The first legal marriage of a same-sex couple in the United States wasn’t in 2004, when Massachusetts began allowing them to wed. It was in 1971—and a new picture book tells the story of this little-known event in queer history!
It’s Lesbian Visibility Day, so here’s a look back at a children’s book from 1996, written by two lesbian grandmothers, that asks and answers the question, “What’s a lesbian?” It feels rather dated and clichéd now, but is earnest and full of heart. Enjoy this blast from the past, which reminds us that the history of lesbian parents (and queer families generally) goes back further than we might think.
Did you know that in the 1970s, queer social workers were quietly placing queer youth with queer foster parents, in defiance of state laws? They were “were creating something radical: state-supported queer families in an era of intense discrimination,” asserts a fascinating new article on the subject.
One new middle grade book aims to help young people learn about the contributions and accomplishments of LGBTQ people across many fields of endeavor, while another includes queer people among innovators of all identities who have made their marks on the world.
I don’t cover a lot of young adult fiction here; the other age groups keep me busy enough. I’m making an exception today, however, not only because I happen to know the author, but because the book is a rare YA novel that I found myself reading for my own sake, not just with an eye to how it would impact younger readers. It’s the queer historical fiction novel I never knew I wanted.
The home where pioneering LGBTQ and civil rights activists Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin lived for more than five decades may become a local historic landmark, as the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has taken the first step towards giving it that designation. The two women may be best known as the first same-sex couple to marry legally in San Francisco, but the legacy of these mothers of our movement is bigger than that.
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve done a roundup of kids’ books on LGBTQ history and there have been many new ones in that time! Here’s a fresh list of old and new for LGBTQ History Month—including an upcoming picture book about Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera!
Two similarly named books coming out this month offer tweens and teens a colorful look at some of the revolutions and revolutionaries of LGBTQ history.
LGBTQ civil rights icon Phyllis Lyon died yesterday from natural causes at her home in San Francisco. She was 95. She and her spouse Del Martin were the first same-sex couple to marry legally in San Francisco in 2008—but her contribution to LGBTQ equality goes far beyond that.
An updated and expanded edition of a Stonewall Honor-winning book for middle-graders on Pride and the LGBTQ-rights movement is just the thing for anyone wanting to bring some queerness into their COVID-19 homeschooling—but it’s also bound to be a much-read volume for years to come.
