Pride: The Celebration and the Struggle

In Pride: Celebrating Diversity & Community, Robin Stevenson created a deeply affecting, nuanced, and comprehensive account of the history of LGBT rights, exploring the reasons for the Pride festivals and parades as we see them today. And all of this for a middle grade to young adult audience, something not previously attempted with such detail and depth. And after only five years in press, Stevenson and Orca have teamed up again to ensure that the new edition of the book—Pride: The Celebration and the Struggle—is even more up-to-date and comprehensive.

In this new edition, Stevenson has included sections on being a better ally to the LGBTQ+ community, a section on celebrating Pride in “Difficult Times” and even a discussion of Rainbow Crosswalks (since they seem to be at the centre of so many conversations about rights, freedoms, and acceptance of LGBTQ+ youth, particularly throughout North America. Even with the North American focus, however, the “Pride Around the World” section of the book highlights many international events, parades, and celebrations, including Mexico, Turkey, Uganda, Russia, Indonesia, and South Korea.

One of the most important additions to this revised and expanded edition is the incorporation of even more information about activism, particularly for young (future) activists. Stevenson is a proponent of young people being active in their communities, fighting for change and for a better future. As such, she has included a new fifth section that includes chapters like “GSAs and School-Based Activism”, “Leading the Way”, and “Pride in the North: Inuvik’s First Pride Parade”. If there’s one thing Stevenson knows, it’s what young people are doing when it comes to changing the world for the better, and the new chapters included here are no exception.

Robin Stevenson is a name that should be known in schools and libraries and homes throughout Canada, not only for the fact that she has written board books, picture books, middle grade books, and YA books, but because she is an author who practices what she preaches. She works to support LGBT refugees. She speaks in school auditoriums, delivers talks to undergraduate and graduate classrooms. She works to ensure that the future will be better and more accepting for gender and sexual minorities. She is a force to be reckoned with.

If your school or library already has Pride: Celebrating Diversity & Community, that’s fantastic, but I would strongly recommend getting the revised and expanded edition so the young people in your life are as enlightened and invigorated as possible, to make a better future for all.