‘And Tango Makes Three’: The Most Banned Book In 2008

A school district in Charlotte, N.C. has pulled a children’s book off the shelves because some parents have deemed it inappropriate. This same book tops the American Library Association’s most banned books in 2008 → source

And Tango Makes Three

The book, ‘And Tango Makes Three’, is a children’s book based on a true story of Roy and Silo, two male penguins in New York’s Central Park Zoo who for six years formed a couple. The book follows part of this time in the penguins’ lives. The pair were observed trying to hatch a rock that resembled an egg. When zookeepers realized that Roy and Silo were both male, it occurred to them to give them the second egg of a mixed-sex penguin couple, a couple which had previously been unable to successfully hatch two eggs at once. Roy and Silo hatched and raised the healthy young chick, a female named “Tango” by keepers, together as a family. → source

The book has won several literary and library awards for story-telling and illustration.

Before you utter the words ‘Godless New York liberal animals’, hear me out. The reason this book is banned is obvious. Some parents believe this book makes homosexuality sound normal. 

First, how and why is book-banning even acceptable in the US? Isn’t that, in a way, fascism? What is the worst thing a book can advocate?

• Death to America? It’s old news already.
• America is moving toward fascism? Fox News tells me that daily.
• God doesn’t exit? Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter tell me that he does, and that’s good enough for me.
• Kill the Jews? Nice try, but it’s been done before.

Second, what is the point of protesting this book? Are you afraid that nature, perhaps even God, has created two penguines that are not necessarily interested in the opposite sex? Do you really believe that if you just sweep it under the rug, it’s as though it never happened? Does that really serve your child well in understanding all the possibilities and combinations that nature can produce or that God can create? Does your God want you to ignore his creations?

Third, how is banning this book, which is based on a true story, acceptable while books for young adults contain all types of questionable heterosexual encounters containing sex? Aren’t you worried that such books portray casual, unwed sex as normal for teenagers?

Mark Twain might have summed it up best. When Huckleberry Finn was banned by the Library Committee of Concord, Massachusetts for its coarse language. he wrote a friend that the banning was worth the sale of 25,000 copies just by the free publicity alone. → source

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