Since Ron DeSantis pushed through the “Don’t Say Gay” law (“Parental Rights in Education”), library books about anything related to gay subjects have been removed from school libraries. This week, the authors of the children’s book “Tango” sued the Lake County district in Florida for banning their book; they were joined by several students in the district.
“Tango” is a true story written for young students about two male penguins in a zoo who adopted an egg and raised the baby as their own. There is nothing remotely sexual about the story. It’s a sweet and touching story.
A group of students and the authors of a children’s book about a penguin family with two fathers sued the Lake County school district and the board of education Tuesday, saying that restricting access to the book in school libraries was unconstitutional.
The suit argues that the picture book, “And Tango Makes Three,” was targeted on ideological grounds, as a result of new legislation that has led to a spike in book removals. The state law, known by its opponents as “Don’t Say Gay,” bans instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation.
In an attempt to follow the statute, the school district, Lake County, restricted access to 40 titles, the vast majority of them books that deal with LGBTQ issues and themes.
The lawsuit by the authors of the book seeks to make it available again and to have the law found unconstitutional.
“Our book has been banned because Tango has two dads,” said Justin Richardson, who wrote the book with his husband, Peter Parnell.
The book is based on the true story of a pair of male penguins at the Central Park Zoo, Roy and Silo, who incubated and hatched a baby chick. Zookeepers named the chick Tango.
The picture book, aimed at 4- to 8-year-olds, has won multiple awards. It has also been banned or restricted in many districts around the United States after parents and residents objected to the book’s depiction of a family with same-sex parents.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, said the Lake had “cited no legitimate pedagogical reason for its decision.”
No doubt, DeFascist will say that the book was not banned. It was removed from circulation.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Good for these authors! It’s frustrating and I’m sure expensive for them to bring this lawsuit, but it needs to be done. Thank you, Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, and the students, too.
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I sure don’t want my kids readin bout no penguins raisin up a kid. Sounds fishy.
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Penguins with a raison d’être.
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Penquins raising a goat? Sounds perverted to me.
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No legitimate reason for
this…
After all…
“Obviously, children are learning
all the time, whether or not they
are in school.”
“children are born to be learning
machines from the minute they enter
the world”
“There are lots of things to learn
when you are not in school,…”
“Education reporters seem to have
a lot of trouble doing their homework.”
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We’ve come to a pretty place when an author and students have to litigate against their own government to secure their 1st Amendment rights?
Gitmo/Snowflake Ron, Gov. Abbott, and their anti-American Constitution creed across the country are becoming so wonderfully transparent, and it is such a gift! If the opposition cannot make hay out of these people’s hatred of our Constitution and the citizens who seek refuge in its protections, well, they have no one to blame but themselves. This SHOULD be low-hanging fruit for anyone who believes in the principles of our founding documents.
It’s almost as if there is a whole group of people in this country that never learned how difficult Democracy is. Bunch of hypocritical babies. Where I grew up, the Klan got all dressed up in their wife’s nice white sheets and paraded once a year down Main Street hiding their faces but easily identified anyway because our town was so stinkin small! Of course, they were/are odious, but it was explained to me rather easily: if I want the right to oppose them, I have to defend their right to say what they believe.
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“…if I want the right to oppose them, I have to defend their right to say what they believe.”
Short of violence.
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At a recent county commissioners’ meeting, one of the commissioners tried to turn the discussion to “pornographic books” in school libraries. This guy’s wife is the head of the local MFL group. A few people, obviously there to disrupt, started yelling until the other commissioners told them they had no authority over public school libraries. These people simply want to draw negative attention to public education and cause chaos, even when the schools are on summer hiatus. The other old-time, conservative commissioners are growing tired of extremists’ chronic staged disruptions and attempts to use public meetings to draw attention to themselves, but they will still probably vote for the GOP.
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I hope you are right about the other “old-time conservative commissioners.” I hope the backlash on these extremists gets the volume turned up; I mean, since when is the children’s table where we turn to for policy advice? All these scaredy cats! They tire me out. Yet, here we are.
Those “old-time” types “vot[ing] for the GOP” is not surprising. If the other side is going to run on a platform equally contemptuous of a vast swath of the citizens, then we’re going to get another Trump. Hilary lost because she clearly despised many of her fellow Americans, and her rhetoric was amateurish, entitled, and ad hominem. Biden won because he certainly is not as hateful as Trump and voting for Trump was a bridge too far for many of us who still call ourselves Republicans. Trump is like so many: RINO.
More and more people from both sides of the adult table feel we are people without a party at the national level.
Biden is not without his odors of graft and shady deals either. And he will never be forgiven for writing the Senate version of the Crime Bill in ’94. But we have lowered the bar of what is acceptable to such a pathetic degree that we hold our noses and hope for the best at the national level, no?
Just as a vote in the affirmative for Trump is a bridge too far for many of us, the idea of voting for Hilary or Barack (who both stated their distaste for a large swath of Americans) is equally fatiguing. Yes, I like my guns and Jesus; do I really have to justify myself? And, yes, I have been called worse than deplorable. But the point here is that when you hate the people you call countrymen, you invite alienation, which is not cool.
Besides, my eyes are open and my memory dates back to who we once were and how we got here and my lack of faith that we have changed much in the meantime. Ask the Lakota how it worked out to give up their guns? Ask the Cherokee or Comanche. Ask the black folks who lived and died under Black Codes and Jim Crow and outright slavery how it worked out to be unarmed against this government. Ask the Italians and Poles who wanted to form a union in Pittsburgh how it felt to be gunned down by their own country’s soldiers. Or the kids at Kent State. I could go on.
No, we were founded on opposition, distrust of authority, treason, and a unifying belief in those ideals in the founding documents, it is in our DNA. It is difficult, this experiment in a democratic Republic, which more often resembles an inverted totalitarian state (Sheldon Wolin reference), but all we have to do is live up to the promise. Simple.
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When I was pregnant with my now 8 year old, one of my students’ parents gave me that book as a baby gift. I was delighted that such literature not only existed for children, but that a parent thought enough of me and my future child to gift it. It is a sweet and tender TRUE story.
Today, I think parents in my NJ district would be reluctant to gift this to anyone unless they were close friends. We are going backwards What a sad world. All the more reason to support the efforts to fight banning of books no matter where you live.
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I’m laughing as I post these pull quotes at the absurdity of how far human sexual fascism will go to control and/or censure not only humans but wild animals:
“Penguins have been observed to engage in homosexual behaviour since at least as early as 1911. George Murray Levick, who documented this behaviour in Adélie penguins at Cape Adare, described it as ‘depraved’.”
“Scientists perceive homosexual behavior in animals to different degrees. Multiple current sources from the 2010s and later state that same-sex sexual behavior has been observed in over 1,500 species.”
I’m not providing the sources and links — if interested, please find them yourself.
Shhh, don’t tell the Republican fascists this or they will pass legislation in RED states to eradicate more than 1,500 species in the wild, waging war on nature itself.
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Lloyd It’s even more complex than that (that the animal world is well-known for such, omg, morally bereft behaviors). But I like your method of quasi-documentation, for the moment, anyhow.
With that in mind I will relay that, about 10 or so years back, I read what I remember to be in an authentic scientific publication about how birth control medicines have entered our waterways enough so that some fish species are changing forms and behaviors (weirdly in many cases) according to the introduction of hormones in the waters.
This apparent fact led me to wonder about how that same “it’s in the water” situation might have an ongoing effect on humans. Just a thought; though in any case, I am not anti-gay or anti-Pride, etc., and love being trans-entertained. CBK
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Around 2010 I had to work with a parent who protested “Tango”. At that time the district had a process that allowed the parent to have a say without taking the book off the shelves. Basically the parent was heard but the sensible step to keep the book available was followed. I’m not sure we would have such a resolution today.
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DeSantis is a Fascist and needs to go and I don’t mean to the WH. Florida is no longer a Democratic State and that’s what he would push for the Country. There is to place for retaliation in a Democracy if someone disagrees with you, but that is how DeSantis governs.
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Shhh… Here is the REAL BURR under DeSantis and othersuch Homophobes’ Saddles:
It is NOT because a chic is raised by two penguin dads…
It IS because of the “INCONVENIENT FACT” that the story of Tango, raised by two dads in a zoo, is true…
And because homosexual acts and relationships are well documented throughout the animal kingdom.
So…
CONVERSION THERAPY in Broward & Florida must be banned & made illegal or else we must accept as truth that the banned books can influnce a students sexuality.
BAN CONVERSION THERAPY OF MINORS.
CONVERSION THERAPY ON MINORS IS CRIMINAL. Period.
………………………………………
Is Ron DeSantis a fascist? By Tom Huckin | May 5, 2023
Checking 14 characteristics of fascism against the Florida governor’s actions after his recent visit to Utah…
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came to Utah last month and delivered the keynote address at the Utah Republican Party organizing convention in Orem. He was greeted as a hero by some 2,500 delegates in attendance. At the same time, he was jeered by some 100 students outside, many of whom accused him of being a fascist.
It’s not the first time DeSantis and other followers of Donald Trump have been accused of fascism. Trump’s rise to power in 2016 triggered a movement toward the right end of America’s political spectrum, and younger politicians such as DeSantis, Matt Gaetz, and Marjorie Taylor Greene have pushed it even farther. This has triggered increasing use of the term fascism in our political discourse. But what is fascism, exactly? And is Ron DeSantis a practitioner?
To answer that question, I turned to Umberto Eco, the great Italian philosopher and novelist (The Name of the Rose). Born in 1932, Eco experienced Mussolini’s fascism first-hand. In his later years, he wrote about this and listed 14 characteristics of fascism. In what follows, I indicate ways they do or don’t apply to DeSantis.
1) First, fascism is “a cult of tradition.” DeSantis’ traditionalist, anti-“woke” policies are a good example.
2) Second, Eco considered it “an irrational rejection of modernism.” DeSantis’s vow in Orem to “kneecap” environmental, social and governing investing strategies exemplifies this.
3) A third characteristic is “action for action’s sake” and “distrust of the intellectual world.” Examples include DeSantis’ continuing attacks on Florida’s colleges and universities and their open-minded searches for truth — which he simplistically demeans as “wokism.”
4) Fourth is a rejection of the critical spirit, replaced by the notion that “disagreement is treason.” This accords with the previous point.
5) A fifth characteristic is fear of diversity. As Eco puts it, “Fascism is racist by definition.” DeSantis is notorious for his attacks on the teaching of Black history, Indigenous history, slavery, or anything else that deviates from the traditional white-oriented curriculum.
6) Sixth is fascism’s appeal to frustrated middle and lower-middle classes. In our hypercapitalistic nation, money flows upward to the wealthier classes, creating resentment among everyone else. DeSantis’ political rhetoric takes full advantage.
7) A seventh characteristic is ultranationalism and obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. DeSantis has promoted laws that would criminalize and incarcerate not only undocumented immigrants but any citizen who helps them.
8) Eighth is a feeling of humiliation due to the wealth and power of their enemies. Not applicable in DeSantis’ case.
I STRONGLY DISAGREE WITH THIS AUTHORS OPINION ON #8 – I can easily see DeSantis sweat under the steady gaze of either Governor Gavin Newsom of California or former President Trump – or any-old multi-Billionaire, actually.
9) Next is the fascist belief that “life is permanent warfare.” The current culture war embraced by DeSantis and his followers is a good example, as was DeSantis’ crusade against Dr. Anthony Fauci.
10) Tenth is a populist form of elitism that includes contempt for the weak. DeSantis is known for such cruelty, going back to when he was a Navy officer at Guantanamo sitting in on — and, according to one victim, enjoying — torture sessions.
11) Eleventh: the myth of the hero. Fascism always has a strong leader who considers himself superior to everyone else. DeSantis’ attacks on Disney World and the CDC are good illustrations.
12) Twelfth is the “fetishizing of machismo” and “disdain for women and homosexuals,” enhanced by what Eco calls “the worship of guns as phallic symbols.” DeSantis projects a kind of machismo in his public image, including disdain for women in a harsh new abortion law and disdain for gays in his book bans. As for guns, he recently signed into law the right of all Florida citizens to carry a concealed gun anywhere — without a permit.
13) A thirteenth characteristic of fascism is “TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.” DeSantis is a frequent guest on Fox News, Newsmax, and other right-wing platforms, which promote him in every way.
14) Finally, fascism uses “an impoverished vocabulary and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.” Though he’s well-educated, DeSantis uses simplified speech in public, and simplistic reasoning.
In sum, what we are witnessing in today’s polarized politics does indeed include fascism, embodied and promoted by DeSantis and others on the far right.
Those student protesters at UVU had it right.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gave the keynote address at the Utah Republican Party 2023 Organizing Convention at Utah Valley University’s UCCU Center on Saturday, April 22, 2023.
Tom Huckin, professor emeritus, University of Utah and longtime resident of Salt Lake City, likes to challenge conventional wisdom. –> Donate to the newsroom! The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity & contributions are tax deductible!
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Shhh… Here is the REAL BURR under DeSantis and othersuch Homophobes’ Saddles:
It is NOT because a chic is raised by two penguin dads…
It IS because of the “INCONVENIENT FACT” that the story of Tango, raised by two dads in a zoo, is true…
And because homosexual acts and relationships are well documented throughout the animal kingdom.
So…
CONVERSION THERAPY in Broward & Florida must be banned & made illegal or else we must accept as truth that the banned books can influnce a students sexuality.
BAN CONVERSION THERAPY OF MINORS.
CONVERSION THERAPY ON MINORS IS CRIMINAL. Period.
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