In 2011, a 19-year-old named Zach Wahls gave a speech to the Iowa legislature during the state’s marriage equality battles, describing his life with two moms. It went viral, catching national attention. Wahls, now a two-term Iowa state senator running for U.S. Senate, spoke with me for the speech’s 15th anniversary, looking at its impact and offering advice for parents and young people today.
It’s not Halloween season, but it’s always a good time of year for gripping stories of LGBTQ youth, youth with LGBTQ parents, and their friends tackling—and overcoming—monsters, beasts, and curses. Two standalone titles join four sequels to ongoing series for a wealth of spooky, exciting, and empowering reading for tweens.
The three chapter books here are all the third books in their respective series—happy evidence that LGBTQ-inclusive tales have staying power. Each offers a different look at what we do when things don’t go as planned.
House Republicans have introduced a bill that would ban books, activities, and programs that mention trans people—and potentially all LGBTQ people—from K-12 public schools nationwide.
In his State of the Union address last night, the president used a young person to try and show the harms of gender transition. I thus feel the need to say again to trans youth: your gender identities are valid and you are worthy. As vile as the president’s speech was, though, it offers a lesson that can help people take action against its content.
I’m back with a roundup of some new LGBTQ-inclusive picture books, including a sweet board book for new families, a celebration of libraries, a new-sibling tale (sort of), two biographies that explore creativity, and a hairy fairy tale. Share them with the young readers in your life!
A small announcement: For the first time in 20 years, I’m going to unplug and take a couple of weeks off from the blog. All is well; I’m just taking a break to reset and catch up on some things behind the scenes. But I’ve left you something….
Three-time Emmy Award-winning children’s TV screenwriter and producer Chris Nee and Emmy Award-winning animation casting and voice director Kristi Reed spoke with me about increasing queer representation in children’s media, the state of the industry, and what we can all do to help.
Let’s keep the Olympic theme going this week with four queer-inclusive middle grade books about Winter Olympic sports (even if not all of the protagonists are quite at Olympic level yet).
The Winter Olympics are almost here, which means that at Mombian, it’s time once again to honor those who are not only Winter Olympians, but also queer parents.
