What’s Next for LGBTQ Picture Books?

The first LGBTQ book I read was Heather Has Two Mommies by Lesléa Newman, which I discovered on the shelves of my school library. I remember finishing the story and thinking, Huh. So that’s a thing you can do. It would be years before I realized that I was queer, but even before I knew, that book had carved away a little space in my brain for the person I would become: a glimmering possibility. I’m one of the first generations to grow up with the chance to stumble on LGBTQ kidlit as a kid. Heather Has Two Mommies was published in 1989, just one year before I was born. LGBTQ young adult novels have only become common in the last 15 years or so, and LGBTQ middle grade books took even longer to enter the mainstream. If you want to get a sense of the history of LGBTQ children’s literature, the Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children’s Book Special Collection in the Mechanics’ Institute in San Francisco is a great place to start. It’s made up of 200+ LGBTQ children’s books published between 1969 and 2023. Library manager Myles Cooper spoke with me about how the collection got started and how you can access it. The collection began with Randall Tarpey-Schwed, an antiquarian and a member of ...