Rainbow Parenting

By: Ibram X. Kendi, 2023, Paperback

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The book that every parent, caregiver, and teacher needs to raise the next generation of antiracist thinkers, from the author of How to Be an Antiracist and recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Grant.

“Kendi’s latest . . . combines his personal experience as a parent with his scholarly expertise in showing how racism affects every step of a child’s life. . . . Like all his books, this one is accessible to everyone regardless of race or class.”—Los Angeles Times (Book Club Pick)

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: PopSugar

The tragedies and reckonings around racism that are rocking the country have created a specific crisis for parents, educators, and other caregivers: How do we talk to our children about racism? How do we teach children to be antiracist? How are kids at different ages experiencing race? How are racist structures impacting children? How can we inspire our children to avoid our mistakes, to be better, to make the world better? 

These are the questions Ibram X. Kendi found himself avoiding as he anticipated the birth of his first child. Like most parents or parents-to-be, he felt the reflex to not talk to his child about racism, which he feared would stain her innocence and steal away her joy. But research and experience changed his mind, and he realized that raising his child to be antiracist would actually protect his child, and preserve her innocence and joy. He realized that teaching students about the reality of racism and the myth of race provides a protective education in our diverse and unequal world. He realized that building antiracist societies safeguards all children from the harms of racism. 

Following the accessible genre of his internationally bestselling How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi combines a century of scientific research with a vulnerable and compelling personal narrative of his own journey as a parent and as a child in school. The chapters follow the stages of child development from pregnancy to toddler to schoolkid to teenager. It is never too early or late to start raising young people to be antiracist.

By: Alex Harper (Author), 2024, Paperback

Navigating LGBTQ+ Parenthood? This Empowering Guide Has Got You Covered

Are you dreaming of starting a family but feeling overwhelmed by the unique challenges faced by LGBTQ+ parents? Or perhaps you’re already a parent looking for guidance that truly understands your experiences. You’re not alone. Many LGBTQ+ individuals share these concerns, longing for resources that embrace and celebrate their identity as parents.

This empowering guide provides practical advice and compassionate support tailored specifically for LGBTQ+ families, helping you navigate the joys and challenges of parenthood while creating a loving, inclusive environment for your children.

Inside, you’ll find:

• Confidence-building strategies for overcoming challenges specific to LGBTQ+ parents, ensuring you approach parenthood with resilience and pride.

• Comprehensive paths to parenthood, including adoption, surrogacy, and insemination, with essential considerations and steps for each option.

• Tips for communicating with your children about being an LGBTQ+ family, including conversation starters and age-appropriate guidance.

• Tools for creating an inclusive and accepting home that celebrates diversity and fosters a sense of belonging.

• Essential legal advice every LGBTQ+ parent needs to be aware of, covering important areas like parental rights and family law.

• Real-life stories from diverse LGBTQ+ families, sharing their triumphs and challenges to inspire pride and connection.

• Practical resources for building a support network within and beyond the LGBTQ+ community so you never feel alone on your parenting journey.

This guide goes beyond generic parenting advice, offering a roadmap to navigate the unique and beautiful journey of LGBTQ+ parenthood. Click "Add to Cart" and embrace the parenting path with the support and knowledge you deserve!

By: Heather Hester (Author), 2024, Paperback

The ultimate LGBTQ parenting handbook, guiding parents and caregivers through transformative steps of Embrace, Educate, Empower, and Love so they can support their teen with open arms and hearts.

Your kid just came out to you, and amid the flurry of emotion or worry you might feel, you know you would do anything to protect their health and happiness. And you are not alone! Heather Hester, coach, advocate, and host of the #1 rated podcast, Just Breathe: Parenting Your LGBTQ Teen, combines an honest retelling of her own son’s coming-out experience with wide-ranging research, conversations with dozens of professionals, and the unique experiences of other families to provide the ultimate guidebook for parents embarking on this journey.
In Parenting with Pride: Unlearn Bias and Embrace, Empower, and Love Your LGBTQ+ Teen, Hester provides parents and caregivers with four transformations that gently, but purposefully, walk them through the four pillars toward fully supporting and loving your LGBTQ+ child: Embrace, Educate (or Unlearn), Empower, Love.

With trustworthy information and an accessible, straightforward plan, Parenting with Pride provides actionable yet profound tools and mental shifts to help parents support their teens and themselves and to be a catalyst for change in their communities.

By: Krisitn Liam Kali, 2022, Paperback

The only evidence-based, up-to-date fertility guide for queer people from an experienced health care provider, this is also the first to be transgender inclusive and body-positive. 
 
Here, queer prospective parents will find sound advice for navigating complex medical, social and financial decisions. Trusted fertility midwife Kristin Kali walks you through the baby-making process: creating a timeline; fertile health for every body; preconception tests; identifying ovulation; donors, gamete banks, and surrogacy; methods of insemination including IUI, IVF and reciprocal IVF; navigating early pregnancy; and preparing for infant feeding, including lactation induction for trans women and nongestational parents.
 
This book is for all LGBTQ+ readers interested in creating family through pregnancy: anyone who identifies as queer, lesbians, gay men, bisexual people, trans and nonbinary people, couples, single parents by choice, poly families, and coparents. It’s an antidote to a culture and medical system that all too often centers heterosexual couples experiencing infertility while overlooking our unique needs. It also contains sidebars with guidance for reproductive healthcare professionals.

By: Lindz Amer, 2023, Paperback

An essential guide for parents and caregivers to raising queer-friendly children in a gender-affirming space.

In the face of so many injustices across society for LGBTQ+ people, it can be easy for parents of young children to feel helpless and hopeless. While they may not be able to address every problem across the country, there's a simple place to start: right at home.

Rainbow Parenting is an indispensable stepping stone for adults who want to raise and teach kids in a queer and gender-affirming way, but might not know how. Lindz Amer, the creator of Queer Kid Stuff, an award-winning LGBTQ+ educational webseries for children and families, is an expert guide, leading readers through practical applications, important LGBTQ+ history, key lessons in intersectionality, pronouns, social justice, and more. Divided by sections that address kids' individual ages―from infancy to kindergarten―this joyful and approachable book shares a bit of hope and starts with the understanding that anyone can spread queer joy.

By giving parents and their kids a vocabulary to express themselves, Rainbow Parenting ultimately aims to create more empathetic adults―and spreads a message of radical acceptance in a world where it's sometimes dangerous to just be yourself.

By: Bruesehoff, Jamie (Author), Bruesehoff, Rebekah (Afterword), 2023, Paperback

Dare to dream of a church and a world transformed by the bold celebration of transgender and gender-diverse children. The debate around transgender children rages, with some Christians being the loudest voices against loving and supporting these young people. So, now more than ever, people of faith need to be grounded in God's call to love and affirm young people in who God created them to be. Raising Kids beyond the Binary bypasses the sound bites to give readers a vivid picture of who transgender, non-binary, and gender-expansive young people are and what they need to thrive. Drawing on the author's experience as a mother walking with and learning from her own transgender child, as well as working with hundreds of families across the country doing the same, this book helps parents navigate the emotional, spiritual, and logistical landscape of raising a gender-diverse child. Grounded in the unequivocal truth of God's deep love and limitless creativity, this book compels readers to move past ""all are welcome"" to loving and celebrating transgender and gender-diverse youth in the brilliance of their uniqueness, the wisdom of their self-awareness, and the joy of their authenticity. Faith leaders and adults who work with youth will also find the book a helpful tool for gaining insight and building safer and more welcoming congregations for these children. Rich with personal stories, research, and practical steps, this book dares to dream of a church and a world transformed by the bold and joyful acceptance and celebration of transgender and gender-diverse children and youth. These children need us, and the world needs them.

By:  Cory Silverberg (Author), Fiona Smyth (Illustrator), 2015, Hardcover

A comic book for kids that includes children and families of all makeups, orientations, and gender identities, Sex Is a Funny Word is an essential resource about bodies, gender, and sexuality for children ages 8 to 10 as well as their parents and caregivers. Much more than the "facts of life" or “the birds and the bees," Sex Is a Funny Word opens up conversations between young people and their caregivers in a way that allows adults to convey their values and beliefs while providing information about boundaries, safety, and joy.

The eagerly anticipated follow up to Lambda-nominated What Makes a Baby, from sex educator Cory Silverberg and artist Fiona Smyth, Sex Is a Funny Word reimagines "sex talk" for the twenty-first century.

By: S. Bear Bergman (Author), Saul Freedman-Lawson (Illustrator), 2024, Paperback

An illustrated guide of practical parenting advice informed by queer experiences for anyone doing the work of parenting, from the author and the illustrator ofSpecial Topics in Being a Human

Being a parent is enormously joyful, but it is also an enormous amount of work. Parenting requires you to make dozens of decisions a day, every one of which in some way shapes the person your child will grow into. It can be difficult to know in these moments whether you’re on the right track. Progressive parents especially can feel adrift when caregiving in ways that were not modelled for them.

From S. Bear Bergman—advice columnist, educator, and queer dad with fifteen years of parenting under his belt—comes Special Topics in Being a Parent, a witty and insightful collection of child-rearing tips for those in search of realistic ideas about screens and lunches that don’t come with a side order of judgment. Using his own choices—and errors—by way of example, Bergman offers suggestions for various stages of the parenting journey, from asking “Are we ready to have a kid?” to talking with children about diversity and difference, to questioning gender expectations placed on both kids and parents. With plenty of humor and compassion, and featuring charming illustrations by Saul Freedman-Lawson, this guide helps parents to live their parenting values while enabling their kids to grow their capacities, understand the world, and above all, feel connected and loved.

By: Rachel E. Simon LCSW (Author), Noah Grigni (Illustrator), 2020, Hardcover

AASECT Book Award for Children under 18 years old American Library Association 2021 Rainbow Book List Top 10 Title for Young Readers This vibrant and beautifully illustrated book teaches children sex, gender and relationships education in a way that is inclusive of all sexual orientations and gender identities. Covering puberty, hormones, pregnancy, consent, sex, babies, relationships and families, it uses gender-neutral language throughout and celebrates diversity in all its forms, including race, ethnicity, faith, bodies, gender and sexuality. For use with children aged 8-12, it will help answer their questions and spark open discussion with parents, carers and teachers. With informative illustrations and further resources and a guide for adults, The Every Body Book is the ultimate sex, gender and relationships education resource for children.

By: Jasmine Beach-Ferrara (Author), Adam Polaski (Author), Alexis Stratton (Author), 2024, Paperback

Over the past few years, we have witnessed a growing wave of anti-LGBTQ+ bills and policies across the United States. According to the ACLU, in 2023 alone, 507 anti-LGBTQ bills were proposed in 47 states; among these, 84 have been passed into law.

The targets of many of these legislative attacks have been the most vulnerable among us—transgender and LGBTQ+ youth. From “Don’t Say Gay” laws to healthcare restrictions, anti-LGBTQ+ policies are impacting trans and queer youth in almost every sphere of their lives, including the medical care they can access, the sports teams they can play on, what they are allowed to talk about in the classroom, and the books they are allowed to check out from the library. The results of this discrimination are often deadly, with over half of transgender and non-binary youth seriously contemplating suicide, and many others falling victim to violent hate crimes inspired by this hostile climate.

Trans Kids, Our Kids: Stories and Resources from the Frontlines of the Movement for Transgender Youth shares the stories of transgender youth and their families, exploring the choices they are making to survive in today's environment. The book also gives voice to the medical providers who are providing care to transgender youth, as well as the activists, teachers and faith leaders who are leading the resistance efforts.

By contextualizing and sharing these stories, as well as offering resources and next steps, Trans Kids aims to both narrativize the pain and fear experienced by everyday Americans in this cultural moment, as well as highlighting the courage, hope, and resilience of transgender and LGBTQ+ youth, their families, and the people who support them.

Zine / pamphlet. Published by Microcosm! Unfuck Your Parenting #1: Doing our Best to Raise Intersectional Feminist, Empathic, Engaged, and Generally Non-Shitty Kids Dr. Faith G. Harper (bestselling author of Unfuck Your Brain) and counselor Bonnie Scott collaborated to write this short guide to raising intersectional feminist, empathetic, engaged, and generally non-shitty kids in these troubled times. Good info for parents of infants and adolescents alike on teaching the skills every human needs to be good, connected, happy, and change the world for the better.