Brett Berk

There’s been a good deal of media coverage recently of a book called Daddy’s Roommate. This little piece of children’s literature was originally published in the early ’90s, so why is it suddenly the subject of a shit-storm? Well, it’s because of the person John McCain’t chose to share his rocket to the bottom, the vindictive, dim-witted, prevaricating, creationist Sarah “Baracuda” Palin. Apparently, back when Sarah was just a City Councilperson in teensy Wasilla, Alaska, she spotted the title in the local library, and told some other government types that she felt it “didn’t belong there”. Being literate and intelligent, they read the book–which attempts to explain man-on-man love to preschoolers–and found it inoffensive, but when they suggested that Sarah do the same, she resisted. “I don’t need to read that stuff,” she said. Way to go, Sarah. She knows smut when she sees it. Ban Before Reading, indeed. If she had bothered to read the book, she might have had a different reaction. The Gay Uncle certainly did back when he first cracked it, finding it in a bookstore the year it came out during a shopping trip for the pre-school he ran. In those days, there was a dearth of books for young kids on this topic, and since he was a big fag and had two other gay male teachers working at his school (and since teaching kids to embrace diversity is part of educating them on how to be HUMAN) he felt obligated to buy it. Now that there are many better options (G.U. is currently working on an article reviewing “The New Queer Kids’ Media”) he feels like he can safely say that Daddy’s Roommate is a crappy and outdated book. First of all, roommate? Even the wretched word “partner” is superior to this. And the characters? Though it came out in 1994, the two guys seem firmly stuck in the strange preppy/clone era of 1982, with collar-up polo shirts, shaggy hairdos, debonair mustaches, cable-knit sweaters, and–perhaps most importantly–a baby grand piano around which they gather to sing show tunes. The ultimate message of GAY=HAPPY seems somewhat bland and naive as well. But as silly and retrograde as the book may be, there’s no reason that it should be BANNED FROM A PUBLIC LIBRARY, any more than any of the other books (and God knows what else) S.P. wants tossed on the burn pile. We must stop these Republican monsters. The Gay Uncle went canvassing for Barack yesterday afternoon, and highly recommends it:click here to sign up.