3.24.2012

Polkadot ____

I've been thinking about backing a Kickstarter project for a little while now, but nothing particularly jumped out at me as something I cared enough about to fund with my own money. But today, I came across a project for a "gender non-binary children's book" called Polkadot ____. I'm assuming that's because the books will be called "Polkadot Goes to Preschool" or "Polkadot Does a Silly Dance" or "Polkadot Wears Polkadot Pants" or something, and that you don't actually pronounce it "Polkadot Blank" -- but who knows? According to the Kickstarter page:
Our series begins when our main character Polkadot; a child who was not assigned a gender, is at an age when their gender identity is still forming and emerging.  The first book in our series is entitled, "Polkadot Goes to Preschool." While Polkadot is the main character of the series, and therefore their gender identity is central, this series of books celebrate the beauty and validity of ALL gender identities.
I won't pretend to know what it's like to be transgender, but I can imagine that reading this book, or better yet, growing up in a world where you're surrounded by people who have read this book, can only  make it easier. To suggest to kids that the idea that maybe "I was born as a boy, therefore I'm a boy, it's that simple" might be wrong, it's a definite step in the right direction. So I threw the author a few dollars. Why not?

I also wrote up this blog post, which might bring in a few more for them, and it didn't even cost me anything! Now the trickier question. Should I try and get the word out to pro-LGBT people who might also contribute? Or should I instead get the word out to anti-LGBT groups, so that they can cause a big "controversy" over the fact that a book might teach children that people are different from each other, so that then even more pro-LGBT people will contribute, to spite the anti-LGBT people?