Is It Okay to be a Unicorn?
In 2022, Jason Tharp’s children’s book caused national outrage after parents mistook it for promoting a gay lifestyle.
“They thought if I came and read to the kids, I would convert them gay,” Tharp says, “It was ridiculous.”
In 2022, children’s author Jason Tharp was planning on doing a reading of his book “It’s Okay to Be a Unicorn” at an elementary school in Buckeye Valley, Ohio, about five minutes away from his own home. The students at the school had been coloring worksheets and decorating the halls with unicorns and rainbows, excited as any kid would be to have a special guest at school.
“It’s Okay to Be a Unicorn” tells the story of Cornelius J. Sparklesteed, a unicorn who hides his horn in a town full of horses who don’t like unicorns. A celebrated hat-maker, Cornelius always had a fun cap on his head, hiding the horn that made him different from everyone else. In the book, Cornelius finds the courage to embrace what makes him unique and finally reveals his true self to his friends. It is a book about being confident in yourself and accepting differences in yourself and others.
Photo provided by Jason Tharp.
The day before Tharp was scheduled to visit, the principal of the school called and informed him that he would not be able to do his reading at the school. According to Tharp, the conversation was awkward, and the principal seemed to be stammering around the issue at hand. After a few moments of confusion, Tharp learned that there was a mother who had protested his book being read because her church had told her that Tharp was a “gay recruiter.”
The mother, and other members of her church, believed that Tharp’s book about a unicorn was written to promote the “gay agenda.” Tharp’s reading was canceled, and the children’s artwork of colorful unicorns and rainbows were taken down from the halls.
In 2022, 2,571 books were challenged to be removed public schools and libraries and of those books the vast majority were written by or about members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of color. Books like “Gender Queer,” “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” and “Flamer” are frequently challenged and removed from libraries for the exploration of LGBTQ+ themes and identities.
The irony is that Cornelius doesn’t have an identity, other than “unicorn.” Tharp had intended to write a book about a character that kids would fall in love with immediately. “Kids love unicorns,” he says, “I also illustrate my own books, as far as the color palette goes, that gives me every color under the rainbow.”
The residents of Buckeye Valley quickly got word about the cancellation of Tharp's reading, and soon someone contacted the local ABC channel. From there the story snowballed into national news. It went to a local CBS channel, and soon it went to the Washington Post.
The news stories all remarked on the inspirational nature of Tharp’s book and the surprising backlash that it caused. CBS drew connections to the passage of what some call Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay bill,’ a law barring instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.
A few days before Tharp was set to read “It’s Okay to be a Unicorn,” two Ohio Republican state representatives introduced a bill similar to Florida’s law, that would prevent the discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in certain grades.
Tharp's book remained relatively local news, however, until the Washington Post found the story.
“As soon as the Washington Post picked it up, [the reporter was] like, ‘I’m sorry for what this is going to do to your life tomorrow,’” Tharp says, “I didn’t think it would be that bad, but then it just exploded everything.”
Tharp started receiving death threats. He says many of the people sending him threats and insults on Facebook or other socials had Jesus or other religious symbols as their profile picture. He recalls that Indiana specifically had a lot of residents in arms over his book. “They were saying, you cross here, I’ll shoot you and your rainbow people,” he says.
At the time of the controversy, Tharp had just been diagnosed with brain cancer and was told that he likely only had seven months to live.
“I would say to these people, ‘Hey, I see that you’re religious. I would love it if you would pray for me, because I’m going through brain cancer right now,’” Tharp says, “I can’t tell you how many replied back with ‘fuck you, I hope you die.’”
Photo provided by Jason Tharp.
The backlash and national attention brought to his book made Tharp reconsider his career. He focused less on creating content for children and turned toward the adults who were sending him so much hate.
Tharp says, “Something’s wrong if adults are this broken that they’re taking out something this hard on a kids book that is meant to help kids feel comfortable in their own skin.”
Tharp founded the Beyond Hope Project, a project rooted in the belief of hope and positive change. The project provides workshops, books, a podcast and other video content aimed to help people find the strength to achieve their dreams.
Tharp used the lessons he learned from his fight against brain cancer and funneled it into the goal of helping others. The Beyond Hope Project includes a weekly newsletter filled with inspiration and actionable insights to help people overcome challenges and find the light in life.
“And by the way, if the kid’s gay who gives a shit? If they’re comfortable in their own skin, that’s the whole point,” Tharp says, “We want our kids to be happy. We want our kids to realize that it’s okay to be who you are.”
On the bright side, the explosion of controversy surrounding "It's Okay to be a Unicorn” caused a surge in book sales for Tharp. “I think it sold out four or five times on Amazon,” he says.
Tharp didn’t end up doing a reading at Buckeye Valley elementary school. Instead, he ended up doing an event at the theater of a local college. Tharp invited the whole community and did his school presentation for the adults of the town. Afterwards, he read his book and explained his inspiration for the story.
“I took the approach of, if you can’t beat them at their own game, just outsmart them,” Tharp says, “Just get everybody together and point out how ridiculous this is, and if you can do that, then people will start to see. I keep hoping it will work in our political world.”
Today, Tharp tries not to engage the critics. “My job is not to cater to the ignorance of an adult who can’t read a 32-page children’s book and realize that it’s not about what they think it’s about.”