Couple behind kids' book about penguin dads challenge Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' law
And Tango Makes Three co-author says his book’s ban ‘exposes this law to be not much more than bigotry'
When Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson first published their beloved children's book about a real-life penguin family, they didn't think they'd still be fighting to keep it on shelves nearly two decades later.
And Tango Makes Three is an award-winning illustrated book for kids aged four to eight that tells the true story of a male penguin couple at the Central Park Zoo who famously hatched an egg and raised a chick together.
It has been challenged repeatedly since it was published in 2005, and most recently was pulled from libraries in Florida's Lake County school district under the state's so-called "Don't Say Gay" legislation.
Parnell and Richardson, a married couple and the book's co-authors, have teamed up with six Florida children, aged five to 12, and their parents to challenge the constitutionality of the ban — and the legislation that spurred it.
"Our hearts go out to the kids in Lake County who have two dads or have two moms or were adopted or are themselves becoming aware that they're gay or lesbian. This kind of an act by a school, it can be devastating to a child in that condition," Richardson, who is also a psychiatrist, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
"I think when kids recognize themselves and their families in the stories they love, they learn that they're valued and that there's a place for them in our world."
Book ban violates 1st Amendment: lawsuit
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, lists officials from the Lake County school district, the Florida Department of Education and the Florida State Board of Education as defendants.
It argues that the book's ban — and the legislation underpinning it — violate the right to free speech guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
Cassie Palelis, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Education, said in an email the government does not comment on pending litigation. The Florida State Board of Education did not respond for a request for comment.
An email to the Lake County school district generated an auto-reply noting the the office is closed on Fridays in the summer. But spokesperson Sherri Owens told the New York Times the district cannot comment on the lawsuit, and that it "removed access to And Tango Makes Three for our Kindergarten through third grade students in alignment with Florida House Bill 1557, which at the time prohibited classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for those grade levels."
Bill 1557, passed last year in Florida, prohibits "classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity." Originally aimed at Kindergarten through Grade 3, it has since been expanded to encompass pre-kindergarten through Grade 8.
It is formally titled the "Parental Rights in Education" act, but its critics have dubbed it "Don't Say Gay."
The law has drawn widespread condemnation from LGBTQ organizations, free speech groups, and Democrats, including U.S. President Joe Biden. Many parents and students have also spoken out against the law, staging protests and walk-outs across the state.
The state has also passed legislation restricting how schools teach children about race and racial injustice.
Same-sex penguin couples
And Tango Makes Three is based on the story of Roy and Silo, two male penguins at the Central Park Zoo whose story made headlines around the world.
In 1999, zookeepers noticed that the pair had attempted to hatch a rock as if it were an egg. So they decided to give them an egg from a male-female pair who had too many and could not hatch them all.
Roy and Silo hatched the egg successfully and co-raised baby Tango, who became the zoo's first penguin with two dads.
Since then, zoos around the world have repeated the process with their own same-sex penguin pairs with great success. Same-sex pairing has been observed in penguins around the world, both in captivity and around the world, and is, in fact, a regular occurrence in other animal species.
"I think that a book as true and as simple and gentle as And Tango Makes Three being banned, really exposes this law to be not much more than bigotry dressed up as rights to legislation," Richardson said.
Parnell says the book was warmly received when it first hit shelves, flying high on the popularity of Roy and Silo, and an increased interest in the species sparked by the documentary March of the Penguins.
But about a year later, he says, the backlash began — and hasn't stopped since.
"The conservative movement, and the divisiveness that we've seen just increase over the years, was really beginning. And so there was a response, which began to snowball," he said.
"Given so much progress that we've made, given so much in the last number of years in which we have achieved an acceptance as LGBTQIA + people, I don't know that I would have said almost 20 years later, that there would be this [still] happening to the book."
Interview with Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson produced by Antonia Reed
