and cultural panic scribed by queer elogists. I argue that the potency of the gay og as alt-right symbol riv om the pacy of the og to stantiate racialized and sexualized anxieti about borr crossgs. I exame the role of humor reprentatns of the gay og, showg how liberal mockery of Jon has advertently mastreamed far-right beliefs and nsolidated alt-right notns of victimhood.

Fally, I ask what environmentalists might learn om the gay og, drawg on the work of Nile Seymour to argue for the value of humor as an epolil strategy and the og as a queer and antaturalist symbol.

5The gay og and Jon have fallen om mastream attentn sce the height of their populary 2017–18. As such, examg alt-right perceptns of the gay og remas stctive for terpretg past, prent, and future far-right anxieti, and their rout to the mastream. The gay og and s receptn unrle the need for environmentalists, the media, and popular science munitors to exercise re the stori we tell about pollutn.

ARE FROG AND TOAD GAY? THE QUEER-COD AMPHIBIAN BTI HEAD TO APPLE TV PL

Siarly, the gay og offers sights to the ambivalent of humor ntemporary polil culture that ronate beyond an environmental ntext. The Gay Frog and Other Queer Animals.

The gay og is one of a number of apparently gay nonhuman animals to have prompted media, polil, and scientific alarm sce ncern over the impact of EDCs on animal sexual reproductn and morphology rose to mastream attentn the mid-1990s. 8 The scriptn of the animals as gay is problematic. What is more, animals scribed headl as gay, cludg the gay og, often display sexual morphologi more accurately ptured by the term tersex rather than engagg homoerotic behavr.

Neverthels, animals do participate what we would unrstand as homoerotic activy. 10Jt as norms of human bodi and behavrs are often jtified through reference to animal practic, gay animals are prented as a visn of humany’s ighteng future: what has happened to them may happen to .

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* GAY FROG BOOK

Are Frog and Toad Gay? Insi the Beloved Children's Book Seri.

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