And Tango Makes Three

What an ADORABLE STORY from the New York Times:
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October 2, 2009, 7:30 AM

A Baby for the Gay Authors Behind the Daddy Penguins

By JENNIFER 8. LEE

Simon and Schuster“And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, is the most challenged book in America for the third year in a row.

It’s yet another example of life imitating art, or at least humans imitating animals.

Ever since “And Tango Makes Three,” a children’s book detailing the story of two male penguins and the baby chick they hatched, has been published, in 2005, more people have requested the book’s removaleach year from schools and libraries than any other book in the United States, according to the American Library Association.

Now the authors of the book, Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, have their own baby Tango. In February, the gay couple, who live in the West Village, had their first child. The baby, Gemma Parnell-Richardson, was born to a surrogate mother, the egg fertilized by sperm from one of the men. (Which one was left to chance.)

The two men first learned of the story of Roy and Silo, two male penguins in the Central Park Zoo, who hatched an egg together, through an article in The New York Times in 2004.

The penguins, who had had a six-year intimate relationship by then, tried to hatch a rock in their nest. A zookeeper took pity on them and gave them a fertile egg from another penguin couple that had problems tending to two eggs. The same-sex couple sat on the egg, which hatched, and the baby penguin was named Tango, since it “takes two.”

The authors were trying to have a child when they read the Times article. “When we heard about the penguins going and getting a rock, we completely understood that urge to have a child,” said Mr. Richardson, 46, a psychiatrist. The two were set up on a blind date in 1994 by a mutual friend, the playwrightWendy Wasserstein, and started thinking of raising a family together in 2003.

Leora KahnPeter Parnell, left, and Justin Richardson with their new baby daughter, Gemma Parnell-Richardson. The two are the authors of “And Tango Makes Three,” a children’s book about male penguins in Central Park who hatch an egg together. It is the most challenged book in the United States.

“I read it aloud to Peter,” Mr. Richardson said. “It was reading it aloud that made it sound like a children’s story. This is a way to talk about this kind of family that will work at the level of a picture book and not a didactic ‘it’s O.K. to be different’ story. It’s a story that kids actually read. When the chick pops out, they say, ‘Yay.’ ”

So Mr. Richardson and Mr. Parnell, 54, a playwright, sent out a book proposal through their agent. The book was published by Simon & Schuster, but the family was still a work in progress. They started in-vitro fertilization in 2006, but it took a few years to work.

Gemma was born in Massachusetts because the state allows both fathers’ names on the birth certificate without an adoption process. (In addition, New York State does not allow women to be paid to be surrogate mothers.)

Of course, the book does not get into the real-life postpartum drama, in which Silo took up with a female penguin named Scrappy — a move that shook up the gay community.

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom collects data on book challenges — defined as a formal written complaint, filed with a library or school, requesting that materials be removed or restricted because of content or appropriateness.

In 2008, the office received 513 reports on efforts to remove or restrict materials from school curriculums and library bookshelves, though officials estimated that the figure likely represented only 20 percent to 25 percent of all challenges nationwide. A written request does not necessarily result in the book being pulled.

In 2006 and 2007, more challenges were made to “And Tango Makes Three” than to any other book, according to Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the deputy director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom. (Data for the book for 2008 were not immediately available.)

The book was removed from four school libraries in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., in 2007, but was returned after parents protested.

According to library association, the common criticisms against “And Tango Makes Three” were that it was anti-ethnic or anti-family, portrayed homosexuality, violated a religious viewpoint and was unsuited for a given age group. Another children’s book with gay themes — “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding,” by Sarah S. Brannen, which tells the story of a wedding between two male guinea pigs — has been the target of similar complaints.

On Saturday, Mr. Richardson and Mr. Parnell read their book in Chicago forBanned Books Week, an annual event the association sponsors to draw attention to issues of intellectual freedom. “Unlike gays in the military, gays at the altar, the government is squarely behind us this time; the Constitution is squarely behind us,” Mr. Richardson said.

This year, the birth of Gemma gave their annual reading special resonance, the men said. “Two plucky characters want something that seems totally out of reach,” Mr. Richardson said. “They try and try and try and ultimately they succeed.”

Of course, unlike Roy and Silo, who essentially depended on a sympathetic zookeeper and a nearby fertile penguin couple, Mr. Richardson and Mr. Parnell’s effort involved a lawyer, a nurse, a surrogate mother and an in-vitro fertilization doctor.

“We tried to incubate a rock and that didn’t work,” Mr. Richardson said wryly.