LGBT History Month: Books for Kids

October is LGBTQ+ History month! In 1994, Rodney Wilson, a Missouri high school teacher, believed a month should be dedicated to the celebration and teaching of gay and lesbian history. He gathered other teachers and community leaders. They selected October because public schools are in session and existing traditions, such as Coming Out Day (October 11), occur that month.

The LGBT History Month website highlights a different person each day during the month of October. Click here to see who is nominated this year and what they did for the LGBTQ+ community.

Queer History A to Z is an alphabet book for older readers that is packed full of information. Readers will be able to relate to youth activists and children’s issues as well as learn about all those change makers who came before.

Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera are two of the most well-known people in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights in the 1960’s and 1970’s. In Sylvia and Marsha Start A Revolution!, young children can learn about their lives and their activism.

As part of the popular History Comics series, The Stonewall Riots follows three fictional teenagers as they are magically teleported to the Stonewall Inn in 1969. While there, they witness the homophobia of the time and the infamous Stonewall Riots firsthand.

The adult edition of A Queer History of the United States for Young People won the Stonewall Award in 2012. This adaptation for tweens and teens includes pictures, sidebars, and short chapters. Queer history is explained not only through explanatory history, but also through letters, drawings and poems.

The rainbow flag is the most common and recognizable symbol of the queer community. But how did that happen? Find out more about its creator and his life in Sewing the Rainbow, a picture book biography.