Book banning should be a thing of the past, something from a less civilized society, yet it continues on in our world today. Books used to be banned for depicting non-white races, but today we have started to ban books that depict gay and lesbian parents. Despite what we have learned from the past, and books like Catch 22, nothing more has been done but change what upsets us the most.
In April of 2003, in Surrey, BC, school board officials banned three books that depicted gay and lesbian parents from Cloverdale Elementary bookshelves after a kindergarten teacher added them to his teaching agenda. Out of 440 parents whose children attended that school, only 5 complained about these three books. Thus, these books were banned for all students.
The three books were to be used in the kindergarten class, in hopes that it would teach children that families are all different and come in all different assortments. The parents who objected to these books argued that a child's parents should teach their children any lessons in different lifestyles, not the school.
Not unlike the infamous court case that decided that Darwin's theory could be taught in school, the kindergarten teacher, along with other teachers, parents, and concerned community members have started a lawsuit to have the unfair ban on the books lifted. Cloverdale administrators and teachers intend to remind the court and the general public that books such as these three are not written for gay and lesbian persons. These books are written to tell children of gay and lesbian parents that they are not "weird" or "strange".
Children are innocent victims in the religious war going on in our world. This case in a suburb of Canada will have a strong effect on the rest of the world. There is more to lose in this battle than just public opinion of the gay and lesbian "lifestyle". The thousands of needless deaths of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered youth would rather die than have to face their parents with the knowledge that their worst nightmare has come true.
