Penguins are not a Sin

In America and even all around the world there has been a lot of tension about same-sex couples. Even though slowly more and more states are making it legal there is still a pretty big group of people who won’t accept same-sex couples in any shape or form. It’s usually based on some flippant religious view or backwards reasoning. One of the biggest reasoning’s would be the concern “how will we explain this to our kids!?” well honestly if same-sex couples, and LGBTQIA rights weren’t constantly jeopardy, then it would be normal. Why can’t it be? Some people claim it to be unnatural. When in reality it happens in nature all the time.

George Murray Levick a British arctic explorer who was able to study the penguins in the Scott Antarctic Expedition of 1910-1913. Who made notes in his journal about these Adélie penguins and how he began noticing homosexual behavior between the males. These studies weren’t released to the public for fear of shocking the public. Even in captivity penguins have formed same-sex relationships. Two penguins in Wingham Wildlife Park became surrogate dads to a chick this year, although they had already bonded years ago.

The children’s book And Tango Makes three written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson that was published in 2005. It’s about a similar situation as the one in Wingham Wildlife Park. Where there are two male penguins who act as a couple and raise a chick together. In fact it’s based on a true story of the real penguins Roy, and Silo from the Central Park Zoo. Yet this book is banned because it has a homosexuality theme. It’s actually a really charming story and it’s really sad that people are being close minded. I think what’s really telling is that it is in fact a true story and it’s also not all that rare for penguins yet we still have people challenging it.

I believe people are so stuck in this old wrong and worn out illogical view of judgment and hate that they can’t see past it. It’s all about love and kindness for goodness sake, and yet one of the things parents are fearing the most is if their child is gay. Why is love being treated like such an awful thing when on the opposite end hate is being praised.

Sarah Yeost Pederson the Op-Ed editor for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote a short article called A Family of a Different Feather on her thoughts of the banning of And Tango Makes Three. She describes a situation with her daughter who had a classmate that has two moms. She explained how helpful the Tango book would have been to show her daughter in this time.

I think tango is a very helpful book it takes steps to normalizing homosexuality, making room for more acceptance and kindness.