Supporting LGBTQIA+ Voices All Year Long

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Text copyright © 2019 Kyle Lukoff / Illustrations copyright © 2019 Kaylani Juanita

“I wrote When Aidan Became a Brother to demonstrate how lucky the parents of transgender children are, and how possible it is to welcome all transitions with joy and love. Trans people transform the world around us, and I hope this book is a small part of a larger positive movement.”

— Kyle Lukoff

Lukoff’s message aligns with the overarching mission at Lee & Low, to publish books about everyone, for everyone. By providing diverse narratives, we affirm that every child’s identity is valid and deserving of celebration.

READ

Read the rainbow with our Lee & Low LGBTQ+ Book List & Resources that includes titles for all ages!

 
Cover of When Aidan Became A Brother, showing two Black parents and their son, holding each other close. The mother is pregnant with a large belly.
Cover of I Can Be...Me!, showing a group of diverse children laying on the grass in a circle with their heads nearly touching.
Cover of Sparkle Boy, showing a young boy dancing with a shiny gold ballet tutu (skirt) on, while a toy truck and some blocks are scattered around the floor.
Cover of Call Me Tree, showing a young child standing with their back against a tree and their arms out wide, looking happy and free.
Cover of I'll Build You A Bookcase, showing a community library shelf surrounded by diverse members of the community. A rainbow in the sky shines behind them.
Cover of The Talent Show, showing a young boy dancing on stage while others look on excitedly behind him.
Cover of Antonio's Card, showing a young brown boy at a desk, drawing with crayons on a white piece of paper.
Cover of What We Believe: A Black Lives Matter Story, showing a young Black child surrounded by a diverse group of children holding posters in solidarity.
Cover of How We Can Live: Principles of Black Lives Matter, showing a young Black child surrounded by a diverse group of children holding posters in solidarity.
Cover of The Harvey Milk Story, showing Harvey Milk cheering with his fist in the air. Crowds of folks with posters, banners, and balloons surround him in the background.
Cover of Miosotis Flores Never Forgets, showing a young girl sitting on the front steps of a home with a happy dog in her lap. Vines wrap around the pillars on the front porch.
Cover of Cat Girl's Day Off, showing an Asian teen girl's cropped face, with pink doodle sketches of cat ears and whiskers on the top half of her face.
Cover of Diverse Energies, showing the title in large font across the whole image, with a skyline of tall buildings in the background.
Cover of Boys of the Beast, showing three teens leaning the hood of a pink car. A giant billboard behind them says the MONICA ZEPEDA (author's name) and BOYS OF THE BEAST (book title) with an arrow pointing right.
Cover of Jaya and Rasa, showing a young couple huddle close in between stalks of tall green plants. There is a tiny gap of blue sky peeking out in the field of green around them.
Cover of That Summer Night on Frenchmen Street, showing a couple dancing in an empty street by a lamppost. A lone bicycle is standing a few feet away from them. Some fruits decorate the top and bottom left corner of the cover, and the title is in big letters from top to bottom.
Cover of Gabi, A Girl in Pieces, showing illustrations of miscellaneous body parts: a female chest in a crop top, an anatomical heart, a giant smile with teeth showing, the skeletal structure of ribs, arm bones, and a hand, all collaged together to look like a girl in fragmented pieces.

 

LEARN

With the rise of book bans, it is important now more than ever to uplift LGBTQIA+ voices and fight back against censorship.

A record 4,240 unique book titles were targeted for censorship in 2023, a 65% increase over the 2,571 unique titles targeted in 2022 and a staggering 128% increase over 2021 numbers.

47% of the books targeted for censorship were titles representing the voices and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals.

— American Library Association

While the attempted censorship of LGBTQ+ themed books seem to be escalating, there are more folks who do not support book banning.

Additional Resources
GLSEN’s Rainbow Library
LGBTQ+ Children’s Books Webinar
LGBTQIA+ Multilingual Terminology
National Education Association LGBTQ+ Resources

TAKE ACTION

➡ Share these Book Résumés with parents, teachers, librarians, and community members to help defend books from censorship.
➡ Write to congress about your opposition to book banning — Protect Title IX Protections for the LGBTQ+ Community.
➡ Borrow frequently banned books from your local library.
➡ Share these resources with others!

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