Content Warning: This article contains themes of homophobia which some readers may find distressing.

A children’s book about same-sex parents has been published in Russia with an ‘18+’ sticker on the cover. This comes a month after a Hungarian bookshop chain was fined 250,000 forints (around £600) by a local authority for failing to indicate that the same picture book contained ‘content which deviates from the norm.’ 

The book, by American author Lawrence Schimel and illustrator Elīna Brasliņa, depicts a morning and an evening in the lives of two children with same-sex parents. It is published as two titles in English: Early One Morning, which is about a boy with two mothers, and Bedtime, Not Playtime! which tells the story of a girl with two fathers.

The Russian edition combines the two stories together and was translated by Dmitriy Kuzmin. The title of the book in Russia is Mothers, Fathers and Kids from Dusk till Dawn. The book was published by Sphere, a charitable foundation that campaigns for LGBTQ+ rights. The organisation said that Russia’s propaganda law resulted in none of the country’s publishing houses supporting its initiative to release the book. 

Sphere told The Guardian that ‘this is a book that is not only about LGBTQ+ families, but for them,’ which makes it ‘the very first of its kind in Russia.’ They also explained that they were forced to print the book with an 18+ label ‘because of the existing legislature there was no other choice but to publish a children’s book for adults only.’  They commented on the ‘ridiculousness of the propaganda law’ which raises discrimination ‘against LGBT+ and limits access to information.’

this is a book that is not only about LGBTQ+ families, but for them

Russia’s ‘gay propaganda law,’ formally titled the law ‘aimed at protecting children from information promoting the denial of traditional family values,’ bans the ‘promotion of nontraditional sexual relations to minors.’ In 2013, the BBC reported that individuals promoting ‘homosexual behaviour among minors’ face fines of up to 5,000 rubles (£50), whilst businesses and schools could be fined up to 500,000 roubles (£5000).

Sphere has launched a campaign to appeal Russia’s propaganda law and the petition has already gathered just under 60,000 signatures. 

The author of the book, Lawrence Schimel, said that he and illustrator Elīna Brasliņa were ‘delighted’ to donate their book to the campaign, emphasising that ‘these LGBT propaganda laws do not protect children from anything,’ which is why this campaign ‘to repeal this noxious law in Russia’ is so important. 

Laws do not stop children from being gay, and a lack of information about same-sex relationships doesn’t either

Schimel and Brasliņa’s book tells the story of two children with two fathers and two mothers. How could this story, a simple day in the life of a normal child, be perceived as promoting ‘non-traditional sexual relations?’ Why is the portrayal of a normal family, just one with two parents of the same gender, seen as something inherently sexual despite no mentions of anything of that nature? 

Laws do not stop children from being gay, and a lack of information about same-sex relationships doesn’t either. So why has the government banned a children’s book, for fear that representation of same-sex couples in the media will encourage children to pursue gay relationships? Books like this educate children, make them aware of other views they may not have heard of before, and encourage kindness and respect for all different types of people. How could that be seen as something which has no place in bookshops and children’s literature?

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