According to the fairy tale, every handsome prince wants a princess—until Prince Bertie comes along. "I've never cared much for princesses," the lonely prince admits, to the consternation of his grouchy and marriage-minded mother. This prince just doesn't like girls, and he dismisses a series of them until, one day, his heart is stirred: not by Princess Madeleine who has come calling, but by her brother, Prince Lee.
Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland's exuberant picture book, King & King, is among the first mentioned by booksellers when asked about a current book for kids with a gay or lesbian spin. Published by Tricycle Press three years ago, the book was followed by a sequel in 2004, King & King & Family, which describes the royal pair's tropical honeymoon and their adoption of a daughter. Happily ever after, it seems.
But for the people most interested in seeing gay and lesbian themes reflected in the mainstream culture—be it through books or television or film—there are still limitations. On the book side, demand outpaces the supply of relevant books, especially as gay and lesbian lifestyles approach greater acceptance. On the TV/film side, this acceptance is being resisted by no less a force than the U.S. secretary of education.
Elloyd Hansen, one of the owners of the Provincetown Bookshop in Provincetown, Mass., regularly sells the King & King books, especially during his town's well-attended gay family week every summer. "Hundreds of couples are here with families, so we do have a calling for it," he says.
Michael Cavanaugh, manager and buyer at Books of Wonder in New York City's predominantly gay Chelsea neighborhood, sees a real demand for gay- and lesbian-theme picture books, too, but he thinks good ones are in short supply. "We have a lot of requests, and there's definitely an interest," he says, having recommended King & King & Familyto adoptive gay couples. But he is "hard-pressed to have in-depth discussion" about topical picture books because so few have impressed him.
Philip Rafshoon, owner and general manager of Outwrite Bookstore and Coffeeshop in Atlanta, agrees. "I see a growing demand, but I don't think it's being met," Rafshoon says.
Visibility Issues
It's not that there are no books out there for gay and lesbian parents and their children, or for nonconformist kids. Readers can find groundbreaking (if now dated) stories of children's gender ambiguity, like Charlotte Zolotow's William's Dollor Tomie dePaola's 1979 Oliver Button Is a Sissy; they can locate books on same-sex relationships and gay pride from Alyson Wonderland, the children's imprint of Alyson Publications. Alyson followed Lesléa Newman's much maligned but well-known classic Heather Has Two Mommieswith stories of gay fathers, like Michael Willhoite's Daddy's Roommate, its sequel Daddy's Wedding, and Johnny Valentine's OneDad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads. Nonetheless, there remains "a big hole in the market," according to Linda Bubon, co-owner of Women and Children First bookstore in Chicago. Bubon believes that "the older books were published with the best intentions but not illustrated by real children's illustrators or written by people who understood the whole culture of children's literature. They can't compete with the beautiful artwork and lyrical writing of our best children's literature."
Although the pace is slow, picture books on gay and lesbian topics are gaining a foothold beyond the small independent houses like Alyson, and the scope of the titles is becoming more inclusive—or, perhaps, less exclusive.
At Farrar, Straus & Giroux, executive editor Wes Adams—editor of Terence Blacker's middle-grade novel Boy2Girl—welcomes "books with a rebellious spirit. The longer I'm in [the publishing business]," he says, "the less patience I have with preachy, serious, sober titles. At this point, I'm looking for books with comic flair and an energetic approach to material."
In 2001, Adams signed author-illustrator Andrea U'Ren for Pugdog, an account of a female dog that rejects conventional feminine trappings. "As far as the gender issue behind it, my interest in that is the comedy of it all, the absurdity," Adams says. Similarly, Heather author Lesléa Newman questions gender roles in two new picture books, A Fire Engine for Ruthie (Clarion) and The Boy Who Cried Fabulous(Tricycle), although booksellers report mixed sales of Harvey Fierstein and Henry Cole's The Sissy Duckling (S&S).
Children's gender orientations remain tricky territory and still constitute a sub-subgenre of gay and lesbian publishing. Yet same-sex families are getting positive attention from mainstream publishing houses. Last year, Adams's FSG colleague Margaret Ferguson worked with author Nancy Garden and watercolor illustrator Sharon Wooding on Molly's Family, the story of a kindergartner who comes under scrutiny from her classmates when she reveals that she has lesbian parents. Despite focusing on schoolroom discomfort in Molly, Garden insists that books for and about gay and lesbian audiences should not treat homosexuality as a problem. "At a conference, I went to a panel of children who were asked to speak about this," Garden recalls, "and I remember a girl with gay or lesbian parents said, 'I wish there were books for us in which it wasn't an issue.' "
At her publishing and distribution company, Two Lives Publishing, Bobbie Combs has "gotten feedback that people don't want an 'issue' book anymore. They want books that normalize the family, about a child who just happens to have two [same-sex] parents. But there are still not too many of those," Combs says.
"What I think is so wanted is books that are about other stuff, and just happen to show a kid who has two moms so you're not addressing it as the Issue," says Women and Children First's Bubon. She strongly recommends inclusive books like Susan Meyers's Everywhere Babies (Harcourt), illustrated by Marla Frazee. "It's extremely subtle," Bubon explains, and goes on to describe images of mixed-race families, a crowded urban street corner where two moms push a stroller and a Gymboree class where two men sit side by side. "I point it out to people who are looking for books that have real diversity," she says.
Picture books meant to acquaint young readers with nontraditional lives continue to crop up, making gay and lesbian topics increasingly prominent in mainstream children's publishing. The fact that some booksellers still see slim pickings underscores the challenges ahead. "All children deserve to see themselves reflected in their books," says Nicole Geiger, the publisher of Tricycle Press.
Challenges to Buster
While visual images of gay and lesbian families have grown easier to find in picture books, the topic has grown increasingly controversial in the media. Television, after all, is a more visible medium; its images are broadcast rather than confined to a book purchased by a family. On the little screen, characters like SpongeBob SquarePants have been criticized for extending messages of tolerance that implicitly include gay, lesbian and other nontraditional families. In 1999, the Teletubbies' androgynous Tinky Winky drew the Rev. Jerry Falwell's ire for carrying a red satchel and wearing an inverted purple triangle on his/her (its?) head, while the Chicago Tribune(Mar. 15, 2005) reported that Marshall Field's stood accused of a "hidden gay agenda" for its Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs display, which showed seven men cohabiting.
Marc Brown, creator of the popular PBS series Arthur and Postcards from Buster, became embroiled in just such a cartoon-related controversy in January. In an episode titled "Sugartime!" Buster (a third-grade rabbit) visits Vermont for the spring maple syrup harvest and stays with a family that includes a lesbian couple and their three mixed-race children. Throughout the segment, Buster reflects on what to get his own mom for Mother's Day, and the ordinary images of family life demystify the same-sex couples.
"Sugartime!" initially was slated to air February 2. But WGBH-TV in Boston, which produced the episode, came under scrutiny the day after Margaret Spellings began her tenure as U.S. secretary of education. Department of Education deputy press secretary Chad Colby remarked that PBS president Pat Mitchell "had reservations about the show before [Spellings's] comments.... The only thing that happened for the department is that the secretary sent the letter [to Mitchell, denouncing the show]. Everything else has been a reaction to that."
Brown said he was astonished by the letter. "The last person I expected to be censored by was the secretary of education," he said. "I was surprised that on practically the first day of her appointment she would go after Postcards from Buster."
Brown felt stung a second time when PBS agreed to pull the segment. In the weeks that followed, the nation's 349 public television stations decided individually whether to air "Sugartime!" absent Department of Education approval. As of this writing, 52 stations (representative of 54% of U.S. households) have aired or decided to air it.
At the moment, Buster's fate and funding remain in doubt. As Brown continues planning TV episodes, he says, "My formula is pretty simple: I look for ways to be helpful to children and families, to do things I learned from my good friend Fred Rogers. When all this started to happen, my first thought was, 'I wish I could call Fred,' because he had a wonderful way of going right to the heart of matters. What would Fred have said?"
Nathalie op de Beeck is an assistant professor at Illinois State University and a frequent contributor to PW.
