Children’s book club says lesbian moms are “inappropriate”

10/25/09-by Paula Brooks
The School Library Journal is reporting that global children’s publishing, education and media giant, Scholastic, decided not to include a book from its Scholastic Book Fair, because the company says one of the main characters has same-sex parents.

The book, Luv Ya Bunches by Lauren Myracle, is about the friendship among four elementary school girls, and one of those girls, Milla, has lesbian moms.

Scholastic has said it will refuse to carry the book unless the author makes some changes, such as removing a few words — “geez,” “crap,” “sucks,” and “God” (as in, “oh my God”) — and by writing out the lesbian moms. She has said she would be willing to remove the supposed offensive words, but refused to remove the lesbian moms.

Myracle, no stranger to controversy, and has appeared on the American Library Association’s top 10 list of most often challenged authors, however the children’s book author says she is surprised that Scholastic would shy away from a reality that exists in numerous households across the country.

Says Myracle, “A child having same-sex parents is not offensive, in my mind, and shouldn’t be ‘cleaned up.’”

The author says, “Over 200,000 kids in America are raised by same-sex parents, just like Milla. It’s not an issue to clean up or hide away,” says Myracle. “In my opinion, it’s not an ‘issue’ at all. The issue, as I see it, is that kids benefit hugely from seeing themselves reflected positively in the books they read. It’s an extremely empowering and validating experience.”

Scholastic says Love Ya Bunches will still be available in their Book Club catalog, and a spokesperson said, “the company will continue monitoring the book’s popularity as well as the input from book fair field representatives to decide whether it should be included in future book fairs.”

The Scholastic Mission Credo notes the company produces educational materials to assist and inspire students:

• To cultivate their minds to utmost capacity
• To become familiar with our cultural heritage
• To strive for excellence in creative expression in all fields of learning, literature, and art
• To seek effective ways to live a satisfying life
• To enlarge students’ concern for and understanding of today’s world
• To help build a society free of prejudice and hate, and dedicated to the highest quality of life in community and nation.

Lesbian Mom Blogger Dana Rudolph thinks Scholastic should be held to that credo and said, “That sounds like a call to action for me.” Rudolph has asked her readers to contact Scholastic Investor Relations and to “get yourselves to your local book fairs and ask the field reps for Myracle’s book, as well as others that depict LGBT families.”

The website Change.org has also posted an action alert about this, complete with an automated message to Scholastic.

Lesbian Mom Kathy Young of Arizona said, “Diversity in families is a fact of life. Whether that diversity includes kids being raised by grandparents, single Dads, or LGBT parents, it is important that those families are represented in the stories the kids read. Not only is it important for my child to see but for her friends to see that these families exist in our culture.”

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