Carrying the Pride Spirit Forward
As Pride Month draws to a close, it's important to remember the things that make us feel pride, that sustain us through the hard times and motivate us to keep going. In a year of record anti-LGBTQ legislation, hateful rhetoric, book bans, and more, remembering our pride matters more than ever. Here, then, is a collection of things that I think we LGBTQ parents can be proud of right now.
Our children and families top the list. I am proud of my own son in innumerable ways; I assume you are of your children. And we should be proud of us LGBTQ parents as we simply try to raise our kids, get dinner on the table, make sure the laundry is done, and keep a roof over our heads, while simultaneously fighting for our right to exist.
We should be immensely proud, too, of the LGBTQ youth, particularly trans youth, and their parents of all identities who have been sharing their stories and speaking out against the anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ bills and laws in many states—and those who simply find the strength to get through every day.
The hard work of our legal advocates has led to several recent court wins over anti-LGBTQ laws. Federal district court judges have permanently or temporarily blocked laws that aimed to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, and Indiana. In Oklahoma, the state's attorney general signed an agreement not to enforce the state's ban, pending the resolution of a legal challenge.
And federal judges in Tennessee and Florida have ruled that those states' anti-drag laws are unconstitutional or likely so. Among other arguments, the Florida judge, Gregory Presnell, noted that the anti-drag law conflicts with the state's "Parents' Bill of Rights," aka the"Don't Say Gay/Trans" bill, which reserves to parents the "right to direct the upbringing and the moral or religious training of his or her minor child." There's a delicious irony there.
We've made political and legal progress even in the face of anti-LGBTQ extremism around the country. Rhode Island, for example, on June 19th enacted a law to establish a streamlined confirmatory adoption process, making it easier for LGBTQ parents to create secure legal ties to their children born through assisted reproduction. The new law does away with burdens like a six-month waiting period, multiple court dates, home inspections, financial checks, and more for nongenetic/nongestational parents who have already established parentage through the state's LGBTQ-inclusive Uniform Parentage Act (unless a court finds good reason to do otherwise in a particular case). It is now one of several states to have updated its parentage laws in various ways to better protect children in LGBTQ families and others formed through assisted reproduction. Other states, including Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, and Kansas, have such legislation pending.
We've made progress in representation as well. GLAAD's latest "Where We Are on TV" report, released in March, found a "wealth of positive LGBTQ representation for younger ages" on television. Although there is still room for improvement, I think, there's been a definite advance from just five or six years ago, when LGBTQ content was rarer, often taking the form of a "blink and you'll miss it" moment or a single episode right before a series was canceled.
A sign of how much has changed is that the Hollywood Reporter's list this month of "The 75 Most Powerful People in Kids' Entertainment" includes queer producers and screenwriters Chris Nee ("Ridley Jones"; "Doc McStuffins"), ND Stevenson ("She-Ra and the Princesses of Power"; "Nimona"), and Dana Terrace ("The Owl House"), each of whom has made space for much queer representation in their shows. On the list, too, are Matt Burnett and Ben Levin, creators of the queer-inclusive "Craig of the Creek." They're all showing the industry how to make thoughtful, authentic queer characters who are more than just their queerness.
LGBTQ-inclusive inclusive children's books also seem headed for another year of record or near-record numbers. While quantity isn't everything, I'll also put the quality of many up against the best children's literature of any variety. I'm also happy to see growing representation among them across many aspects of identity, queer and otherwise.
And representation of real LGBTQ families is expanding, too, beyond just coverage of cisgender, two-mom and two-dad couples. Several recent, positive, mainstream pieces have centered pregnant transgender men, for instance. Glamour UK's cover for Pride features trans man Logan Brown, who was pregnant at the time and is now a dad. Trans dad Kayden Coleman was on NPR for Father's Day, talking about fatherhood and giving birth to his daughters. He also spoke earlier in the month with Today about how being a trans dad who was raised as a girl gives him "a very unique ability to arm my daughters and teach them how to navigate this world that is dominated by misogynoir (misogyny directed toward Black women) and patriarchy." May we all learn from his example to find strengths in our queerness.
We still have much to fight against right now and I do not mean to diminish that as I focus on the positive here. But pride is a spirit, not just a month, and I hope we carry a spirit of resilience, joy, and possibility through the rest of the year as we face the challenges ahead.
Dana Rudolph is the founder and publisher of Mombian (mombian.com), a two-time GLAAD Media Award-winning blog and resource directory, plus a searchable database of 1300+ LGBTQ family books.