Excerpted from Preschoolers and Penquins: Propaganda Pawns, by Michael Medved, published Nov 28, 2006, by USA Today:

…A few families of students in Shiloh, a town of 11,000 people 20 miles east of St. Louis, object to the general availability of And Tango Makes Three, an illustrated storybook that loosely follows the real-life story of two male penguins at New York City’s Central Park Zoo who adopted a fertilized egg and raised the chick as their own. With its enthusiastic celebration of little Tango’s good fortune at possessing “two fathers,” and with the narrative’s fanciful suggestion that the zoo keeper “thought to himself … they must be in love,” the book clearly took a position in the ongoing arguments about same-sex coupling and homosexual families. In fact, the story concludes with the observation that Silo and Roy “discovered each other in 1996 and have been a couple ever since.”

International news stories reported, however, that their partnership proved short-lived: As soon as Scrappy, a sultry, seductive female from San Diego’s Sea World, arrived in their enclosure, Silo instantly took notice, straightened up and mated with the irresistible gal — leaving his guy pal behind (an outcome never described, of course, in the propagandistic story book for kids).

Despite parental requests that school librarians remove the controversial volume from the open shelves for young readers ( it’s designed for ages 4 to 8 ) and relocate it to a special section for “mature issues,” school superintendent Jennifer Filyaw declared that And Tango Makes Three would stay put as an “adorable” and “age appropriate” offering.

Grown-up arguments

Regardless of the aesthetic virtues (or shortcomings) of either Happy Feet or And Tango Makes Three, it’s easy to see why even non-partisan parents would object to their targeting of very young children. In school and elsewhere, it makes sense to introduce preteens to ongoing debates about global warming, environmental degradation or the redefinition of marriage and family, but most mothers and fathers would prefer to spare preschoolers from such grown-up arguments.

Some adults may choose to expose the youngsters in their lives to Al Gore’s powerful and skillfully crafted documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, but they will know before they go that they’re taking the kids to an occasionally frightening message movie. In Happy Feet, on the other hand, you’d have no reason to expect so much unhappy and worrisome content — nor would you expect a sweet, gorgeously drawn picture book about cuddling penguins to include potentially explosive hints about [“gay”] marriage and fatherhood. With the celebrated (and controversial) book Heather Has Two Mommies, parents — if not kids — know what to expect. With And Tango Makes Three, many readers (including Lilly Del Pinto, one of the concerned parents in the fight against the book) found themselves unhappily surprised.

As children grow and develop, their natural curiosity and ongoing media exposure will lead them inevitably into divisive issues, which all conscientious parents should prepare to help explain. In the earliest stages of life, however, it makes sense to keep them protected from such conflicts and to avoid using preschoolers — and penguins — as the pawns of propaganda.

Continue reading in USA Today…

Parents, please take the time to read this article in its entirety on the New York Daily News website. Of particular note:

• Be wary of the books on your child’s required or recommended reading lists, especially if a book carries the label “Young Adult.” Your elementary, middle school, junior high school age child is not a “young adult” – nor is your high school adolescent a “young adult” until they’re 18.
  
• You cannot trust the judgment of the library or the recommendations of teachers’ groups. You must evaluate your child’s reading materials for yourself.
• If you find such materials at your local school, there is something you can do. Follow the example of the parents in this story and get personally involved in opposing inappropriate materials.
  

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Excerpted from P. S., These Books Are Sick!, by Rachel Scheier and Carrie Melago, published Dec 7, 2006, by New York Daily News:

Sixth-graders at a Queens school were getting quite an education – in homosexuality, French kissing and cursing – thanks to three books widely available in classroom libraries.

But after numerous complaints from parents at Public School 150 in Sunnyside, the books – a profanity-laced poetry book, short stories about homosexuality and a novel called “First French Kiss” – were pulled from the shelves last week.

…The poem “I Hate School” in a book called “You Hear Me?“ includes the rhyme, “F— this s—, up the a–. I don’t think I’ll ever pass.”Another poem compares eating an orange to having sex, while several passages repeatedly use vulgar slang for genitalia. And the book “Am I Blue?“ is an anthology of stories about gay teenagers that parents found too adult-themed for 11- and 12-year-olds.

…Parent and leadership team member Michael Novak said the books, which are labeled “young adult” by the New York Public Library, are “material that is totally inappropriate for sixth-graders.”

Principal Carmen Parache said she had not reviewed the books until she received complaints but said they were “definitely inappropriate.” She said classroom materials would be more carefully screened in the future.

“As soon as I saw them, I pulled them and they are no longer in the school,” she said. “This is something that shouldn’t have happened and it will not happen again.”

“You Hear Me?” was suggested for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders by the Columbia University Teachers College’s Reading and Writing Project because it is the only anthology with poems written by minority teenagers, said Lucy Calkins, its founding director.

Continue reading in New York Daily News…

TAKE ACTION – E-mail Richard Peddie, President of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, to express your concern.

Excerpted from Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey Sponsors Gay Movie Featuring Homosexual 11 Year-Old, by Hilary White, published Nov 24, 2006, by Lifesite News:

The Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team announced today that they have lent the team’s name and logo to a film depicting a homosexual Leafs player. The film portrays a Leafs player who wants to “come out” as a public homosexual, his live-in partnership with the team’s lawyer and their adopted “son,” described as “a budding queen of an 11-year-old boy.”

The film is based on the book of the same title about an 11 year-old boy who is described in an Amazon.com book review as “mincing” and “swishy,” and who has to be prevented from wearing pantyhose, eyeliner and perfume to school.

“Breakfast with Scott”, now being shot on location in Toronto and Hamilton, will go ahead with the willing cooperation of the team’s management. The Toronto Star reports that actor Tom Cavanaugh who depicts the fictional player, Eric McNally, was “shocked” that the Leafs management agreed to allow the team to be depicted in a homosexual propaganda film.

Cavanaugh remarked to the Star on the significance of using the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, one of the icons of Canadian culture as the background for a story about open homosexuals and endorsing child homosexuality. “There’s something instant to the viewer when you put on a Leafs jersey or any Original Six jersey.”

Olympic swim champion Mark Tewksbury, a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation, said, “I think it’s really great that (the team management) are supporting it. I know it’s an iconic team, but I think it makes sense this is happening in Canada because we’ve been far ahead on these issues.”

Recall that GLSEN activist and school “social worker” Laura Perkins seized upon a “teachable moment” to enlighten third graders about gender confusion, without parental knowledge or consent…

Then have a look at her “Social Skills” recommended reading list:

laura-perkins-social-skills-book-list.htm

Oliver Button Is A Sissy
De Paola, Tomie
K-3
A boy is teased by other boys because he takes dance classes, and doesn’t participate in boyish activities. His classmates change their attitudes about him when they see what a good dancer he is. Great for discussions about gender issues, assumptions, and changing one’s feelings about someone.

Bailey the Big Bully
Boyd, Lizi
1-2
A boy stands up to a bully, and then includes the bully in games with friends, setting clear limits regarding behavior that will not be tolerated. Good for discussing ways of making friends, handling bullies, helping others change behavior, being inclusive.

Asha’s Mums
Elwin, Rosamund and Pulse, Michele
K-3
A girl with lesbian mothers is told by her teacher and a classmate that “You can’t have two mums.” Great for leading into discussion of fairness, respect, and the importance of understanding differences.

Zinnia and Dot
Ernst, Lisa Campbell
K-2
A conflict resolution story about two battling hens, who initially have a lot of trouble sharing, but end up raising a chick together. A two-mom story.

Saturday is Pattyday
Newman, Leslie
n/a
About a child adjusting to the breakup of his lesbian parents.

Zora Hurston and the Chinaberry Tree
Miller, William
2-4
A girl looses her mother but refuses to loose her dreams or to be restricted by other peoples’ expectations. Themes included are the oral tradition in African American life. A good book about gender issues as well as about coping with loss, and the importance of a mother-daughter relationship.

Daddy’s Roommate
Willhoite, Michael
K-3
Good! Fun and upbeat, a boy tells about his gay fathers‘ relationship.

My Two Uncles
Vigna, Judith
3-4
A girl tells about her gay uncle and his partner. The story includes family tensions because the grandparents have a hard time accepting the relationship but at the end of the story are closer to accepting it than they were in the beginning.

Who’s in a Family?
Skutch, Robert
K-1
About different kinds of families, and it does include gay families.

In the words of Michael Medved, is it completely unthinkable that we not encumber our children with these topics?

Excerpted from Parents Miffed At Book With Gay Penguins, published Nov 16, 2006, in the pro-homosexuality 365 Gay:

A popular children’s book [And Tango Makes Three] about two male penguins who raise a baby penguin has has raised the ire of parents in this community about 20 miles east of St Louis with demands that it be removed from the bookshelves of a local school.

…Shiloh Elementary School say the book deals with homosexuality and that, they say, is a topic for parents not schools.

The school board is resisting calls for the book’s removal but parents say they will continue fighting.

Continue reading at 365 Gay…

(For the background on this update, click HERE.)

Excerpted from Wal-Mart Drops Gay Sex How-To Manual for Teens after LifeSiteNews.com Expose, by John-Henry Westen, published Nov 15, 2006 by LifeSiteNews:

…A Wal-Mart advertisement for the book was listed on the Wal-Mart website, but the web page which listed the information now says: “Product Not Found!”

LifeSiteNews.com contacted Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg for comment on the book’s removal, but no comment has yet been received.

Continue reading at LifeSite News…

TAKE ACTION – Tell Wal-Mart to take this product off their shelves and off their website.

From Wal-Mart Hits Teens with Gay Porn How-To Manual, by Gudrun Schultz, published Nov 15, 2006, by LifeSite News:

A graphic sex-ed manual promoting lesbianism to teenage girls is now offered for sale by Wal-Mart in the United States. Called “irresponsible and obscene” and by the Institute for Canadian Values, the material contains explicit directions for engaging in oral/anal sexual acts. The book encourages same-sex experimentation, telling girls that only 10 percent of the population is actually heterosexual, while 80 percent is “mixed” or bi-sexual.

Produced by St. Stephens’ Community House in Toronto, the book titled “The Little Black Book for Girlz: A Book on Healthy Sexuality” caused a storm of controversy earlier this fall when parents and pro-family groups first became aware of the books’ content after it was published in September.

The manual was further condemned for using obscene and derogatory language. Examples include a section entitled “My First Time F***ing a Girl” and the statement “If you need someone to represent God The Holiness, then for me, it’s a fat black dyke.”

The manual contains misleading and dangerous information on “safe” sex devises, assuring teenagers that condom use is 100 percent effective in preventing the transmission of disease. That statement contradicts the World Health Organization’s recent admission that condom use fails to protect against HIV/AIDS transmission up to 20 percent of the time, crucial information missing from the manual.

Another section on “safe” lesbian sex acts, entitled “How to use a dental dam,” encourages girls to engage in such dangerous behaviour as sewing latex squares used in dentistry into the crotch of their underwear “for added fun.”

Wal-Mart says the book, sold for $8.50, is “a great mix of real-life examples and life-saving info.”

Continue reading at LifeSite News…

Excerpted from Gay History Month in City Schools Seen Part of Trend, by Susan Brinkmann, published Nov 6, 2006, by The Catholic Standard and Times:

…For the first time, this year ninth-grade students will read a collection of short stories titled, “Am I Blue?” which is about people who have been affected by the coming-out experiences of youth…

Until two parent groups hired Liberty Counsel lawyers to stop it, a Maryland school district curriculum was about to teach 8th- and 10th-graders that Jesus condoned homosexuality because He never mentioned it by name, that Christians often use the Bible to justify hatred and that being homosexual is similar to being left-handed.

Some of the fuel behind the movement is coming from what many believe is an overly cozy alliance between the National Education Association (NEA) and gay activist organizations, such as the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), the nation’s leading pro-homosexuality education group.

“GLSEN is very closely aligned with the Gay-Lesbian caucus inside the NEA,” said Jeralee Smith, a California school teacher and the outgoing chair of the NEA’s Ex-Gay Educators Caucus.

“When the NEA’s Gay Lesbian Caucus started, I’m sure they wanted to see a gay president in charge of the NEA,” Smith said. “Well, that happened when Bob Chase became president. Chase was outed as a gay man by the Washington Blade around the end of his term as NEA president.

“It was during Bob Chase’s presidency that the Sexual Orientation Task Force was initiated, giving a whole arm of NEA leadership to gay- lesbian -bisexual -transgender (GLBT) causes,” Smith said. “In 2002, a 60-page document detailing NEA’s support of GLBT causes was adopted by the NEA executive committee, and handed to NEA delegates as a report which, technically, didn’t even require a vote.”

Since that time, pro-homosexuality curricula have been steadily creeping into schools across the country, says Regina Griggs, executive director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX).

“Programs like this are in all 50 states, and probably in every major county in the country,” Griggs said…

What if a student later becomes ill, after having been encouraged to embrace the lifestyle by a school program that deliberately withheld information about the risks? Could the student sue?

“I was recently contacted by somebody who, because of one-sided information being provided by doctors, went through a sex-change operation. His mental issues just got worse, and he now realizes this isn’t the choice anyone should make. He wants to sue because he wasn’t provided with full information.”

In the meantime, Lindevaldsen said,

“This is all politics. It’s all politics in the courts and it’s all politics in the schools. And the pawns are our children.”