Clovis mother & daughter author book, ‘My Cat Fred Wears a Skirt,’ in push for tolerance | Opinion

For Katrina Gidstedt of Clovis, it all started with an offhand comment about Harry Styles, the gender and fashion bending singer/songwriter/actor/former One Direction heartthrob. Katrina saw a picture of Harry and made an off-handed, slightly judgmental comment to her bonus daughter, Emelie.

Emelie was having none of it, and made her disagreement known. As a mother, Katrina quickly realized that Emelie had a good point — Harry’s choices were creating a space for acceptance, and there was no reason for judgment. Katrina knew she was wrong — even if she was half-joking.

The interaction sparked a good conversation. It led to more awareness of the choices of children in the community, and eventually to a children’s book called “My Cat Fred Wears A Skirt” written by Katrina and Emelie with illustrations from a friend, Paige Wilson.

“My Cat Fred Wears A Skirt” is a simple story, written for children, about a boy named Ted who has a cat named Fred. Fred ends up in a skirt, and loves it, but Ted gets embarrassed when a Karen tells him boys don’t wear skirts, so he takes it off his cat.

His cat gets sad. His cat stays sad until Ted realizes that nothing he did with Fred (riding a bike, playing with toys) changes when Fred is wearing a skirt, so he puts the skirt back on Fred, and Fred is happy again. Why? Because Fred is being himself. And Ted is being a good friend. And Karen needs to mind her own business.

The book is fun. It’s written in language that will help young kids learn to read. The pictures are simple and lovely and help tell the story. And there are, of course, some lessons to be learned: Mind your own business, be yourself, and allow others to do the same.

Upon release of the book a local news channel did an adorable little story of the Clovis mom and bonus daughter who wrote a children’s book, and a local bookstore where they would be signing the book.

Apparently, some people hadn’t learned the first moral of mind your own business, because that story got a lot of comments, the majority of which were hateful to these local writers whom the commenters had never met. Likely they had not read the book. There were even some threats made to the bookstore.

The authors discussed canceling the event. It was one thing for Katrina, a grown woman, to read some barbs in a comment section, but her daughter and friend being targeted? Once again Emelie was having none of it. She was proud of the book, and what it said, and those people should … wait for it … mind their own business.

The signing went off without a hitch. “We probably gave more hugs than signatures,” Katrina told me. There was a community that genuinely wanted this book, a community that felt supported, that felt seen. And there is a community that does not want this book.

And they don’t have to read it.

The people gathered at the bookstore were allowed to be themselves. And those that didn’t want to be there were allowed to mind their own business. In a time where beloved books are being banned and textbooks are being censored, here was an example of how it is supposed to work. If you want to read a book, read a book, and if you don’t, don’t, but mind your business and let the rest of us be ourselves.

Your light doesn’t shine any brighter when you dim someone else’s.

Noha Elbaz of Clovis is a college administrator. Email: noha.elbaz1@gmail.com.