Recently, the well-known children's "American Girl" magazine published an article on a young girl and her three brothers, who had been through extensive trials of foster care before finally being adopted by two loving parents. The heartwarming story included how this young girl, Amaya, showed up at her new parents' front door with all her belongings in trash bags. Amaya continues to tell how she was so used to being moved from place to place, that she was shocked to be so smothered in love by her new parents. Another heartwarming addition to the story is that when Amaya first entered her new room, a new pink nightgown was on her bed.
Such a touching story should have had nothing but support from the children reading "American Girl" magazine as well as all the parents of these children. Sadly, this is not the case. A group called One Million Moms felt the urge to boycott the magazine after reading the article, with this picture of Amaya's new family:
As you can see, Amaya is featured with her brothers and her new parents, her two dads. Now, for One Million Moms, this was an outrageous thing to have in a children's magazine. The group claimed that, "The magazine could have chosen another child to write about and remained neutral in the culture war.” Really? Just because this girl was adopted into a loving home that just so happened to be two men, she can't be in your kids magazine? The group then went on to urge other moms and parents to boycott the magazine for pushing the "homosexual agenda" onto their children.
I honestly feel bad for the kids of these moms, as they are going to grow up in such oppressive households, and since statistically some of them are going to be homosexual, having parents this close minded could lead to real trauma later in life. These moms need to get their acts together and teach their kids to be accepting and inclusive, not judgmental.
American Girl magazine is a cute, helpful magazine for young girls and should continue being more inclusive of different, healthy family models. I hope the company does not allow the One Million Moms group to steer them away from being more inclusive and that they continue making strides in the right direction. Keeping kids educated on these topics will help them to not only be more accepting and understanding adults, but also to understand who they are and who they want to love without being judged so harshly.
