Book for Gay Parents’ Kids Creates an Uproar
I love how Fox News fairly and I dare say balancedly (is that even a word?) laid out the news that there’s a new book out there for kids of lesbian moms who used a sperm donor to conceive:
“Gay Sex Education Book Targets Children as Young as 2″
Gets your dander up, doesn’t it? Oh my sweet henry, they’re trying to teach our two-year-olds to have sex! And not just the missionary position but you know, the naughty, we don’t do that in the heartland kind of s-e-x.
Except they’re not.
Where Did I Really Come From? was apparently written to help children of gay couples understand the myriad other ways children come into the world other than a man and woman having sex . . . together. The book includes a chapter about surrogacy (with pictures of two gay men holding a child) and another on lesbian moms using a sperm donor.
According to the Australian, there is some discussion of sex – although I’m not sure how graphic (I haven’t read the book myself). They cite a chapter that notes: “Sometimes, a woman really wants to have a baby but she doesn’t want to have intercourse with a man. Some women want to bring up a baby by themselves, or with another woman, so the baby gets two mums.”
Author Narelle Wickham says she was just trying to normalize for kids the different forms of conception, and the stands behind the suggestion that kids as young as two be given the book by their parents.
Many of the “anti” comments, frankly, are bizarre. Here’s a taste:
“Let children be children, they do not need to be introduced to sex or alternative lifestyles at a tender age.” Well, if this book was purchased by a parent who used a surrogate or a sperm donor (the families it was written for), that introduction came at the very tender age of CONCEPTION folks.
“Another shot at sexualising and brainwahsing youngsters.” Yes, it’s brainwashing to let them know that gays really exist, and, by the way, Mommy is one of them. And for that matter, so is Mommy!
“I believe young children should be taught about gay and lesbian parents
as this will help them identify them when they are older and allow them
to stay away from these types of parents.” Because the gay and lesbian parents are so desperate for children that they’re going to come after them?
“I think any book about this subject shouldn’t be targeted at 2 year olds. Do two year olds really need to be told about sex?” That depends – what did you tell your kids when you or your partner got pregnant? I was four when my parents gave me a book about mommies and daddies making a baby in preparation for a new addition to our family. Which means those books have been out there for decades, aimed at toddlers (this one too has been out since 1992, but is all of a sudden back in the spotlight). Because kids as young as two will certainly notice there is a burgeoning belly if there’s a pregnancy or notice a new person suddenly arrive in their lives.
But I guess that was OK, according to most of these posters. Because I had a mom and a dad. Although if I’d had a mom and dad using a surrogate, would that have been OK? Or a mom and dad who had to use a sperm donor? An egg donor? IVF? IUI?
This book addresses them all, giving thousands of kids an alternative to that same old “Mommy and Daddy made me” book I read as a kid. Fortunately for their mommies and/or daddies, it’s out there for them.
Image: Evolution (where you can buy the book – straight from Australia)
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I love how everyone jumped right to “SEX! OMG THEY’RE TELLING TODDLERS ABOUT SEX!!!! SEXXXXXXXXXXXX!!!!!!!!” Umm, “assisted reproduction” is, by definition, conception made possible *without* sexual activity. And heteros sometimes use it too! GASP!
That looks like a great book. I’m going to go buy it. Thanks!
OK, I believe that all kids, even at 2, need to have some knowledge. I don’t mean real live lets watch a movie details, but some details. They do notice when things are different; she has a mommy and a daddy but I have 2 mommy’s. Why not give them some knowledge!
treespeed- you took the words right out of my mouth…
News outlets don’t do stories on Christian parents buying their kid’s creationist picture books, or new age parents telling their kids stories about the earth mother’s guiding spirit, so how is it any business of straight couples what Lesbian Mothers want to teach THEIR children?
Seriously Faux News needs a big dose of MYOB. When do these busy body fundamentalists start reading to their kids from the horror show that is the Old Testament?
No one ASKED you to educate your three y.o. to different forms of conception. But you should be feeling shame at missing the point. But kudos for you on encouraging the notion that since *your* child doesn’t need it, nobody’s child does. It *is* possible that other people’s children have curiosities beyond their trucks and trains.
Wow. Shame on me for not educating my three year old son about the different forms of conception when his sister was born. I feel especially negligent because when I was pregnant, my husband and I were entertaining my also pregnant friend and her partner, we didn’t decide to point out the difference. Maybe because he was more interested in showing us his stuffed puppy and favorite trains. If kids ask, give them an AGE APPROPRIATE response. They don’t really need that many details.
Shame on me, exposing my poor children to alternative lifestyles at an early ages, when they are yound and impressionable enough to think that it is normal and healthy to accept the variety of ways of experiencing love and being a family.
I wouldn’t expect anything else from Fox News. That is just NOT news. It’s pure garbage, and it’s so aggravating.