Two Daddies – Chapter XI:

                Harriet Green opens the door to her visitors:

                “Hello, welcome!”

                Melissa come running from inside of the house dressed in a pink dress with matching ribbon. However, as soon as she sees them, she blushes and hides behind her mother. Adrian also blushes as he sees her. He hides behind Kurt and runs his fingers on his hair to check if the do is still ok.

                Harriet smiles at the situation and invite them in. Melissa pulls Adrian to go play a board game with her and the grow-ups proceed to the garden where Daniel, Harriet’s husband, is preparing a barbecue.

                The lunch is filled with light conversation. Blaine and Daniel are a little bothered by the children’s intimacy. When Adrian grabs Melissa’s hand to go back play as soon as they have finished eating; Daniel just adds:

                “It’s hard to be the father of a girl.”

                Harriet pats her husband’s arm and turns to her visitors:

                “Well, since they’re gone, let’s get to business. What will we do to take Mrs. Bane out of that school?”

                Kurt is taken a little by surprise but it’s quite appealing:

                “Wow! I haven’t thought this far…”

                Harriet interrupts him:

                “I’m done with that woman. What she did to you is homophobia. Melissa told me that once she stopped two kids from playing together because one was black and the other a blond. The teachers are fed up with her as well; but they are scared of her. I think that if we started some kind of movement, we would have a lot of back up.”

                Blaine is apprehensive:

                “I’m not sure. What she told us is that there have been complaints from the families about Adrian’s drawings of his two fathers. I don’t think there are many families who are willing to help us against the school.”

                Kurt snorts. Blaine looks at him apologetically. Harriet is the one to talk:

                “I didn’t know the exact words she told you. I talked to Miss Gilles, the children’s teacher; she knows that I’m upset with Mrs. Bane and she told me what she knew of Mrs. Bane intentions. I talk to other mothers and nobody ever complained about you or Adrian. Miss Gilles suspects that Mrs. Bane was looking for an excuse to take Adrian’s drawings out of the school’s walls. Apparently, Mrs. Bane overheard a conversation on the corridors about the drawings, something like “how this world have changed”, and she used that to call you guys at the school. You see, it’s her action alone.”

                Kurt joins the conversation:

                “I never noticed any kind of hostility towards us until that day when she told us the families had a problem with Adrian having two fathers. I asked him if anyone ever treated him differently and he said no. It can be only Mrs. Bane action but I’m not willing to offer my son as bait to possible bullies.”

                Harriet answered:

                “No one is asking you that. I talked to Melissa as well; asked her if anyone ever made fun of Adrian as she said she’d never seen it. I’m pretty sure Adrian is in a safe environment, except for Mrs. Bane. What do you think Dan, are there some legal actions we could take?”

                Daniel takes a deep breath:

                “If we can prove the homophobia or the racism you talked about we could definitively take some kind of legal measure to ask her to be taken out of the job. The problem is those things are very hard to be proven. What we could do is write a letter to the other families explaining the situation, sees who also wants to take her out of the school, form a committee and schedule a meeting.”

                Blaine is half-hearted:

                “Do you think it will work?”

                Daniel shrugs:

                “Maybe. But if she refuses to see us or say something offensive then we can take some more effective measure.”

                Harriet claps her hands:

                “Wonderful! If you agree we can start the committee and start sending the letters. I’m offering to take the lead because if some of the families actually have a problem if you it’s less likely they will say it directly. What do you say?”

                Blaine just looks at Kurt. Kurt is touched:

                “We would never be able to thank you enough.”

                Harriet just gets up and hugs him:

                “You don’t need to thank me; I’m just trying to do the right thing so my daughter can grow up in a world with more equality.”

When they are leaving the Green’s, Kurt holds Blaine’s hand:

“Thank you for standing by my side today. It’s all very important to me.”

“It’s important to me too; even if it wasn’t I’ll always be by your side. For better or for worse.”