I choose this banned book because it’s a) so cute I couldn’t resist b) it creates a space where students can talk about having same sex parents. I’m hoping this book will help me find the appropriate words to use with students and parents who question same sex parenting. It’s very important (to me at least) that I teach my students and hopefully their parents to be tolerant but I’m uneasy about the response I’d receive from parents and administration. Contrary to the battle I willingly wage for gender equity, which has a popular following also known as feminism, tolerance for homosexual relationships much less same sex parenting pales in popularity. It’s not the unpopularity that scares, but rather the fact that religious beliefs will muddy the waters. However unpopular it may be, it is necessary. Same sex parenting has recently become a pressing sociopolitical issue in my urban school setting as more and more couples become more and more open about their relationship status with not only the school, but their children and other students. Just the other day when a teacher asked her student who was picking him up from school today he replied “my other mommy”, to which another student immediately replied “what other mommy?” The teacher casually said “In his family he has two moms, who’s in your family”? Well, I can see where a conversation would have flowed nicely from that comment, but she didn’t know how to explain to mommies besides families come in all different configurations… I’m not sure that answer would suffice.
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