CNN, the same network that won an award for stellar reporting after suggesting a missing airplane fell into a black hole, helped promote a Christmas book for kids that tells the “fresh, new” story of Santa Claus and his gay husband.
During a segment on CNN’s “New Day,” Co-anchor Christi Paul and co-host Victor Blackwell dedicated four minutes to the book, “Santa’s Husband,” and even had author Daniel Kibblesmith, and illustrator Ashley Quach on the show to discuss the book.
According to Kibblesmith, the idea was inspired by “the annual tradition we have in this country of pretending that there’s a giant war on Christmas, and that traditional Christmas is under attack.” Kibblesmith added that after seeing the controversy of a black Santa from last year, he would only promote a black Santa to his kids, and if they see a white Santa, he would inform his children that that’s just Santa’s husband.
After a social media conversation with the illustrator, the book was put together.
The book features a look into the life of black Santa and his gay white husband — who looks like the traditional Santa — and even goes into their solving marital problems by kissing over a plate of milk and cookies.
CNN promotes a children's book that portrays Santa Claus as a gay man, calls it a "new twist." pic.twitter.com/N3PdHMZaKF
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 19, 2017
According to the Daily Wire, when asked to respond to the criticism brought up from people, including those within the gay community, and whether or not this was made to promote a political agenda, Kibblesmith responded:
Well, I think that’s a legitimate criticism. I mean, I’m literally on the news anchor scene now, but, you know, that’s just the world that we come from. I’m a political satire writer. So when, you know, I have the opportunity to write a book, these are the things that I care about and that I’m interested in. My only real response to that, I think, is that we’re trying to put a net positive into the world and contribute to a vacuum of representation. But these are obviously our views — they’re not everybody’s views, and we’re just flattered that the response has been so overwhelmingly positive so far.
Some questions…
For one, who is being underrepresented here? The gay community. Do young children have a concern about the underrepresentation of gays in Santa’s story? I was under the impression that kids didn’t give half a rotted rat’s rear about people’s sexual orientations and the demographics popping up in stories about a man in a red suit who gives them presents. They care about the fact that a man in a red suit is delivering presents.
Secondly, the author plays it off like he’s just doing the world a solid by introducing this book into the market. A good guy doing a good deed. Of course, he does this after mocking the idea that there’s a war on Christmas, saying the war on Christmas inspired the idea, and is pushing a message of homosexuality into a children’s character used to celebrate a Christian holiday.
So how is this guy going to try to get us to believe that this isn’t his little contribution to the clearly ongoing war on Christmas? This book was clearly made as a way to get those racist, homophobic Christians to freak out. It surely wasn’t made for the kids. By the author’s own confession, the book was made out of spite. He wasn’t doing it to be a good guy, he was doing it to be an ass.
Finally, can we all agree that CNN is clearly only promoting the book in order to garner the reaction from people? Okay, cool.
Look, I couldn’t care less that they portrayed Santa as black. If that helps a kid relate better to Jolly Ol’ St. Nick then go for it. But let’s not pretend the this black Santa married to a white Santa that he kisses is a virtue move. This book is a blatant attempt at generating outrage, and they’re using children to do it.
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