Gay pride book to remain
Imagine this. Your 3-year-old child brings back a gay pride book from the library. How would you react? While most of us would probably beam from cheek-to-cheek, Michaela Jaros and her husband, Kurt Jaros were not impressed.
When their 3-year-old daughter brought home the book, “This Day in June,” by Gayle E. Pitman, from West Chicago library the Christian parents immediately filed a complaint and asked that the book be removed or moved to a different section due to the material not being “age-appropriate,” for children.
The book depicts the gay pride parade with vivacious illustrations of same-sex couples celebrating their love and even includes a guide of terminology on the back for parents to discuss the book's topics with their children.
However, for the Jaros family, this topic was not up for debate.
“My wife … feels like the library is not providing a safe space for children to explore children's books … I don't think we see other children's books showing these sorts of messages,” the young girl's father told the Chicago Tribune.
However, to the family's dismay, the library voted 6-1 last week to keep the book on their shelves. According to a CBS News report with “the 152 people who attended the meeting, 138 said they favored keeping the book in the children’s section while only 13 opposed it.”
Many at the meeting expressed their support for the book stating how they wished a piece like this had existed to help them navigate their own childhood.
“I’m a suicide survivor. If I had had this book back when I was younger, because I knew I was trans, maybe then I would not have felt like this random freak,” one attendee told CBS news.
This vote not only speaks volumes to how much communities are starting to value representation in literacy, but also that love wins all the time.
For those that want to purchase the book for the little ones in your life, visit this link to Amazon.
