Scholastic Books just responded to the petition you all signed on Change.org criticizing the company for excluding a book from their popular books fairs simply because one of the characters had two lesbian mothers. I'm happy to say that because of the collective strength of the 4,000 people who signed the petition, Scholastic has reversed their decision to exclude the book – Lauren Myracle's Luv Ya Bunches – and has released a statement affirming the dignity of gay and lesbian parents.
This is a great victory achieved in 48 hours, and it was only possible because of all of you who signed, advocated for, and spread the petition. Scholastic Books is one of the largest educational publishing outfits in the country, and this sends a clear message to children and parents everywhere that there's absolutely nothing wrong with two men or two women raising a child.
From Dana at Mombian:
Most of us with young children in public school know about Scholastic Book Fairs. Many of us remember them from our own childhoods. Now comes news that Scholastic has banned a book from the fairs because one of the characters has lesbian moms...
Scholastic has asserted that they are not censoring the book, but are carrying it in their Book Clubs. That is true, as the original School Library Journal article reported. SLJ also reported, however, “The company sent a letter to Myracle’s editor asking the author to omit certain words such as ‘geez,’ ‘crap,’ ’sucks,’ and ‘God’ (as in, ‘oh my God’) and to alter its plotline to include a heterosexual couple.”The author did change some of the language, but noted,
A child having same-sex parents is not offensive, in my mind, and shouldn’t be ‘cleaned up.’” says Myracle, adding that the book fair subsequently decided not to take on Luv Ya Bunches because they wanted to avoid letters of complaint from parents.
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1 comment:
SBFs has decided to carry the book in the Spring book fairs, without changes to the lesbian moms.
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