Rainbow Parenting

Empower, Affirm, and Support—A Lifeline for Parents, Educators, and Advocates

Raising Trans Kids is the essential guide for parents, families, and educators committed to creating a world where transgender and nonbinary youth can thrive. With compassionate insights, evidence-based research, and practical advice, this groundbreaking book provides the clarity and reassurance needed to navigate the complex journey of raising trans and gender-expansive children.

Inside this indispensable resource, you’ll find:

* Simple, evidence-based answers to the difficult questions that keep caregivers awake at night.
* Tools to dismantle limiting beliefs that may hinder full, unconditional support for trans youth.
* Up-to-date research highlighting the critical role of family acceptance in reducing suicide risk and fostering self-esteem.
* An evolving online glossary to stay informed about the ever-changing language of gender and sexuality.

At a time when trans youth face unprecedented legislative attacks and alarming mental health challenges, Raising Trans Kids is more than a guide—it’s a lifeline. By addressing fears and misconceptions, it helps families move past uncertainty and fear into pride, joy, and unconditional love for their child’s authentic self.

Why This Book Matters:

* Trans kids and teens with supportive families experience lower rates of suicide, greater life satisfaction, and higher self-esteem.
* In 2024, a record-breaking 672 anti-trans bills were introduced across the U.S, marking the fifth consecutive record-breaking year for such legislation, intensifying the need for informed and empathetic guidance for parents and advocates.

Discover the pride, joy, and strength of unconditional support. Whether you’re a parent seeking to better support your child, an educator looking to foster inclusive environments, or an advocate ready to take action, Raising Trans Kids provides the tools, insights, and hope you need to make a lasting difference.

Seahorses is a groundbreaking anthology that shares the experiences of trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people who have navigated pregnancy.

What can trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people expect from pregnancy? What roles do supportive friends, family members, and care providers play? What are some of the fabulous family structures folks are creating?

This collection brings together a wide spectrum of voices to share unique stories about navigating family building, pregnancy, fertility treatments, conception, loss, healthcare, abortion, childbirth, the early days of parenting, and the intersections of legal, political, and cultural contexts. Alongside individual stories, this book features collaborative round-table discussions where contributors address shared questions about personal journeys, community, advice and information, and pregnancy care.

Seahorses is both a vital resource for trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive communities and an invitation for readers of all genders to get a glimpse of trans joy and resilience that will stick with you and inspire you to love a little deeper. This book is an essential addition to conversations about gender, pregnancy, and family.

Contributors include Amari Ayomide, Amber Hickey, Felix Aster, g k somers, Halo Dawn, Jacoby Ballard, J. Workman, Jamie Cayley, Jess F Gutfreund, Kara Johnson Martone, Kathy Slaughter, LÍfthrasir Green, Aakash Kishore, Simon Knaphus, Simone Kolysh, Tom, and Zillah Rose.

2016 Winner of the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction 

2016 ALA Stonewall Book Award, Honor Book

2016 ALA Notable Children's Book

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.

Now in a revised and updated 6th edition, the groundbreaking, research-based approach to understanding and parenting children who frequently exhibit severe fits of temper and other challenging behaviors, from a distinguished clinician and pioneer in the field.

What’s an explosive child? A child who responds to routine problems with extreme frustration—crying, screaming, swearing, kicking, hitting, biting, spitting, destroying property, and worse. A child whose frequent, severe outbursts leave his or her parents feeling frustrated, scared, worried, and desperate for help. Most of these parents have tried everything-reasoning, explaining, punishing, sticker charts, therapy, medication—but to no avail. They can’t figure out why their child acts the way he or she does; they wonder why the strategies that work for other kids don’t work for theirs; and they don’t know what to do instead.

Dr. Ross Greene, a distinguished clinician and pioneer in the treatment of kids with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges, has worked with thousands of explosive children, and he has good news: these kids aren’t attention-seeking, manipulative, or unmotivated, and their parents aren’t passive, permissive pushovers. Rather, explosive kids are lacking some crucial skills in the domains of flexibility/adaptability, frustration tolerance, and problem solving, and they require a different approach to parenting.

Throughout this compassionate, insightful, and practical book, Dr. Greene provides a new conceptual framework for understanding their difficulties, based on research in the neurosciences. He explains why traditional parenting and treatment often don’t work with these children, and he describes what to do instead. Instead of relying on rewarding and punishing, Dr. Greene’s Collaborative Problem Solving model promotes working with explosive children to solve the problems that precipitate explosive episodes, and teaching these kids the skills they lack.

"This is our world.
Like many things in nature it's round and holds everyone at the same time.
This is the Gender Wheel.
Like our world it's round and holds everyone at the same time too..."

In 2010 Maya introduced the Gender Wheel and the Gender Team in the Gender Now Coloring Book. It was a jammed packed coloring extravaganza exploring bodies, nature and history in relation to multiple gender identities. It also opened up the possibility of play and expansion around our still limited language of "boy" and "girl."

Now the Gender Team returns, expanded and stronger than before, inviting you on a picture book journey through the Gender Wheel. This body positive book is a powerful opportunity for a supportive adult and child to see a wide range of bodies, understand the origins of the current binary gender system, how we can learn from nature to see the truth that has always existed and revision a new story that includes room for all bodies and genders. The Gender Wheel offers a nature-based, holistic non-western framework of gender in a kid-friendly way. (Also available as a clothed School Edition.) www.genderwheel.com

They She He Me: Free to Be! is a powerful companion to this book and uses pronouns as a place toexpand ideas about gender and celebrate personal expression. Together these books offer an integrated foundation to talk to kids about gender and expand our thinking as we remember that we ALL belong.

Real talk about real life for girls ages 10 to 13

When it comes to sex education, parents of adolescent girls often know just as little about where to start as girls themselves. Even the mention of sex education or puberty can make everyone feel uncomfortable, nervous, or insecure. In The Girls' Guide to Sex Education, award-winning youth sex education expert Michelle Hope offers down-to-earth, supportive sex education guidance as she addresses the most pressing questions that girls have about sex, puberty, and relationships―directly and without judgment.

Honest, straightforward, and understanding, The Girls' Guide to Sex Education includes:

* A "For Parents" foreword will teach you how to approach sex education with your child using this book
* A practical Q&A format makes the book easy-to-navigate for parents and girls
* Answers to real-life sex education questions from girls ages 10 to 13 such as: How can I feel better about myself? What is a period? Why are my boobs sore? What should I expect in a relationship? What is abstinence? What is "safe sex"? How do I tell someone I don't want to have sex?

The Girls' Guide to Sex Education will arm girls with a complete understanding of their body and empower them to make informed, healthy decisions.

[Start Publishing LLC] by Lotte Jeffs: Paperback; 406 pages / English

The only guide you'll ever need when it comes to the ins and outs of queer parenting. . . LGBTQ+ people have more options than ever before when it comes to starting a family, but a lack of both focused information and mainstream representation can leave parents, prospective parents, friends and relatives in the dark. Authors Lotte Jeffs and Stu Oakley spoke to dozens of experts and queer families, and this hugely-needed book is the product of those conversations and their own experiences of becoming parents through IUI and adoption respectively. Ninety percent of queer parenting is just . . . parenting, but being LGBTQ+ when you’re a parent does bring with it a host of conundrums that mainstream guides — which tend to assume heterosexuality — do not address. From adoption, surrogacy, fertility treatment and other routes to parenthood, to donors, trans parenting, how to deal with family-focused homophobia, coming out at the school gates and mu

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.

Listed as a 2019 Chicago Public Library Best of the Best book, as one of the Best LGBTQ Graphic Novels of 2019 by The Advocate and a Notable Children's Book by the The Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association!
"This extremely modern guide to growing up excels in its field.From Heather Corinna, founder and director of Scarleteen.com, and Isabella Rotman, cartoonist and sex educator, comes a graphic novel guide that covers essential topics for preteens and young teens about their changing bodies and feelings.

Join friends Malia, Rico, Max, Sam and Alexis as they talk about all the weird and exciting parts of growing up! This supportive group of friends are guides for some tricky subjects. Using comics, activities and examples, they give encouragement and context for new and confusing feelings and experiences.

Inclusive of different kinds of genders, sexualities, and other identities, they talk about important topics like:

- Bodies, including puberty, body parts and body image
- Sexual and gender identity
- Gender roles and stereotypes
- Crushes, relationships, and sexual feelings
- Boundaries and consent
- The media and cultural messages, specifically around bodies and sex
- How to be sensitive, kind, accepting, and mature
- Where to look for more information, support and help

A fun and easy-to-read guide from expert sex educators that gives readers a good basis and an age-appropriate start with sex, bodies and relationships education! The perfect complement to any school curriculum. " - Kirkus (starred review)

A kid-centric guide for the children of parents going through a separation or divorce, written by internationally renowned divorce therapist Kate Scharff, MSW.

Children of separating or divorcing parents often feel alone and alienated, as though no one understands what they’re going through. They need reassurance that their feelings are normal, and age-appropriate answers to their many questions. But divorce is confusing and overwhelming―thinking and talking about it are hard, for kids and grown-ups alike.

Kate Scharff (a child of divorce herself) addresses many of kids’ common concerns, such as navigating life in two homes, feeling pressured to choose sides, and adjusting when parents date or remarry. Her central theme is the importance of parent-child communication, and she offers lots of tips for how kids can speak up constructively―even in the trickiest situations.

This book, with illustrations by Annika Le Large, is suitable for kids to read by themselves or with a parent. It’s frank, honest, and open. But while the author doesn’t shy away from the painful aspects of the experience, she also reassures her reader that while divorce will always be a sad memory, it doesn’t have to be a bad turning point. In fact, divorce can make lots of things easier over time.

We Need to Talk About Divorce is the next book in Neon Squid’s critically acclaimed series tackling subjects that are hard to talk about for kids aged 10 and above.

*A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2023*
*A School Library Journal Best Book of 2023*
*A National Science Teachers Association Outstanding Science Trade Book*

Do you know the difference between a vagina and a vulva? If you’re not sure, We Need to Talk About Vaginas by TikToker Dr. Allison K. Rodgers could be for you!

There are lots of reasons why we don’t talk about vaginas. It can be embarrassing to discuss your vagina with your parents, we can feel confused about the changes that are happening to our bodies, and nobody else talks about vaginas―so why should you?

But KNOWLEDGE IS POWER people! The more we know about our vaginas and vulvas the better equipped we will be to deal with our bodies in the future. In this beautifully illustrated book Dr. Allison K. Rodgers simply explains everything from why we have periods to sex and consent in the age of social media. You’ll learn the correct names for everything, realize pubic hair is TOTALLY NORMAL, and discover the magical self-cleaning properties of vaginas.

Finalist for the 2014 Lambda Award for LGBT Children's/Young Adult

“What Makes a Baby is extraordinary! Cory is a Dr. Spock for the 21st century.”—Susie Bright

“A Truly Inclusive Way to Answer the Question 'Where Do Babies Come From?': The new book What Makes a Baby offers an origin story for all children, no matter what their families look like." —The Atlantic

"This is a solid, occasionally quirky book on an important topic."—School Library Journal

Geared to readers from preschool to age eight, What Makes a Baby is a book for every kind of family and every kind of kid. It is a twenty-first century children’s picture book about conception, gestation, and birth, which reflects the reality of our modern time by being inclusive of all kinds of kids, adults, and families, regardless of how many people were involved, their orientation, gender and other identity, or family composition. Just as important, the story doesn’t gender people or body parts, so most parents and families will find that it leaves room for them to educate their child without having to erase their own experience. 

Written by sexuality educator Cory Silverberg, and illustrated by award-winning Canadian artist Fiona Smyth, What Makes a Baby is as fun to look at as it is useful to read.