San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Kids’ author broadens LGBTQ themes
Fifty years after the Stonewall riots, America has reached a “finally” moment. A gay man is running for president and being taken seriously. But just as the 2008 election of Barack Obama did not render the nation postracist, Mayor Pete’s rise does not mean that all is rosy for the LGBTQ community.
“There remains work still to be done,” says San Francisco psychologist Michael Genhart. Yes, there are victories to celebrate, and the candidacy of South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg is encouraging, but there is also backlash and bias. Kids in samesex families, like those in Genhart’s practice, still face teasing and worse. So he has taken his work beyond the consulting room.
With eight picture books to his name, Genhart aims to have a bigger impact and wider audience when it comes to socialemotional growth. Although his two most recent books focus on the gay community, they are for everyone, anytime, not just when problems arise.
Many of his adult patients carry conflict or unhappiness from childhood, and his books offer “understanding to a child who can then move toward adulthood with less baggage to carry around,” he says. His topical books spark conversation at home, in the classroom, or even with him in treatment. That’s oldfashioned bibliotherapy.
Genhart’s interest goes beyond the professional. He and his husband have a daughter, now 23. In her growing up years, few books reflected their family and experience. Their goto was the groundbreaking “Heather Has Two Mommies.” Now Genhart helps fill a narrowing gap with books that give LGBT families a mirror and everyone else a window into the lives of friends and neighbors. He writes of pride and prejudice.
Genhart in his 50s is both playful and purposeful in the chunky board book “Rainbow: A First Book of Pride” (Magination; 28 pages; $17.99; ages 35). He explains, “I’m connecting rainbows in nature with the rainbow flag and with rainbow families.” Cheery illustrations by Anne Passchier show how yellow washes “sunlight” on two dads and their baby, green showcases brown kids in the outdoors, and so on. The affirming takehome message: “Be happy. Be love. Be proud.”
Genhart’s “Love Is Love” (Little Pickle Press; 36 pages; $18.99; ages 4 and up), illustrated by Ken Min, takes tough moments head on. This picture book explicitly uses the word “gay” to ease kids beyond awkward giggles. It follows a boy with a problem. Kids at school tease him for wearing a rainbow shirt (“gay”) and for having two dads (“gross”).
It is powerful that this namecalling is called out explicitly and that ready answers are modeled. Someone says, “You’re not a family.” The boy answers, “Yes, we are!” He knows his dads love him just as his friend’s straight parents love her. “I wanted to present a book that would help normalize gay parenting and gay families, while also addressing the discrimination that still exists.”
Two new picture books by other San Francisco authors deal with gender expression, and assumptions and problemsolving. A boy who wears a dress and a girl in khakis get chased out of genderspecific school bathrooms in “Jacob’s Room to Choose” (Magination; 32 pages; $17.99; ages 48), by Sarah and Ian Hoffman with illustrations by Chris Case. An understanding teacher steps in and helps her class figure out a better way. Takeaway: Allies matter.
Restrictions hit the new kid in town hard in “Ogilvy” (Holt; 40 pages; $17.99; ages 48) by Deborah Underwood and illustrated by T. L. McBeth. Turns out that “bunnies in dresses play ball and knit socks, and bunnies in sweaters make art and climb rocks.” Wanting to try everything, Ogilvy questions the status quo and ends up an agent of change. Takeaway: A single voice matters.