What The Hell Is Wrong With Oklahoma?

And by that, I mean, why are they suddenly doing the right thing?

Oklahoma, as many of you know, is home to Sally "Gays Are A Worse Threat Than Terrorism" Kern, and the place where a woman who seeks an abortion, a legal abortion, may find her information--everything except her name--posted online.

Yeah, I know. Back.Wards.

But now, up in Tulsa, the Union Public Schools District Board of Education has voted to keep a book on the shelves that parents Don and Mary Danz deemed inappropriate for their son because it alluded to a :::gasp::: same-sex relationship.

The board voted 3-1 to keep the book, "Buster's Sugartime" on school library shelves. And, just as remarkable, before the Danz' took the issue of banning Buster to the board, they raised their complaints to the district's Materials Review Committee in October. That committee voted 6-1 to keep the book on the school's library shelves.

"Buster's Sugartime," is the story of anthropomorphic animated rabbit Buster and his visit to Vermont. Buster meets the children of a same-sex couple and they play, make cookies, visit a dairy, have dinner and make maple syrup.

Sounds awful!

Of the book's 31 pages of text and pictures, two short passages mention the same-sex couple: "Buster went to visit his mom's friends Karen and Gillian. They had three children ..." and "Lily's moms, Tracy and Gina, were very good cooks."

According to committee meeting minutes, the Danzes said their kindergarten-age son brought the book home from Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, and that they thought the reference to "two moms" was not appropriate for elementary-age children.

Well, then, Don and Mary, explain to your child why you don't want him reading the book, don't keep it from other, more enlightened families.

Don Danz, an attorney naturally, says he and Mary didn't disagree with the Lesbian moms in the book on religious or moral grounds, but felt it was inappropriate because the book advocated a practice that is not recognized under Oklahoma's constitution.

Don Danz: "For kindergarten through fifth grade, material that advocates-- that's the author's stated goal--positions, behavior, relationships which are objectively contrary to well-established Oklahoma law" are inappropriate. "The tough decision is to pull this book. Don't make this book part of the curriculum; don't make same-sex unions part of the curriculum."

Part of the curriculum? Danz is trying to make it sound like having the book in the library is akin to "teaching" homosexuality. So,

Dan, let me make this perfectly queer for you: You can't teach it; you can't catch it; you can indoctrinate anyone into becoming gay.

Union Superintendent Cathy Burden argued that the book meets the criteria for literature selection and that the same-sex relationship is not the central theme of the story. She says the book is appropriate for children because it is about Buster's adventures with the children in Vermont, and added, "If legality in Oklahoma was an issue we were to use in criteria, then we would have to get rid of a lot of books in our library referencing things like pirates and robbers and cattle rustlers and many other topics that are certainly in popular fiction not only for children but for adults."

Board member Ed Payton: "I don't see the advocacy here, I see the reflection of reality here." And then he noted that his district has students who are children of same-sex couples and that "Sugartime" is similar to other books in the "Postcards from Buster" series that portray the character visiting Muslim and Mormon households.

I may have to rethink my whole Oklahoma Is Crazy idea.