Image courtesy of Latina Moms.
Have you ever felt as if no matter how much you explain something to your family, they still can’t seem to understand? This could be because they personally know you, so they are biased and feel empowered to turn everything into a debate or discussion.
Sometimes, we must find different ways of relaying a message to those closest to us. I love to send links to articles to friends and family about topics that are near and dear to me.
Most of the time, they end up reaching out to me and telling me that they had not seen it from that perspective and now understand where I was coming from.
Books are also a great way to educate our families due to the valuable knowledge they can provide, especially on topics such as the LGBTQ+ community and its culture.
Here are some books you can give your family this summer to help navigate the conversation.
Love, Ellen
You probably have heard about Ellen Degeneres at one point or another. Besides recent controversy, Ellen Degeneres has been a longtime supporter of numerous organizations/charities and an outspoken member of the LGBTQ+ community.
Love, Ellen is a book written by Ellen’s mother. Ellen’s mother, Betty, was known to be conservative at the time, but Betty writes about the bond a mother and daughter can have and how to learn and accept your children.
Betty talks about being an ally and the importance of being inclusive and supporting your children.
It is a beautiful story about her experience navigating her faith and the love for her daughter, ultimately coming to terms with her sexual orientation, further strengthening their bond and relationship.
The Stonewall Reader
June is Pride Month. While it is phenomenal that there is now a month dedicated to the awareness of the LGBTQ+ community, Pride actually started in honor of the Stonewall riots in 1969.
The Stonewall riots were essentially a series of protests by the LGBTQ+ community that transpired from a police raid in the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Manhattan.
The Stonewall Reader is a book that seeks to give insight and knowledge about the events that lead up to the Stonewall riots. It contains essays, journal entries, news publications, and much more information that gives us a clearer picture of the years before and after the riots.
This is an excellent book for your family to read so they learn about the true meaning behind Pride through stories from those who lived it firsthand.
Life Isn’t Binary
Sometimes, we tend to see the world through a black and white lens. We expect to see things fit into one box or another, but what about the middle ground? What about the gray area?
Life Isn’t Binary by Meg-John Barker and Alex Iantaffi is a book that explains how the world is not binary (i.e., not one thing or another) and the importance of understanding and acknowledging this way of thinking.
A common debate I see time and time again on the internet is the use of pronouns. Some individuals have a hard time accepting that people can identify with they/them pronouns because they feel they do not fit into gender-normative roles. This is a clear example of how some people see things specifically through a binary lens.
Instead of “categorizing” people, events, and behaviors, we should focus on truly understanding the basis of human identity and how everyone identifies themselves differently.
Check out these books for yourself and further expand your and your family’s knowledge.