1. The Trans Flags 2. Non-Binary Characters in Your Kid's Favorite Book Series
1. The Trans Flags 2. Non-Binary Characters in Your Kid's Favorite Book Series
You're surely familiar with the Rainbow Flag, but are you familiar with the Trans Flag? We will also look at some of the most popular children’s series with non-binary characters.
After my last post Define Queer, a friend contacted me confused about the headphone picture taken at a local library. Why was this interesting? I shared that these are the trans flag colors and she responded, “there is a trans flag??? Michele, you need to follow up about that.” I’m so sorry for the confusion. In this post, we will look at the trans flags and colors.
There are a few trans flag versions, here is the first one that I see as more common:
This flag was designed by Monica Helms in 1999. That date just blows me away. That was the year I graduated high school, and the movement already had a flag even though this was a teeny tiny segment of the LGBT population. According to an article in The Atlantic, the “T” was added to LGB in the late 90s. By 1999, the trans community has their own flag.
I remember taking a sensitivity course in college and the faculty sponsor for the LGBT community came to speak. When he was asked about the “T” he became very uncomfortable. He told us that he wasn’t aware of any transgender students at our school and that this was extremely rare. This was probably 2002.
Here is the picture I posted last week with the caption, “Does this look like passive resistance to you?” The picture was taken at Tullis Library in New Caney. Get it? I thought it was cleaver, especially if they were asked not to put pride/trans flags up. Maybe it’s just coincidence; although I have to say, I’ve seen an awful lot of coincidences in our libraries, especially in June. I’m also finding these symbolic colors in books, but I’ll get to that later.
There are a few other versions of pride flags, one of which was flown in front of the white house. You can see one example here:
This flag is called the progress pride flag. Just as the baby blue, baby pink and white stripes stand for the genders and everything in between in the original trans flag, these colors are kept in the chevron shape while adding the brown and black stripes for people of color. This flag integrates the original rainbow flag as well. The following quote comes from a fox news article by Kerry Byrne.
The banner was designed in 2018 by American artist Daniel Quasar, who calls himself or herself a "queer non-binary celestial object having a human experience," and uses xe/xym pronouns, according to the individual's website.
The article goes into greater detail about the history of the flag and the reaction to it hung on the white house. There have also been some concerning claims in the history of these flags that are discussed and considered.
You’ve probably seen these colors before, possibly in a children’s library book.
Here we have the library book, a graphic novel called Speak Up! by Rebecca Burgess.
This book is about a young girl named Mia with autism who is finding her way in the world. She writes and preforms music with her friend Charlie who uses they/them pronouns. They make YouTube videos which go viral. Gender identity is not discussed in this book, but the symbols/ colors are all over the book. Mia usually wears rainbow makeup/ colors, while Charlie typically wears the trans colors.
Am I being nitpicky? Maybe. This book is certainly not the most concerning book in the children’s section, but I think it’s important for parents to be aware of the symbolism being used to promote the movement. This way you can see the “red flags” (or pink and blue flags) that tell you to be on the lookout for gender discussion.
Non-binary characters are showing up in many popular book series.
Finally, we will look at three book series that your kids have probably read: Dragon Masters, Wings of Fire and Cardboard Kingdom. I imagine that the pressure must be on for authors to pander to radical trans activists.
Tracey West’s Dragon Masters
Dragon Masters is a wildly popular tween (2nd grade/ early chapter books) book series. I used to pre-order them for my kids.
Then book 22 came along. Parents need to be aware that gender language and discussion is being inserted into books very subtly, and in this book it’s so subtle that Book Looks didn’t even pick up on it.
In book 22, Guarding the Invisible Dragon, Val is non-binary and is referred to as they/them three times in the book. It’s so subtle that you almost wonder if it’s a mistake. Am I reading this right?
A writer for The Federalist decided to email the author and ask her intentions. The response confirmed that Val is indeed non-binary. You can read more in his article here:
In addition to the public libraries, you can find this book at the following ConroeISD libraries: Broadway Elementary, Buckalew Elementary, Bush Elementary, David Elementary, Galadas Elementary, Glen Lock Elementary, Hailey Elementary, Houston Elementary, Lamar Elementary, Milam Elementary, Powell Elementary, Sally K Ride Elementary, Suchma (K-6)
Tui T. Sutherland’s Wings of Fire
These wildly popular books are dark and extremely violent, and that was reason enough for me to prevent my children from reading them, to their disappointment. We all have to make our own decisions for our kids based on our own personal convictions, and some friends found themselves needing to explain some things when it came to book 15, The Flames of Hope.
The characters Axolotl and Sage are both non-binary. Sage is mentioned briefly, but Axolotl is introduced and developed as a human character who goes by they/them pronouns. A bit more is explained in the epilogue.
There is more politics to this book that I would like to dig deeper into in a full review.
These characters are described in the official Wings of Fire fan website:
Axolotl | Wings of Fire Wiki | Fandom
Sage | Wings of Fire Wiki | Fandom
The Wings of Fire Books can be found in every Montgomery County public library as well as every school district (Conroe, Magnolia, Montgomery) in the county. While these books seem to be for middle grades, most elementary schools have books from this series on the shelves.
Chad Sell’s Cardboard Kingdom
These award-winning, charming books are not only in all of our public county libraries (with multiple copies), but they are in most Conroe ISD, Montgomery ISD, and Magnolia ISD elementary school libraries. Kids love these books, and it’s not hard to see why; however, as Kirk Cameron says, they are “laced” with gender content.
In these books, children create a cardboard kingdom and a backstory for each character they play.
In the first book in the series, a boy named Jack creates an evil sorcerous character. His mother wanting to be supportive brings up the subject saying she understands that he likes to dress up, and that she wants him to be himself. He responds that this isn’t dress up, but that she is who he wants to be.
Having Conversations
The world is after our kids, and we must prepare them for what they will be facing. This is why it is so important to place the book, God Made Boys and Girls, helping children understand the gift of gender by Marty Machowski in our libraries. This will give parents in our county tools to help talk to their kids about this issue. These are hard conversations, and I find that books can be helpful in those conversations.
The three copies of these books have been sitting in the “Material Being Cataloged” queue for about a month now. I’m not sure why it’s taking so long since The Tuttle Twins books showed up in the catalog AFTER this book, and they are already being distributed to the shelves. There could be any number of possibilities. I wonder if copies of God Made Boys and Girls are still on order, but since books on order are no longer put in the catalog, (possibly because I was reporting on them) these books were possibly inputted as “being catalogued” so we would stop bothering them? Maybe the books are simply being held at Central until after the results of the most recent picture book challenges, or perhaps there is a question of how to catalog them? Is this the first time this book has ever been placed in a library? Could be…
Go ahead and place a hold, and you can be first in line to get the book. Here is a direct link to the catalog:
God made boys and girls : helping children understand the gift of gender (sirsi.net)
Moving forward…
We are moving into the holiday season, and it’s time to take time off and relax with family. If you have a bit of extra time to sneak away and help out with the cause, we would all be so very grateful. We are hoping the reconsideration committee will meet to discuss the books submitted for reconsideration (to be moved out of the children’s section) before the Christmas holiday. If you would like to fill out some reconsideration forms during the Thanksgiving break, (or the week after) you can find links to the forms as well as sample forms at the following links:
I recommend you turn them in by the first week of December. Thank you again for being willing to take the time. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.