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| Kimm Topping (photo: Ally Schmaling) |
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Kimm Topping is an artist/educator, writer, and historian dedicated to preserving LGBTQ+ history. As founder of Lavender Education, a national program promoting LGBTQIA+ history and youth leadership, Topping leads workshops, professional development, and historic walking tours. Their first book, Generation Queer (Tu Books), is YA nonfiction highlighting the stories of LGBTQ+ youth activists.
Please tell our readers a bit about Generation Queer.
Generation Queer is the first-ever nonfiction YA book to feature illustrated biographies of queer and trans youth activists who are leaders in education, arts, and organizing. While it's full of stories and resources for young readers, it also includes resources for adults, especially educators. Readers will learn about LGBTQ+ activists who are representative of a generation that values intersectional, collaborative social justice and who are working to build a world that values everyone.
You note that everyone covered in the book gave enthusiastic consent to be included, lives in the U.S., and started their activism before the age of 24. How did you find and choose the people you wanted to include?
I'm a youth worker by training so I started with people I had already organized with in Massachusetts, including L Austin-Spooner and Katherine Ferreira O'Connor. They were young leaders in the Yes on 3 campaign in Massachusetts, which was a 2018 ballot question determining if trans people could access public accommodations. From there, I began researching other youth activists around the country through LGBTQ organizations, scholarships and awards, and social media. I started with about 100 people and narrowed it down as I began interviewing folks, to express a range of experiences and identities.
Why did you divide the individuals in the book into "organizers," "artists," and "educators"?
At first, the book was going to feature 30 activists in one chapter. However, as I spoke with young people, they didn't necessarily resonate with the term "activist." It's a term that was put on them because they stood up for what was right. So, I moved away from this broader term, and more toward ways of describing their work. What did they do to create an impact? As each of the stories emerged, there were three main themes: arts, organizing, and education.
I also wanted to include brief history sections and resources for readers. So, this three-section model helped me to break down queer history into these three distinct ways of advocating for change.
In your introduction, you say "the future that young people are creating the road map to is inclusive." How did you arrive at this belief?
This is a thread that appears in each of the interviews and all my research and reading about youth-led movements for change. While each person approaches their advocacy work with a different lens or approach, one thing remains true through all the conversations: they all want to see a future where everyone is included. Their vision is not a future where we accept people despite their differences, but a future where we embrace, celebrate, and recognize everyone because of their unique experiences, identities, personalities, and values. The vision of the young people I spoke with was not about accepting the bare minimum of acceptance. It was about envisioning a future where everyone is included fully.
You write, "Saying someone or something is queer doesn't necessarily tell you anything about gender or sexuality (though it can), and that's what people find so freeing about it." Would you talk a bit about the title of your book and "queer as a verb?"
I teach a class called Queering Education, which is essentially about questioning and analyzing what we've been told is normal or acceptable. We might call this the "hidden curriculum." These are the messages we receive that tell us what is expected and what is perceived as valuable. For example, what message is sent when there is a binary dress code and girls are more often reprimanded for that dress code, or Black students are disciplined for their natural hair? What value is being communicated when African American AP History is removed from the offerings in Florida's curriculum? When younger students are asked only about "mom and dad" at home, which family structures are being left out?
On the flip side, what are the meaningful ways that we can communicate inclusion, welcoming, belonging, and community? To be queer is to challenge and diverge from the norms or standards that are imposed on us. So, when I say that we're using queer as a verb, it is about action. It's about being who we are despite arbitrary norms. It's about challenging dominant narratives and including everyone, because to be human is to be a multitude.
There's so much in here beyond the people-- timelines and histories, popular musicians and artists, sidebars about design accessibility and drag story hour. How did you decide what you wanted to include?
It's funny to think back to how full my brain was while writing this book. There's simply so much to learn about and that's when I decided to design this book as a "curiosity guide." I wanted readers to fully engage with and enjoy the biographies, while also putting the book down and running off to learn more about specific topics.
As a reader myself, I like to experience a book as a full learning experience. So I might read 10 pages then spend 10 minutes watching a video about a person who was mentioned. With Generation Queer, I wanted to create a similar experience where readers were encouraged to do their own research, to reach out to organizations to learn more about them, and to seek out more stories about people or periods of history.
Is there anything you'd like to say to Shelf Awareness readers?
Thank you for creating and supporting indie bookstores. When I first got the contract for this book, I spent many hours hanging out at All She Wrote Books--the local feminist, queer bookstore in Somerville, Mass.--chatting with owner Christina Pascucci Ciampa about the launch event for this book. Your work to support debut authors, marginalized authors, local authors--it is all so important and needed. I can't wait to come by your local bookstore and get to know you and your communities as I'm traveling around promoting Generation Queer! --Siân Gaetano, editor, children's and YA, Shelf Awareness