Working Toward a Brighter Tomorrow

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jan 04, 2004

Christopher Zehnder reports on Cootie Shots: Theatrical Inoculations Against Bigotry, a program designed to aid elementary school students in overcoming intolerance they may have learned at home.

The theme of homosexual marriage is revisited in "Play Wedding," where Noodlehead explains to Bananabrain (both playing with stuffed animals) that Mr. Lizard can marry Gorilla instead of Barbie, even though Mr. Lizard and Gorilla are both boys. Bananabrain is incredulous until Noodlehead relates that her Uncle Chester married his boyfriend and had a wedding. To questions posed by Bananabrain, Noodle asserts that the two grooms wore ties and not dresses and had flowers. "Did they kiss?" asks Bananabrain. "Yup," replies Noodlehead. "For a long time." This fact is a sticking point, it seems, for Bananabrain, for he later asks the same question, and Noodlehead replies with the same "Yup. For a long time." Finally, Bananabrain accepts that "boys can have a wedding" and allows Mr. Lizard and Gorilla their nuptials. What became of Barbie we never learn.

You may feel some vague apprehension as to whether such indoctrination is congruent with Church teaching, but there's absolutely no cause for concern, because one of the creators is himself in Holy Orders.

The collaborators also include one Catholic priest, Father Cris Rosales, a Salesian. Father Cris wrote one of the plays, "Just Because You're You," in which a father assures his effeminate son that God loves him just the way he is.

Incidentally, there is no reason to believe that gays are more likely than straights to abuse stuffed animals.