Pride Month Blog Post by Colleen Rowan Kosinski

LOVE IS LOVE

When I was writing A Home Again, my good friends who are part of the LGBTQI community were in the process of buying a new house. I thought about how much love had gone into creating their old home, and knew they would bring that same love to the new one. They were the inspiration for my second family in the story. Along with my fictional characters, I added a baby. This family structure is not really mentioned in the summary of the book because it shouldn’t matter—they are a family. Children must know that families come in all shapes and sizes. Some reviewers of my books were very upset that they were not warned that the second family in my book was not a cis man and cis woman---I cry for the children of those parents.

I’d like to tell you a story of something that recently happened to me. I love signing books at various festivals and meeting my readers. As part of my table decorations, I built a model of the house on the cover of my book. Proudly displayed in the garden of the house is a LGBTQI rainbow flag. During one of my signings a young girl of maybe twelve years of age came up to my table and told me how much she loved the flag on my house. She explained to me that she also had a flag of her own. She said, “It’s a little different than yours. My flag is blue, yellow, and pink.” I wasn’t sure what that flag represented so I asked, and she went on to tell me that she considered herself pansexual, meaning she was attracted to all genders.

“It’s more about the person, than whether they are a boy or girl,” she explained. I can’t begin to depict the joy on her face when she saw my acceptance of her. I told her my daughter was transgender and her flag was pink, white, and blue. You could see this little girl’s face light up.

During Pride Month people celebrate with parades and festivals and many stores sell special merchandise for the month—which is terrific. I am proud every day of the year of my daughter and all the other individuals living their authentic lives, whether their pronouns are he, she, or they.

Even though I am all for celebrating pride month, we need to do more every month. Currently, hurtful laws targeting the queer community are being enacted in many states. We need to challenge these laws—write to our political leaders, attend protests, fly flags in support, vote for progressive leaders, or donate to charities fighting for LGBTQI rights.

In a small way, I hope my book, A Home Again, helps some children—whether through discussion or just reading on their own. I want them to know they have allies—just like that little girl experienced when we talked about the flags.

We all deserve to live happy and free as who we were meant to be.

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