And Tango Makes Three

I keep reading every few months about a library acquiring the children’s book “And Tango Makes Three.” Then someone gets upset that the book promotes homosexuality and then there is brouhaha about what books children should read. The biggest problem is, in my opinion, that the book is about a true incident. And it’s not just that this happens in zoos, but that it happens in the wild.

Male partners in more than one species will raise orphans and abandoned young of their own species. This is observed fact. Our children need to have this sort of factual information available. If it is in the form of a children’s story then all the better. The children will learn more about the natural world. It is foolish to argue that just because a book is about a same-gendered partnership that it is inappropriate. What is inappropriate is not teaching children about what is fact.