It’s that time of year again, so here’s my updated annual collection of back-to-school resources on creating welcoming school environments, communicating effectively with your children’s teachers, countering bullying, developing inclusive curricula, supporting LGBTQ youth in sports, finding LGBTQ-inclusive books (including free ones for schools), tracking relevant legislation, and much more.
It’s a tough time to be an LGBTQ parent in the United States. Between legislation that threatens our ability to form and protect our families, attacks on books and media that reflect them, and concerns that impact all parents, like school shootings and pandemics, we may feel stressed and overwhelmed. Without denying those ills or our need to address them (which I have covered before and will again), I want to focus here on a few positive things to keep in mind.
Michelle Tea’s new book isn’t the first queer parenting memoir, nor the first by a single queer person who decided to get pregnant, nor the first to look at infertility. Yet the humorous, revealing, sometimes raunchy tale of her path to parenthood at age 40 brings a unique perspective to the genre.
An award-winning filmmaker and lesbian mom is making a documentary using her own miscarriage as a starting point to look broadly at miscarriage care in the U.S., in the context of the current attacks on reproductive health. Here’s how to watch a trailer and to join a live discussion about the film this Wednesday.
We’re full of stories today: personal stories of forming families, reflections from grown children of LGBTQ parents, and the political stories impacting LGBTQ parents and our children. Have a read of what I haven’t covered elsewhere.
Today is International Nonbinary People’s Day, so here are more than a dozen new (and upcoming) children’s books from 2022 that celebrate nonbinary kids!
Gavin Grimm successfully fought his high school in federal court for the right to use the boy’s bathroom like the boy he is. To write a picture book about his experience, he teamed up with Kyle Lukoff, a two-time Stonewall Award winner, Newbery honoree, former children’s librarian, and also a trans man. I can think of no better pairing. Together with illustrator J Yang, they’ve given us a must-read book for readers of all identities.
A new picture book about food fermentation evangelist Sandor Katz is the queer biography I didn’t know I needed—full of flavor, inspiration, and community.
The latest episode of the award-winning Story Pirates podcast features a story about a transgender prince who decides to live as his true self. The story, originally by a 10-year-old girl, was brought to life by an all trans/nonbinary cast. Listen here.
Many of us may hear “America the Beautiful” played this July 4th. But did you know that its author, Katharine Lee Bates, was also a scholar, suffragist, and social activist, and lived for 25 years in a loving relationship with fellow professor Katharine Coman?
