“In Schools’ Efforts to End Bullying, Some See Agenda,” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/us/07bully.html?src=mv spotlights the need to draw a solid line separating education from advocacy. We must teach tolerance, making it unacceptable for children to bully others based on sexual persuasion. The challenge is how to accomplish this without endorsing or condemning a specific lifestyle. Through a story children can talk through and understand the issues.
Am I Blue? Coming Out from the Silence, by Marion Dane Bauer was the first YA fiction anthology devoted to exploring the myriad meanings of gay/lesbian/identity in the lives of teenagers. ALA’s new award for books of merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered experience is The Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award. ALA says there is a growing demand for high quality children’s books that reflect the experiences of gay men and lesbians, citing a national statistic: approximately 13 million children have a gay or lesbian parent.
Good books are neither a sermon nor a warning but rather an exploration that prompts one to ask their own questions and most importantly to find their own answers.
