Project Overview: With the legalization of gay marriage in 2015, legal queer families entered the societal view. However, normalization cannot happen without positive visibility, which usually comes in the form of representation in the media society consumes. Queer characters in movies, TV shows, and adult books have appeared for decades, sometimes even centuries, but limiting queer representation to adult-only content does more harm than good. It teaches children and the culture at large that queer stories are explicit, shameful, and not appropriate.

Children’s literature is fundamentally a moral education, and those in children’s publishing have the power to dictate what children get to know. When reflecting on the fiftieth anniversary of the Children’s Literature Assembly, Thomas Crisp said, “As we know, children’s literature defines what is deemed knowable for young readers, reinforcing or challenging power structures in ways that extend well beyond words on the page— and when books disappear, so , too, do the ideas they contain.” In addition, conservative book banning disproportionately targets books with queer characters or storylines. Queer children’s literature demonstrates queer joy, storytelling, and youth in the same way children’s books with heterosexual characters have been portrayed for centuries. Introducing children to stories of queerness proves that being queer is normal, nothing to be ashamed of, and these stories can be age appropriate.