Eight of the titles in the American Library Association’s (ALA’s) latest annual list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books were challenged or banned because of their LGBTQIA+ content. That’s unfortunately not surprising—but some other new trends this year add to concerns about censorship.
The award-winning Disney Junior show Doc McStuffins ran its last new episode on Saturday after eight years on the air. It won much praise for offering the positive role model of a young Black girl who was a doctor—and for a 2017 episode that was the channel’s first to show a two-mom family. Its creator and executive producer, Chris Nee, is also a lesbian mom herself.
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic that is shaking our world, I spoke with several different LGBTQ families recently to see how they’re handling the crisis, what their challenges are, and where they’re finding strength.
This is perhaps the first of many quarantine editions of my roundup—because we could all use some interesting and informative reading while we’re hunkered down in our homes. Here are some of the stories about LGBTQ parents and our children that I haven’t covered elsewhere—including some additional kids’ virtual story times.
A charming new picture book is a gentle celebration of the loving relationship between a toddler and parents. The family in it just happens to have two moms—and it gives us a rare picture-book depiction of a mom with a masculine-of-center gender expression.
Hairstylist, comedian, and television personality Jonathan Van Ness (of Netflix’s Queer Eye) has just added another title to his resumé—children’s book author. And the nonbinary star of his delightful new book shows young readers the power and joy of being themselves.
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.
ABC’s Modern Family ended this week after 11 seasons. When it premiered in 2009, during the height of the marriage equality battle in the U.S., the two gay dads in its ensemble cast gave many viewers their first positive, ongoing, on-screen images of same-sex parents.
You may know Lesléa Newman best as the author of Heather Has Two Mommies—but she’s also an award-winning author of Jewish children’s books, including a recent one that’s just right for the holiday of Passover, which starts this week!
Katharine Lee Bates is best known as the author of “America the Beautiful”—but she was also a scholar, suffragist, and social activist, and lived for 25 years with fellow professor Katharine Coman. A new picture book illuminates her life and the inspiration for her most famous work.
