AGAINST DISCRIMINATION: “King & King,” gifted by the Ministry of Education to first graders, would help children understand unfamiliar matters, the book’s translator said

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 10, 2020
By: Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter

Several LGBT rights, gender equality and parents’ groups yesterday held a press conference in support of the Ministry of Education’s selection of a book for elementary-school readers about two princes falling in love with each other.

As part of its program to promote reading among students who are entering their first year of elementary or junior-high school — the first and seventh grades, respectively — the Ministry of Education this year gifted each first grader one book from a list of 100 selected titles, including the Mandarin edition of the picture book King & King (國王與國王) by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland.

However, the selection of the book has been protested by some groups over its LGBT content.

At a news conference outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, repregsentatives from several groups, including the Taiwan Equality Campaign, the Taiwan Tongzhi (LGBTQ+) Hotline Association, the Awakening Foundation, the Taiwan Gender Equity Education Association, the Garden of Hope Foundation and the Kaohsiung Holistic Education Parents’ Association, as well as other groups and individuals, such as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Fan Yun (范雲), spoke in support of the inclusion of the book.    [FULL  STORY]