Queer Eggs and Ham

School administrators in Bristol, England have removed the books King & King and And Tango Makes Three, and the DVD That’s a Family from two primary schools. Some parents complained that they should have been consulted before LGBT-inclusive materials were used in the classroom. The schools had introduced the books in order to comply with new laws intended to combat homophobic bullying.

The complaints in this case came from the Muslim community, but as many of you know, there have been any number of similar complaints elsewhere from conservative members of other religions. I’ve written several times before about a lawsuit brought by two right-wing Christian couples against the school district of Lexington, Massachusetts, claiming the parents had the right to be notified before books with LGBT-inclusive content were read.

If parents always had to be consulted before schools introduced potentially inappropriate materials, where would it end? Schools can’t determine everything that might be offensive to someone. At some point, parents have to step up and, well, do some parenting. As the U.S. Circuit Court ruled in the Lexington case, “The mere fact that a child is exposed on occasion in public school to a concept offensive to a parent’s religious belief does not inhibit the parent from instructing the child differently.”

If parents want to be able to opt their children out of exposure to material that goes against their views of religious acceptability, they might as well require notification before teachers read Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham, which is all about a boy trying to force someone to eat a meal that violates Jewish and Islamic dietary laws (and those of certain Christian traditions, if the book is read on fast days). I’m not hearing reports of complaints about that book, though. LGBT-inclusive materials should be no different.