LemonLimeCherryLint ♥

In the episode 72 hours, we find out Rose may have contracted AIDs during an emergency gallbladder surgery.

Rose: Why me, Blanche? I'm tired of pretending I feel okay so you won't say, 'Take it easy', and I'm tired of you saying 'Take it easy' because you're afraid I'm going to fall apart. Dammit, why is this happening to me? I mean, this isn't supposed to happen to people like me. You must've gone to bed with hundreds of men. All I had was one innocent operation. Blanche: Hey, wait a minute! Are you saying this should be me and not you? Rose: No! No, I'm just saying that I am a good person. Hell, I'm a goody-two-shoes! Blanche: AIDS is not a bad person's disease, Rose, it is not God punishin' people for their sins!

In Isn't it romantic? we find out Dorothy's childhood best friend is a lesbian who recently lost her partner. She confesses she has feelings for Rose. Rose turns her down but makes it clear that she still wants to be friends even though she doesn't return those feelings.

Sophia: Jean is a nice person. She happens to like girls instead of guys. Some people like cats instead of dogs.

Jean: Rose, about last night. I should never have said anything. Rose: You only said what you were feeling. Jean: It's just that this last year has been so difficult for me. Pat was the person I planned to spend the rest of my life with. And when she died, I just felt so terribly alone. Empty. I thought I could never care for anyone again. Until I met you. I just got very confused. I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable. Rose: Well, I have to admit that I don't understand these kinds of feelings. But if I did understand, if I were, you know, like you, I'd be very flattered and proud that you thought of me that way.

Ebbtide's Revenge gives us Phil's funeral, and Sophia addressing him wearing women's clothes.

Rose: So what if he was different? It's okay that you loved him. Sophia: I did love him. He was my son, my little boy. But every time I saw him I wondered what I did, what I said, when was the day I did whatever I did to make him the way he was. Angela Petrillo: What he was Sophia, was a good man.

Sister of the Bride, where Blanche's brother Clayton brings his boyfriend to town, because they're planning on getting married.

Blanche: Oh, look, I can accept the fact that he's gay, but why does he have to slip a ring on this guy's finger so the whole world will know? Sophia: Why did you marry George? Blanche: We loved each other. We wanted to make a lifetime commitment. Wanted everybody to know. Sophia: That's what Doug and Clayton want, too. Everyone wants someone to grow old with. And shouldn't everyone have that chance?

I can't imagine grown adults asking this, and not attempting to conclude "underground" is code for something

Caption From @ essenceofblackculture on instagram:

Kristi Williams

@kristi_williams_black_history, a Black woman whose aunt survived the Tulsa Massacre, saw Oklahoma trying to silence Black history-and answered with action. She started "Black History Saturdays," free community classes to teach what the schools won't.

Now the room is full, the lessons are real, and the legacy lives on. end caption

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Okay, so there are still no bisexual children’s picture books.  I’m not reviewing this because it is a bisexual children’s picture book.  

But Not a Narwhal, is a book about breaking down binaries.  And frankly is just awesome.  In a world with no bisexual picture books, it can at least thematically give bisexual parents a way to talk to their kids about how life is more than a choice between opposites.  

Kelp is a little unicorn raised by narwhals.  Even though he is clearly different and not always good at narwhal tasks like swimming, his community loves him.  One day he goes to the surface and sees an animals that looks like him on the shore.  He finds a community of unicorns and finds out he is one of them, but still goes back to his loving community in the sea.  Only he is not happy there.  

What I like about this book (and why it functions as a good metaphor for bisexuality) is that the answer isn’t for him to live only with the unicorns or only with the narwhals.  The answer for Kelp is to throw a big party on the beach so narwhals and unicorns can all play together.  The answer isn’t a choice between a binary, it is about making space in the (literal) middle ground.  

Also the art is ungodly adorable, and full of rainbows:

So while we wait for a truly bisexual children’s picture book, this one is a boundary busting delight that can begin to open up bi-friendly conversations between parents and children.

When we first started this blog, Sarah sat down with her former roommate (a children’s librarian) and set out looking for bisexual picture books. We figured there must be some somewhere. After all it had been like 20some years since Heather Has Two Mommies and there are tons of gay, lesbian, and transgender picture books now. There must be somewhere, from some small press or dedicated but obscure author, bisexual children’s picture books.

*crickets chirp*

We have been at this blog for almost 20 months and we have not found a single bisexual picture book. No picture books about bisexuality, no picture books explaining bisexuality, no picture books with bisexual characters. No quirky thing from the 70’s or the 90’s with terribly dated pictures. No cutting edge kickstarted thing the just came up now.

None, zip, zero.

We’ve talked about this more with former roommate and with other children’s literature professionals, and we’ve narrowed it down to two possible reasons:

1) The word bisexual has the words ‘sex’ and ‘sexual’ in it This is terrifying to parents, teachers, librarians, booksellers, and publishers.

2) Picture books are very much focused on helping children understand a situation in the here and now. When queer children’s picture books do exist, they are often about helping children understand a friend or relative who is in a same-sex relationship, transitioning, or doing the things queer people do that straight people also do - like get married and have babies. A few are fantasy stories about princes and princesses that fly in the face of conventional gender expectations.

This means that it’s not immediately easy to use a picture book to explain bisexuality. If Mommy has a girlfriend now that will be the focus of the book, not her identity label or her former boyfriend.

But while those two reasons may explain a lot, it’s still not good enough.

This is Picture Book Month and Carolyn Dee Flores recently had this to say about the power of picture books:

Picture books ignite our souls.

I didn’t own every one of the books I read when I was little, but I FELT like I did. When I was really young, and read a book, and saw the pictures, and felt the pages, I remember thinking, “Wow, someone thought enough of me to do this, to make THIS for ME.” It made me feel important. Worthy. Like I had a future.

Think about all the kids out there that will one day grow up to be bisexual. Or all the kids out there who have bisexual parents and relatives. Plus all the bisexual adults out there who would LOVE to give a bisexual picture book to a child in their life….

Picture book authors, publishers, and illustrators are dynamic, creative, and passionate people. To them, we’re issuing the following challenge:

Find a way to make bisexual picture books.

Soon. Now, if you could. Because it is long past due.