Submitted by Victor on
[9 July 2015] - Venice’s new mayor Luigi Brugnaro has banned dozens of children’s books on homosexuality and disability in the city’s schools.
Brugnaro Wednesday (8 July) said he would not be ‘intimidated’ by his critics and slammed their ‘cultural arrogance’ in a statement, which also included a list of 49 blacklisted books.
On the list were the French book Jean Has Two Moms, about a wolf family with two mothers, and Tango Makes Three, the true story of two male penguins who raised a chick together – 1,000 copies of which were introduced into schools by the previous administration.
‘We don’t want to discriminate against anyone and at home parents can call themselves daddy number one and daddy number two, but I have to consider the majority of families, which have a mum and a dad,’ he told La Repubblica newspaper last month.
‘It is parents who should educate children about these things, not schools.’
In response to the announcement, a marathon of public readings of the banned books has been launched, and several libraries are encouraging people to read the titles with signs saying, ‘Blacklisted books, be a rebel, read them.’