Family Equality Council - AUTHOR IN THE SPOTLIGHT
What motivated you to write books that specifically include LGBTQ families/issues?
Social belongingness and acceptance is important for kids. They want to feel “normal”. They want to read about families like their own. And children live in all sorts of familial configurations. Some live with a mom and dad, some with just one, some with two of one or the other. Some live with grandparents, others with foster parents. And these are just a few examples.
The fictional Rumplepimple’s family structure is just like the real Rumplepimple’s. He has two mommies and a sister cat named Chicken. The story shows that parents act like parents regardless of gender or biological relationship, and that love is what is important. It's not an "issues" book in that Rumplepimple's parents are not explained. We've mostly graduated from the era which required books that explore why Jimmy has two daddies, just as we have moved away from needing books which explained why a girl with such gorgeous mahogany skin suddenly appears in a lily white classroom. This new era needs books that simply present examples of varying family structures in all their beautiful diversity.
What does “equality” look like to you?
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