同性愛：ペンギンの絵本、保護者が撤去要請 米イリノイ州

同性愛：ペンギンの絵本、保護者が撤去要請　米イリノイ州
毎日新聞　2006年11月20日　10時09分　（最終更新時間　11月20日　11時49分）


　【ワシントン大治朋子】米中西部イリノイ州で、同性愛のペンギンを描いた絵本を学校の図書室から撤去するよう一部の保護者が求めている。ＡＰ通信などによると、同じ絵本をめぐる同様の騒動は今年始めごろから隣接するミズーリ州などでも起きており、同性愛を嫌悪する一部の保守的なキリスト教徒らの価値観を象徴する動きとなっている。

　絵本の題名は「タンゴが生まれて（家族は）３羽」。昨年４月に出版された。ニューヨーク・セントラルパーク内の動物園にいる実在の雄ペンギンのシロとロイが「娘」のタンゴを育てる筋書き。

　動物園で７年前、飼育係が卵に良く似た石を温める２羽の雄に気付き、他のつがいのペンギンが孵化させず放置していた卵を与えたところ、２羽は卵を温め、タンゴが生まれた。絵本はこの実話に基づいている。

　イリノイ州シロー地区の小学校では一部の保護者が「同性愛の話であり、教育に良くない」などと学校側に抗議した。学校側は審議会に諮り、「撤去すべきだ」との答申を得たが、校長は「図書室はさまざまな人種、信仰の子供たちが使う」と主張し、絵本の撤去に応じていない。

　今年始めにはミズーリ州サバンナ地区の図書館で保護者が同書の展示に抗議するなど同様の問題が起きているという。

　動物園広報係のケイト・マセタールさんは毎日新聞の取材に対し「絵本は当時愛し合っていた雄２羽の物語だが、絵本が出た後別れ、シロには現在、雌のパートナーがおり、ロイは独り者だ」と話している。

毎日新聞　2006年11月20日　10時09分　（最終更新時間　11月20日　11時49分）

|| News ||
11/18/06-11/20/06
Gay penguin book shakes up Illinois school

A picture book about two male penguins raising a baby penguin is getting a chilly reception among some parents in Shiloh, Illinois, who worry about the book's availability to children--and the reluctance of school administrators to restrict access to it. The concerns are the latest involving And Tango Makes Three, the illustrated children's book based on a true story of two male penguins in New York City's Central Park Zoo that adopted a fertilized egg and raised the chick as their own.

Complaining about the book's homosexual undertones, some parents of Shiloh Elementary School students believe the book, available to be checked out of the school's library in this 11,000-resident town 20 miles east of St. Louis, tackles topics their children aren't ready to handle. Their request: Move the book to the library's regular shelves and restrict it to a section for mature issues, perhaps even requiring parental permission before a child can check it out.

For now, And Tango Makes Three will stay put, said school district superintendent Jennifer Filyaw, though a panel she appointed suggested the book be moved and require parental permission to be checked out. The district's attorney said moving it might be construed as censorship.

Filyaw considers the book ''adorable'' and age appropriate, written for children ages 4 to 8. ''My feeling is that a library is to serve an entire population,'' she said. ''It means you represent different families in a society, different religions, different beliefs.''

Lilly Del Pinto thought the book looked charming when her 5-year-old daughter brought it home in September. Del Pinto said she was halfway through reading it to her daughter ''when the zookeeper said the two penguins must be in love.'' ''That's when I ended the story,'' she said.

Del Pinto said her daughter's teacher told her she was unfamiliar with the book, and the school's librarian directed the mother to Filyaw. ''I wasn't armed with pitchforks or anything. I innocently was seeking answers,'' Del Pinto said, agreeing with Filyaw's belief that pulling the book from the shelves could constitute censorship.

The book has created similar flaps elsewhere. Earlier this year, two parents voiced concerns about the book with librarians at the Rolling Hills' Consolidated Library's branch in the northwest Missouri town of Savannah. Barbara Read, Rolling Hills' director, has said she consulted with staff members at the Omaha, Nebraska, and Kansas City zoos and the University of Oklahoma's zoology department, who told her adoptions aren't unusual in the world of penguins.

She said the book was then moved to the nonfiction section because it was based on actual events. In that section, she said, there was less of a chance that the book would ''blindside'' someone. (Jim Suhr, AP)