{"id":1169043,"date":"2021-12-29T11:20:28","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T16:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1169043"},"modified":"2021-12-29T11:20:29","modified_gmt":"2021-12-29T16:20:29","slug":"aft-union-encourages-gifting-book-about-transgender-children-for-the-holiday-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/aft-union-encourages-gifting-book-about-transgender-children-for-the-holiday-season\/","title":{"rendered":"AFT Union Encourages Gifting Book About Transgender Children For The \u2018Holiday Season\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Faft-union-encourages-gifting-book-about-transgender-children-for-the-holiday-season%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1169043&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In the most recent edition of the American Federation of Teachers Union monthly magazine, the AFT encouraged members to \u201cshare the love of reading this holiday season\u201d by taking advantage of their partnership with the company First Book by giving \u201cgifts of cheer\u201d to kids and families. Of the six books highlighted by the magazine, one was \u201cBeing You: A First Conversation About Gender.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the magazine titled \u201cAmerican Educator: A Journal of Educational Equity, Research, and Ideas,\u201d the AFT features a promotion on page one, highlighting the partnership between the AFT and First Book.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShare the love of reading this holiday season!\u201d the ad encourages. \u201cVisit First Book\u2019s Holiday Shop to purchase gifts of cheer and festive books, games, and more on a budget.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKeep kids and families engaged all winter with amazing, affordable books and resources,\u201d the ad continues.<\/p>\n<p>As seen above, the promotion prominently features \u201cBeing You\u201d by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli.<\/p>\n<p>According to Penguin Randomhouse, the book\u2019s publisher, the book is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/667992\/being-you-a-first-conversation-about-gender-by-megan-madison-and-jessica-ralli-illustrated-by-anneandy-passchier\/\">geared<\/a> toward pre-school children and is \u201cbased on the research that race, gender, consent, and body positivity should be discussed with toddlers on up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis read-aloud board book series offers adults the opportunity to begin important conversations with young children in an informed, safe, and supported way,\u201d the publisher added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing You\u201d was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Being-You-Conversation-Gender-Conversations\/dp\/0593382641\/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1SEFO9KANA6GQ&amp;keywords=being+you+a+first+conversation&amp;qid=1640787756&amp;sprefix=being+you+a+first+conversation%2Caps%2C80&amp;sr=8-1\">supposedly<\/a> developed by \u201cexperts in the fields of early childhood and activism against injustice, this topic-driven board book offers clear, concrete language and beautiful imagery that young children can grasp and adults can leverage for further discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cResearch shows that talking about issues like race and gender from the age of two not only helps children understand what they see, but also increases self-awareness, self-esteem, and allows them to recognize and confront things that are unfair, like discrimination and prejudice,\u201d the publisher said online.<\/p>\n<p>In a sample reading provided by the publisher set to the background of children\u2019s tunes, the narrator discusses reproductive body parts and implies that \u201cgrown-ups\u201d assign the children\u2019s gender to them at birth based on those body parts and even sometimes guess.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDifferent bodies have different parts; elbows, noses, belly buttons! Some bodies have a vagina, some bodies have a penis. Every person\u2019s body parts look different. But there are some parts we all have,\u201d the narrator reads. \u201cWhen a baby is born, grown-ups might say \u2018It\u2019s a girl!\u2019 if their body has a vagina, or \u2018It\u2019s a boy!\u2019 if their body has a penis. Sometimes, grown-ups aren\u2019t sure but they choose the words girl or boy anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As shown in pages from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yarnstrongsista.com\/product\/being-you-a-first-conversation-about-gender\/\">book available online<\/a>, different children are seen pointing to their body parts, including one who is bending over and pointing to private parts during this portion of that text:<\/p>\n<p>At a different point, the book states that \u201cPronouns are words that people use to talk about someone instead of that person\u2019s name, like they, she or he. Some words might feel more like you than others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Various characters announce their pronouns on these pages with statements such as, \u201cI go by ze,\u201d \u201cElla, por favor,\u201d \u201cHe and him work for me,\u201d and \u201cMy pronouns are they and them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The book then asks, \u201cWhat are your pronouns?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing You\u201d also implies that gender is based purely on \u201cfeelings\u201d and that gender can change on a day-to-day basis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhatever your feelings are, they are real and important. You are the expert in being YOU,\u201d one of the pages reads.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the book, children and adults proclaim things like, \u201cI\u2019m a girl!\u201d \u201cToday I feel like a boy!\u201d \u201cI\u2019m an in-betweener!\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m trans!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The book was released this past August and has 68 reviews on Amazon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very selective about books for my kiddo. I was able to preview some of these pages online while I was looking for books to start the gender conversation with my little one (born a girl but has been calling themselves a boy since they could speak, also on the Autism spectrum, so big concepts like gender are a little tougher) so that we could be sure that our kiddo could have the tools and language to talk about their gender when they are ready,\u201d one reviewer stated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe read this together and both of us loved it. It\u2019s a regular in our rotation now and it helped give my kiddo the language they needed to be able to communicate with us better about who they are,\u201d she added. \u201cI\u2019m really glad that I found this book!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another criticized the book, saying, \u201cThis book is terrible. If you want your kids to be very very confused then please read them this book. Sorry for not being a \u2018kind and brave adult\u2019. I would prefer to have my kids running and playing outside and being themselves rather than defining themselves by if they \u2018feel like a girl or a boy today.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both the authors and the illustrator work in education or children\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the most recent edition of the American Federation of Teachers Union monthly magazine, the AFT encouraged members to \u201cshare the love of reading this holiday season\u201d by taking advantage of their partnership with the company First Book by giving \u201cgifts of cheer\u201d to kids and families. Of the six books highlighted by the magazine, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":326,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1169043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/326"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1169043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1169043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1169043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1169043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}