Recently I attended a fabulous workshop titled “Wait, They’re Gay?” It was led by Joshua Jernigan of the Gender Education Network. He shared evidence about extremely close same-gender relationships that famous leaders had including Abraham Lincoln, Emily Dickinson, and Eleanor Roosevelt. For example, they each wrote letters to their partners that reflect romantic love, not just close friendship. Dickinson’s poems were edited after her death to conceal lesbian themes. Yet, when we teach young people about these leaders, there’s usually no mention of these relationships. This, Jernigan pointed out, is a form of Queer erasure.
Why does this matter? It matters because Queer people have always existed. When we suppress information about LGBTQ people from our history lessons, it contributes to kids in LGBTQ families feeling isolated. At a time when Queer and Trans young people are increasingly under political attack, adults who care should do everything we can to support them.
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Queer erasure in picture book biographies
Jernigan is currently developing a LGBTQ history curriculum for SEA Homeschoolers that will push back against Queer erasure that is so common in how we teach young people history.
Talking with him got me thinking about the how rare it is for picture book biographies about LGBTQ people to acknowledge this part of their identity. That could be partly because before the mid-20th century, few Queer people publicly discussed their sexual orientation. But in some cases, picture books even omit any reference to Queerness for people who were public about this part of their identity.
Re-reading Dangerous Jane
When researching books to include in From the Margins to the Center: A People’s History of the United States Told Through Children’s Books, I discovered that Jane Addams was a lesbian. I thought back to a picture book by Suzanne Slade titled Dangerous Jane: The Life and Times of Jane Addams, Crusader for Peace. I was pretty sure the main text made no mention of either of Addams’ partners, Ellen Gates Starr or Mary Rozet Smith.
It would have been quite easy to incorporate something about both women into the story. Gates Starr was a co-founder of Hull House, the home that Addams founded for immigrant families. The two were a couple for many years.
Later, Rozet Smith joined Hull House’s work as she trained to become a social worker. She also became Addams’ romantic partner for the last 40 years of her life. It would be a natural part of the story to include the woman who shared in Addam’s work and supported her in all aspects of life. Most picture books about straight leaders who were married for a long time acknowledge spouses and their support.
Related post: Children’s books about LGBTQ history
Yet there’s no mention of anything like this in Dangerous Jane. Ellen Gates Starr is mentioned in the timeline of the book’s endnotes only as the person who helped her open Hull House.
To be clear, I’m not trying to shine a spotlight on Suzanne Slade or her book as especially problematic. Instead, it’s an example of how commonplace and accepted this kind of Queer erasure is in the world of children’s publishing.
Queer erasure in lessons about the Harlem Renaissance
Historian Henry Louis Gates once said that the Harlem Renaissance was “surely as gay as it was Black, not that it was exclusively either of these.” Yet when we teach young people about this important artistic and literary movement, adults rarely acknowledge its Queerness. A number of important Renaissance leaders were gay including Countee Cullen, Alain Locke, Angelina Weld Grimke, and Mabel Hampton.
Many Renaissance writers and artists also incorporated LGBTQ topics into their art. Langston Hughes (whose sexuality scholars debate) wrote about Harlem’s “spectacles of color,” referring to its drag balls. Mae West was run out of Connecticut and New Jersey when she tried to stage her play The Drag.
Related post: 21 children’s books starring transgender and nonbinary characters
A positive example of incorporating Queerness in picture book biographies
In her new book about James Baldwin, Jimmy’s Rhythm and Blues, Michelle Meadows shows us how to naturally include a leader’s Queerness in their story. The fact that James Baldwin was gay is not the main focus of the book, but it’s not hidden either.
Writing about Baldwin’s years in Paris, Meadows says that:
“In Paris, Jimmy fell in love with Lucien Happersberger, a painter from Switzerland.
On a trip to a Swiss village, while Lucien played, Jimmy tapped away at the keys on his typewriter with the beat of blues and jazz music in their air.”
The illustration on the page spread shows the two men pursuing their artistic talents together as a large phonograph surrounds them with musical notes.
We need more children’s history books and curriculum that directly discuss LGBTQ history, including understanding anti-Queer laws and practices as well as Queer movements for justice. But we also need more books like Jimmy’s Rhythm and Blues that simply acknowledge all the parts of a person’s identity, including who they love.
