king & king

I've kept a good portion of my feelings in regards to Prop 8 out of my blog. This is primarily because the whole thing makes me quite irritable and rather unpleasant to be around. However, I came across this article in Publishers Weekly. I've included the first few paragraphs here; the remainder of the article describes a bit of the censorship history of the book.

‘King & King’ Dragged into California’s Proposition 8 Vote

Eight years after its original Dutch publication, controversy continues to swirl around King & King, a picture book by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland about gay marriage that has become embroiled in the outcome of California’s Proposition 8. The proposition seeks to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in the state, following a California Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that held such marriages were valid under the state’s constitution. Backers of the proposition are running commentary about the “immoral” message in the book in television and radio ads in California.

Nicole Geiger, founder of Tricycle Press, bought the book at the Bologna Book Fair in 2001 and published the American edition the next year. Geiger said she was “devastated” when she found out that King & King is now being cited by backers of Proposition 8 as an example of the type of books that will be used to negatively influence the lifestyle of children. “I immediately sent a personal donation to the ‘No on 8’ campaign in the hope that people will delve a little deeper into this civil rights issue than a TV or radio commercial,” she said. Sales of the book, which has sold 18,000 copies since it was published, have been above average during October. “I’m terribly proud of King & King,” Geiger said, “and saddened by any association with this innocent children’s book by politically motivated attacks on the civil rights of fellow Americans.”