Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Jie (黃捷) yesterday urged people to avoid “spreading fear and fake news” online amid rumors that children readingthe book King & King would become gay.
King & King is an illustrated children’s book coauthored by Stern Nijland and Linda De Haan that tells the story a young prince falling in love with another prince.
The Ministry of Education has placed the book on this year’s recommended reading list for first graders.
Groups opposed to marriage equality claimed it was a “plot by the ministry to make children gay.”
One has even threatened schools and demanded that they remove the book from their shelves and recommended reading lists, Huang said.
“The essence of love is understanding. It is not something you can control or force,” Huang quoted the ministry as saying.
The ministry has said that the book provides “emotional education” and teaches children how to deal with others trying to control their emotions.
The book is appropriate for elementary-school-aged children and offers guidance on respecting cultural diversity, it said.
The groups are twisting the message behind the book and spreading misinformation, Huang said.
Other books that teach about diversity had also been targeted by the groups, including Oliver is a Sissy (奧力佛是個娘娘腔), The Boy Who Wears Skirts (穿裙子的男孩) and And Tango Makes Three (一家三口), she said.
The groups called for a boycott of these and other books, including Butterfly Duo Duo (蝴蝶朵朵), which teaches children about sexual assault and about telling people they trust if they become victims, she said.
“Gender equality education has never been aimed at cultivating homosexuality. Teaching children about the LGBT community will not turn children into homosexuals,” Huang said.
The groups should put aside their prejudices and earnestly attempt to understand the message behind the books teaching about diversity, she said.
“Do not hide in darkness spreading false and one-sided information that misleads society, and causes injury to minority groups,” she said.
She would “fully investigate all anti-gender equality messages” she finds, Huang said.
She would also form a gender-equality supervisory group with other city councilors, which would also promote equality education, she said.
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