LGBTQ parents and our children have a long history, arguably going back to Sappho (c. 600 BCE), who may have had a child. For LGBTQ History Month, I’m sharing some resources I’ve put together on this long and varied history, including a handy timeline of key milestones.
I’ve been writing about the history of queer parenting for a while—here are four key pieces, which I hope you will find informative and enjoyable:
- “Milestones in LGBTQ Parenting History” is a timeline of some LGBTQ parenting “firsts” in the U.S. You’ll learn the answer to questions like “What was the first television movie to depict a gay dad?” and “When did a court first rule that a transgender parent could retain child custody?”
- “A Short History of LGBTQ Parenting” offers a broad overview of our history in the United States. It’s a piece I wrote back in 2018 (based on an earlier 2017 version), and covers things from around the time of World War II up to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Pavan.
- In “Seeking LGBTQ Parents in History,” I look back to the 19th century and beyond.
- “10 Historical Quotes By and About LGBTQ Parents and Our Children” offers inspiration from the past.
- “Telling Our Family Histories” is a reminder that we and our families are part of this long history. I encourage us all to think about how we can preserve our own family histories and pass them on to our children and others.
For these and more of my posts on various aspects of LGBTQ parenting history, please see the Remembering page.
If you’re looking for additional reading, two academic but good places to start are:
- Radical Relations: Lesbian Mothers, Gay Fathers, and Their Children in the United States since World War II, by Daniel Winunwe Rivers (University of North Carolina Press).
- The Right to Be Parents: LGBT Families and the Transformation of Parenthood, by Carlos A. Ball (New York University Press).
On a lighter note:
- A Short History of Queer Parenting, by Kirsty Loehr (no connection to my earlier article of the same name), is a whirlwind tour of queer parenting and methods of family creation from Sappho onward, interspersed with humorous commentary and insights from Loehr’s own experiences as a queer mom (though there’s one unfortunate error about a key LGBTQ family-building method, which I explain in my review at the link).
- You may also be interested in some of the memoirs and other books for grown-ups tagged “History” in my Database of LGBTQ Family Books.
Knowing our history can give us roots that provide stability in the present and sustenance for growth in the future. This month and all months, I encourage you to learn more about the history not only of LGBTQ people in general, but also about LGBTQ parents and our children in particular. I hope you find it as inspiring as I do.