Two families Sue School Over Same-Sex Fairy Tale

April 28, 2006

Two families filed a lawsuit on Thursday against a Massachusetts town and its public school system after a teacher read a gay-themed fairy tale to a classroom of 7 year old children without notifying them first.

The complaint said the school had “begun a process of intentionally indoctrinating very young children to affirm the notion that homosexuality is right and normal in direct denigration of the plaintiffs’ deeply held faith.”

The book is entitled King and King, and it tells the story of a crown prince who rejects a bevy of beautiful princesses, rebuffing each suitor until falling in love with a prince. The two marry, sealing the union with a kiss, and live happily ever after.

It also charges that Lexington broke a 1996 Massachusetts law requiring that parents be notified of sex-education lessons. It names Lexington Superintendent of Schools Paul Ash and several other school and town officials.

Wait. How is this fairy tale considered “sex education”? Is it any more “sex eduation” than say…Beauty and the Beast? Is this book advocating bestiality? How about Alice in Wonderland and it’s not so subtle drug use?

The school district’s position is that it was under no legal obligation to inform parents the book would be read and that the reading of the book was not intended as sex education but as a way to educate children about the world in which they live, especially in Massachusetts, the only U.S. state where gays and lesbians can legally wed.

The families position alleges violations of the federal civil rights of the two sets of parents, David and Tonia Parker, and Rob and Robin Wirthlin because the families are devout Judeo-Christians.

Whose position would you side with?