NANCY DURHAM:
Britain's 'Gay Lit' experiment
Schools sample controversial homosexual theme for youngsters
March 30, 2007
Children's literature reflects our many modern social trends: single parenthood, divorce, multiculturalism. But there's been a gap in kids' books when it comes to lesbian and gay themes. With a U.K. lesbian baby boom underway — and indeed in countries around the world, including Canada — two-mother families have begun to notice something's missing at school. That's what motivated lesbian mother Anna Wilson to get involved with a group of women committed to change.
- AUDIO: Nancy Durham reports on Britain's 'gay lit' experiment. (Runs 4:04)
- YOUR VIEW: Do you find anything wrong with school libraries stocking gay-themed children's books?
"Nursery workers were completely unprepared for two women arriving with a child," she said. "They tended to think … they could simply ignore it and absorb these children into the fabric of the nursery. … As the children got older, other children would say, 'You can't have two mums.'"
Dr. Elizabeth Atkinson
Or, say, two dads. Wilson's Out For Our Children group's goal is to reflect their home realities in school whether it's in a jigsaw puzzle or a book.
King and King
Cover from King and King by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland. Tricycle Press (2002)
On a chilly afternoon in her cheery London home, Anna Wilson's six-year-old daughter, Ruth, curled up beside her on the couch to read together from the book King and King.
"On the tallest mountain above the town lived a queen, the young crown prince and the crown kitty. The queen had ruled for many long years and she was tired of it. She made up her mind that the prince would marry and become king before the end of the summer."
Wilson turned to her daughter, "that's how stories go isn't it." With an "uh huh" from Ruth they continued reading aloud about the travails of the young prince, faced with introduction after introduction to princesses. The trouble is he doesn't much care for girls. Finally, there's a breakthrough.
"Presenting Princess Madeleine and her brother Prince Lee. At last the prince felt a stir at his heart. Look it was love at first sight! What a wonderful prince!"
Ruth echoed, "what a wonderful prince!"
The two princes marry and live happily ever after, of course.
I asked Ruth if she liked the book.
Yes.
Why?
Because it's nice…
And what about the prince looking for someone to marry?
Boring.
Why do you think the prince didn't want to marry a girl?
I don't know. Maybe because he doesn't like girls. Maybe he hates girls or something.
And he likes boys.
Yep so that's why he married.
Is he happy in the end?
I think so.
"If she didn't have books like that," said Ruth's mother, "there wouldn't be any models for what her life is actually like, what her family is actually like, so that's why it's important for us to have books which normalize any kind of family, and allow her to celebrate without a big issue about the fact that she has two mums."
Goal: reduce homophobic bullying
No Outsiders is the name of a research project funded by Britain's Economic and Social Research Council that shares the same aim. The project is trying to address sexuality equality in primary schools and the researchers are doing this, in part, by introducing literature with gay themes to children aged four to 11 at 14 U.K. primary schools.
Sunderland University's Dr. Elizabeth Atkinson co-leads the No Outsiders project. Mark Jennett is the project's engaging "diversity trainer."
The researchers hope that creating awareness among children will reduce homophobic bullying in the playground. According to those involved in the project, homophobic insults are the number one bullying tactic children use.
"This is my favourite," said diversity trainer Mark Jennett, singling out And Tango Makes Three from a colourful stack of books on the table. It is a story about two male penguins living in the New York zoo.
"They're a couple and all the other penguins start nesting to have babies and so do they. They build a nest but they don't have an egg."
Lucky for the gay birds, another couple with an extra egg is happy to let the males take care of it.
"I'm dying for somebody to ask me if I think they're like this because they're gay," Jennett said, "and no, I think they're nurturing because they are men who happen to be nurturing. But yes, they are gay. They're a couple … like all the other couples in the zoo."
The book's message is subtle but clear. Two guys can be parents.
Not everyone approves
Twenty years ago, gay themes were introduced in British schools and quickly thrown out. This time around, the researchers are treading softly: so softly, they won't say which schools are involved in the project.
Elizabeth Atkinson explained that the project's locations remain secret "because if you tell people what you're doing you get hate mail for it and I don't want my teachers in this project to get what I'm getting: the most appallingly aggressive hate mail. I want to protect our participants until we're able to stand up and say here are examples of good practice which show that homophobic bullying is reduced and that children understand each other more."
The group Christian Voice opposes the concept. It says the British government promotes homosexuality and recently held a vigil outside Parliament as the House of Lords voted to support gay equality legislation.
Stephen Green, the group's national director, believes literature with gay themes is dangerous for children.
"They're trying to say to children that homosexuality is fine, so it's blatant propaganda … I just don't reckon school is the place for that. I just don't want children to be mentally interfered with in this way," he said.
Mark Jennett (Courtesy markjennett.com)
I asked the project researchers if reading a book could encourage someone to be gay, which is what worries Stephen Green. Elizabeth Atkinson laughed and shrieked, "Don't be ridiculous! We wouldn't have any gay people because we haven't got any stories with gay people in them. No, of course not!"
Mark Jennett smiled.
"You can't make somebody heterosexual or homosexual just by reading them stories about people."
"It will stop some gay children hiding their feeling from themselves and from everyone else," he added, "not feeling they can tell people about it — in some cases for years — and being very unhappy. So yes, you may have some young people coming out, coming to terms with their sexual orientation earlier — and that surely must be a good thing."
The No Outsiders project wraps up at the end of 2008.
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Biography
Nancy Durham is a CBC Television and Radio correspondent based in London. For the past two decades she's been sending stories to Canada from across Europe, Central Asia, China and Africa.
She began her CBC career in 1976 as a roving radio reporter with Metro Morning in Toronto. In 1979 she became co-host of Information Morning in Fredericton. In 1981 she returned to Toronto to join the CBC Radio newsroom. In 1984 Durham moved to the UK continuing to report for CBC Radio. She also became a regular contributor to the BBC. During this time she covered revolution and war as Europe's communist regimes fell, and its borders were redrawn.
