GayBCs,The

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You think about school and how you’re taught the same lessons year after year, and you think it really doesn’t matter, but at the same time, it’s reinforcing. The book is normalizing how people identify and normalizing how allies see themselves and their friends.”

Gaybcs - By M L Webb (board Book) : Target The Gaybcs - By M L Webb (board Book) : Target

This book came in the mail yesterday (Oct. 7th, 2019) and my daughter and I enjoyed it together. We especially loved "V is for VOGUE" and "S is for Sashay". We loved the colorful illustrations and the smiling, happy children depicted in the pictures. Author and illustrator, M. L. Webb assumes hope, Webb’s book also shares (part of) a title and theme with GAYBCs: A Queer Alphabet , by Rae Congdon (Greystone Books, 2018). Positioned by the publisher as a “cheeky, progressive adult alphabet book,” words like “kink” make this one best for older readers. Make sure you’re buying the one you want, if you want either! And while some of them are really smart (like illustrating a glam person coming out from a Door for Drag), there's also stuff like Flower turns into Femme for no particular reason (the "annotations" are just adding a stem and leaf to the flower and a sun in the sky). I don't understand how this is illustrating "femme" in any way. Is it because flowers are feminine or something? (The definition is, "An identity for an LGBTQIA+ person who acts or presents in a feminine manner.") The book, a first for Webb (pen name M.L. Webb), teaches LGBTQ+ vocabulary with poems and illustrations in an attempt to help readers ages 4 to 8 begin to have a dialogue about identity with their loved ones.Webb’s addition to the LGBTQ+ lexicon is also being commended by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, a nonprofit that focuses on LGBTQ advocacy within K-12 school systems. According to Becca Mui, GLSEN’s education manager, helping young people see themselves and understand the world around them and how diverse it really is benefits all students. Hearthside Books in Juneau is promoting books for the holiday season, and its catalog features a book for the grand-babies: “Gay BCs”.

gay BC book by Allen Dennis | Open Library The gay BC book by Allen Dennis | Open Library

The GayBCs,” released last month by Quirk Books, is authored by a gay graphic designer who wants to ensure parents are having a dialogue with their children about their sexual orientation at a very young age. I also question the verse for “trans,” although I say this as a cisgender person and hope some trans folks will weigh in. “T is for Trans,” Webb writes. “It’s a brave step to take/to live as the gender you know is innate.” The definition of a trans person, however, isn’t “someone who lives as the gender they know is innate”—cisgender people do that, too. The verse therefore doesn’t really convey what it means to be trans. With a little adult explanation, the verse can be read as a positive comment on many trans people’s lives, but it doesn’t quite get there on its own. Additionally, as I’ve heard from some trans people (and in a related way, from people with disabilities), they’re tired of being told they’re “brave” simply for existing. I’ve also heard from some that they do think they’ve been brave—but as this is a point of contention, it would have been better avoided here. The explanations of each term vary in quality. Some feel on target, like “L is for lesbian. It’s love and affection/between two special girls who share a connection.” But an “Ally” isn’t just “A friend who is there/to stand up for you with strength, love, and care,” but rather (in this context), someone who is not LGBTQ supporting an LGBTQ person. I’d therefore suggest, “A friend who is there/Though they’re different from you, they still show they care” as closer. (One other reviewer has also noted that “Asexual” or “Ace” might have been a better choice for “A,” given the range of other LGBTQ+ identities named in the book.)Hence, they can learn their alphabet letters and also be discussing their sexual attraction through various terms and jingles:

The Gay BCs of LGBT+: An Accompaniment to the ABCs of L…

A" IS NOT FOR "ALLY". Fellow queer folks, please, PLEASE stop the damaging erasure of asexual and aromantic people. This cute picture book covers just about every other major LGBTQIA+ identity, from nonbinary to pansexual, but still starts its alphabet with allies and ignores the existence of asexuality. I almost cried on the floor at BEA when I opened this ARC. Such a huge disappointment.A bright new book for kids takes them on an alphabetical exploration of LGBTQ terms and ideas—but it’s a little uneven as well as problematic in some areas.