October is LGBTQ History Month, and I could write, as I have in the past, about the long history of LGBTQ parents, arguably going back to Sappho (7th-6th century BCE) and Alexander the Great (4th century BCE). This year, I instead want to remind us that we and our families are part of this long history, and to encourage us to think about how we can preserve our own family histories and pass them on to our children.
It’s LGBTQ History Month, one of my favorite times of the year! Several new kids’ books on LGBTQ history and historical figures have come out since I last rounded them up, and a great new one is coming out shortly, so here’s a look!
It is many a queer parent’s nightmare: your child’s sperm donor sues for paternity. When it happened to Robin Young and Sandy Russo in 1991, it precipitated a landmark four-year court battle that indelibly marked 9-year-old Ry Russo-Young and her 11-year-old sister Cade. Yet Ry, now an award-winning filmmaker, had never really been able to process her feelings about what happened. Her attempt to do so, and to understand the other side of the story, led her to create Nuclear Family, a three-part documentary that premieres this Sunday on HBO.
Today is Harvey Milk’s birthday, now observed as Harvey Milk Day—so here are four books for children, from a board book to an early reader—that tell the story of this LGBTQ hero!
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.
