SATA
ENTRY TYPE: new
WORK TITLE: RED AND GREEN AND BLUE AND WHITE
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.leewind.org/
CITY: Los Angeles
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Harvard University, master’s degree.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, blogger, and program administrator. Independent Book Publishers Association, Los Angeles, CA, director of education and programs; Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Los Angeles, CA, blogger.
AWARDS:Gold Standard selection, Junior Library Guild, for No Way, They Were Gay?
WRITINGS
Author of the blog, I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the Hell Do I Read?
SIDELIGHTS
Lee Wind is a writer, blogger, and program administrator based in Los, Angeles, CA. He has worked as the director of education and programs for the Independent Book Publishers Association and as a blogger for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Wind also maintains his own blog, called I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the Hell Do I Read? In an interview with Edward Sylvan on the Authority, Wind explained how his own experience with his sexuality inspired him to write works for people from marginalized communities. He stated: “I was closeted from age eleven until I was twenty-five, so much of what I do (my blog, my books) is aimed at empowering young people to be their authentic selves now (or at least as soon as they can safely do so.)”
In 2018, Wind released his first book, a novel called Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill. It stars a high school freshman named Wyatt, who is struggling to come to terms with being gay in a small Southern town. When researching Abraham Lincoln for a school project, Wyatt discovers Lincoln’s letters to Joshua Fry Speed, which Wyatt believes reveals that Lincoln was gay. Wyatt includes his hypothesis in his school project, which scandalizes his class and the town at large. Fortunately, he meets a new friend named Martin, whose attorney mother helps him navigate the controversy. In an assessment of the book in Voice of Youth Advocates, Elizabeth Nebeker commented: “Aside from Wyatt, the characters are not fully developed.” However, Nebeker added: “The use of social media to cause positive change is a refreshing, positive aspect.” A writer in Children’s Bookwatch described the volume as “entertaining, thought-provoking.”
In No Way, They Were Gay?: Hidden Lives and Secret Loves, Wind highlights important historical figures who were queer. He includes the information about Lincoln which also appeared in Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill. Also appearing in the book are stories about Eleanor Roosevelt, William Shakespeare, Mahatma Gandhi, M’E Mpho Nthunya, and We’wha. In a blog post he wrote on the TeachingBooks website, Wind explained why he thought his book would be important to young Queer people. He stated: “Knowing our Queer history is incredibly empowering. … Because knowing we have a place in the past assures us we deserve a place at the table today. And knowing we have a place at the table today lets us know that our future is limitless.” Wind told a writer on the Lerner Books website: “I hope that this book helps them be more critical and questioning consumers of history as it’s packaged for us. That they start to dig into primary source materials themselves. That they find the true stories of under-represented people that resonate for them, too.” Booklist reviewer, Michael Cart, praised Wind’s work, stating: “His book is solidly written, well-documented and organized.” Cart added: “It’s a modest, well-intentioned contribution to gay history.”
Lee’s 2021 novel, Red and Green and Blue and White, tells the story of a kid named Isaac, who struggles with being the only Jewish kid in the neighborhood, especially around the holidays. When an antisemitic person damages Isaac’s house around Hanukah, Isaac’s best friend and neighbor, Teresa, draws a menorah and places it in the window of her Christian house in solidarity with Isaac’s family. As townspeople see Teresa’s artwork, it inspires them to make a stand, too. Soon, the town is filled with windows displaying menorahs, despite the residents’ religious beliefs. The story was inspired by a real event from 1993 in Billings, MT. In the same interview with Sylvan, Wind discussed the message in the book. He stated: “Red and Green and Blue and White is all about letting kids know they have the power to make our world a better place—right now! They don’t have to wait to be bigger, or all grown up. If you can stand up for yourself, if you can stand up for a friend, you have the power. The two kids in the story stand up with poems and drawings—and every kid can do that!” Rachel Kamin, contributor to School Library Journal, described the book as “a powerful and inspiring example of community, friendship, respect, and love.” Readers will feel heartened at children’s power to influence others to stand up for justice and defeat vile prejudice,” asserted a writer in Kirkus Reviews.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 15, 2021, Michael Cart, review of No Way, They Were Gay?: Hidden Lives and Secret Loves, p. 45.
Children’s Bookwatch, September, 2018, review of Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill.
Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2021, review of Red and Green and Blue and White.
School Library Journal, November, 2021, Rachel Kamin, review of Red and Green and Blue and White, p. 52.
Voice of Youth Advocates, October, 2018, Elizabeth Nebeker, review of Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill, p. 72.
ONLINE
Authority, https://medium.com/ (November 21, 2021), Edward Sylvan, author interview.
Lee Wind website, https://www.leewind.org/ (April 11, 2022).
Lerner Books website, https://lernerbooks.com/ (April, 2021), author interview; (April 11, 2022), author profile.
Publishers Weekly Online, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (April 27, 2021), Jennifer Young, author interview.
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators website, https://www.scbwi.org/ (April 11, 2022), author profile.
TeachingBooks, https://forum.teachingbooks.net/ (June 7, 2021), article by author.
About Lee
(a.k.a. Lee writes about himself in the 3rd person…)
Lee Wind’s superpower is stories – true and fictional – that center marginalized kids and teens and celebrate their power to change the world. Closeted until his 20s, Lee writes the books that would have changed his life as a young Gay kid. His Masters Degree from Harvard didn’t include blueprints for a time machine to go back and tell these stories to himself, so Lee pays it forward with a popular blog with over 3 million page views (I’m Here. I’m Queer. What The Hell Do I Read?) and books for kids and teens.
His latest book is “Red and Green and Blue and White,” a picture book illustrated by Caldecott-winning illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky (Levine Querido.) It has received five starred trade reviews and the New York Times called it “beautiful.” Lee’s middle grade nonfiction “No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves” (Lerner Publishing Group/Zest Books), was honored as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection and was selected for the Chicago Public Library’s 2021 Best of the Best Books list. He is also the author of the crowd-funded YA novel “Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill,” featured as a Publishers Weekly Indie Success Story, and one of Publishers Weekly’s Top Five Independently Published Middle Grade and Young Adult Books of 2018.
With day jobs for the Independent Book Publishers Association (as their director of education and programs) and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (as their official blogger), Lee’s superhero job is storytelling to empower readers to shine with their own light. Subscribe to Lee’s newsletter and start your journey to discover our past and live your future.
Lee Wind’s superpower is stories – true and fictional – that center marginalized kids and teens and celebrate their power to change the world. Closeted until his 20s, Lee writes the books that would have changed his life as a young Gay kid. His Masters Degree from Harvard didn’t include blueprints for a time machine to go back and tell these stories to himself, so Lee pays it forward with a popular blog with over 3 million page views (I’m Here. I’m Queer. What The Hell Do I Read?) and books for kids and teens.
His latest book is “Red and Green and Blue and White,” a picture book illustrated by Caldecott-winning illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky (Levine Querido.) It has received five starred trade reviews and the New York Times called it “beautiful.” Lee’s middle grade nonfiction “No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves” (Lerner Publishing Group/Zest Books), was honored as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection and was selected for the Chicago Public Library’s 2021 Best of the Best Books list. He is also the author of the crowd-funded YA novel “Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill,” featured as a Publishers Weekly Indie Success Story, and one of Publishers Weekly’s Top Five Independently Published Middle Grade and Young Adult Books of 2018.
With day jobs for the Independent Book Publishers Association (as their director of education and programs) and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (as their official blogger), Lee’s superhero job is storytelling to empower readers to shine with their own light. Subscribe to Lee’s newsletter and start your journey to discover our past and live your future. www.leewind.org
ABOUT LEE WIND
Lee is the head of SCBWI Team Blog and the official blogger for SCBWI (at http://scbwi.blogspot.com)
His personal blog, “I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the Hell do I Read?”
covers LGBTQ Teen Books, Culture and Politics, and has had over 3.1 million visits from LGBTQ Teens and their allies. It’s a Children’s Book
Council “Great Diversity Blog” and is linked from the American Library
Association’s Rainbow Books List.
Lee is represented by Marietta Zacker of the Gallt Zacker Agency.
His books include,
RED AND GREEN AND BLUE AND WHITE, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky (Levine Querido, October 2021) – which has received four starred reviews!
NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves (Zest Books/Lerner Publishing Group, April 2021) – a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
QUEER AS A FIVE-DOLLAR BILL (Oct 2018) – A Publishers Weekly “Indie Success” Story
He won the 2010 Honorable Mention for the Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award for his middle grade manuscript, “Over God.” He completed a six month mentorship with Emma Dryden via the SCBWI Nevada mentorship program, where he worked with the renowned editor on a revision of that same project.
His interviews and articles have been published widely, including the 2014 May/June “Writing For Kids & Teens” Writer’s Digest Magazine, the November 2013 cover story in Office Pro magazine, the 2012 and 2011 editions of Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market, the September 2010 issue of Hunger Mountain, the Vermont College of Fine Arts’ Journal Of The Arts and Crossed Genres Magazine.
He was the co-Regional Advisor (along with Sarah Laurenson) of SCBWI – Los Angeles, as well as a producer, writer and on-air contributor for the short-lived but awesome public radio program about children’s and Teen literature, KID LIT With Lisa Loeb.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I’m an Author
My mission is to write books that had I read them as a kid would have changed my life. I don’t have a time machine, so I pay it forward with books and my blog. I’m represented by Marietta Zacker at The Gallt Zacker Agency.
a Blogger
My vision is to be a resource, share inspiration and empower diversity in the worlds of children’s and teen literature as well as LGBTQ rights and culture. My personal blog is I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the Hell Do I Read?
I am also the Official Blogger for SCBWI at SCBWI: The Blog and I lead SCBWI Team Blog at our Official SCBWI Conference Blog.
My day job is for the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) as their director of marketing and programming. My superhero job is writing to empower kids and teens.
QUOTED: "I’m gay, and I didn’t come out until I was in my 20s. When I found out that there was historical evidence that Abraham Lincoln may have had a love affair with his friend Joshua Speed, I was completely floored. I saw myself in history for the first time. I didn’t really like history when I was growing up. ... So when I started thinking about Lincoln maybe being gay, I wondered, 'What if I could go back and tell my eleven-year-old self about this?' It would have changed my whole life."
Four Questions for Lee Wind
By Jennifer Young | Apr 27, 2021
Comments Click Here
Lee Wind is director of marketing and programming for the Independent Book Publishers Association, a nonprofit that advocates for small indie presses. Wind is also a blogger for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and is the founder of the YA blog “I’m Here. I'm Queer. His upcoming picture book, Red and Green and Blue and White, illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Paul O. Zelinsky, will publish in October. Wind’s 2018 YA novel, Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill, a BookLife Prize semifinalist, is an #OwnVoices coming of age story about coming out. Working on a fictional book about uncovering secret gay history inspired Wind to write his new book, No Way, They Were Gay?, a collection of historical biographies, which was published earlier this month. We spoke with Wind about interpreting queer history, and what it means to be an ally.
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What inspired you to write this book?
I’m gay, and I didn’t come out until I was in my 20s. When I found out that there was historical evidence that Abraham Lincoln may have had a love affair with his friend Joshua Speed, I was completely floored. I saw myself in history for the first time. I didn’t really like history when I was growing up—it was all about memorizing dates and names, and I never found a reflection of anyone like me. So when I started thinking about Lincoln maybe being gay, I wondered, “What if I could go back and tell my 11-year-old self about this?” It would have changed my whole life. Since I don’t have a time machine, I decided to write a book about it, to help change someone else’s life.
My book profiles several dozen historical figures, and is organized by the categories “men who loved men,” “women who loved women,” and “people who lived outside gender binaries.” It’s a start for readers looking to learn more. It’s so empowering to know you have a place in the past. Then you believe you deserve a place at the table today. So you can imagine a future that’s limitless. If this book can save one reader years of being closeted, that’s a win. I’m so excited and grateful that I can pay it forward in this way.
What does queer history mean to you?
I wrote a history book, but it’s not the kind you usually read in school. History is crafted by the people who recorded it, by the people trying to preserve power by protecting the status quo. This has meant that historical records kept queer people disempowered. We need to focus on sharing the truth that queer people have always existed. If we can recognize that people being trans or gender nonconforming or gender queer is not really new, that is really empowering for young people today, and for everyone else, too.
Initially, I wrote a YA novel, Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill. But I felt like there was also a nonfiction book there. I realized that there are so many more stories about queer people throughout history that deserve to be told. For someone who didn’t like history at all, I became obsessed with discovering queer history. But I knew that I couldn’t have a “CSI: History” approach to this material. There is no DNA-type evidence that will irrefutably prove that Eleanor Roosevelt had a gay relationship with Lorena Hickok, yet we can read thousands of intimate letters between them. The book reproduces excerpts of these primary sources, because I wanted the book to be as transparent as possible. Primary sources sometimes contradict the main point you are trying to make. History is fascinating and complex, and it’s a form of interpretation. Kids are smart enough to hold a complex individual in their mind. My aim is to take these archival materials and present them to readers, and to let them make their own call.
Which historical figure in your book means the most to you?
I had an epiphany while I was reading Mahatma Gandhi’s correspondence with [German-Jewish architect] Hermann Kallenbach. Gandhi wrote hundreds of letters to Kallenbach, and we still have them—I read them all. Clearly Kallenbach was the soulmate of Gandhi’s life. I realized that I had been thinking of a historical figure being queer as a footnote to their life, but then I started to think of it in a different way. Gandhi is famous for thinking about all of humanity as connected to one another. In 1911, he wrote, “You worship facing one way and I worship facing the other. Why should I become your enemy for that reason? We all belong to the human race...” I started to think that maybe a person was capable of expressing this thought partly because they were queer, so they were able to think things through differently, and express ideas in a way other people couldn’t. You could think of Eleanor Roosevelt along these lines as well. Maybe she was able to champion the Universal Declaration of Human Rights because she loved a woman, at one point in her life, and that being queer enabled her to see beyond the structures that society imposed at that time.
Who do you hope reads this book?
I hope this book is read not just by young queer people but straight, cis kids—to help them open their eyes, and to help empower them to become allies of the LGBTQ community. My journey is to be an ally to everyone else who is part of the rainbow, to people of color, to disabled people. I’m inspired by another figure I profiled in the book, civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. Rustin said, if we want to do away with injustice to gays, it will be done because we eliminate injustice for all. We can’t leave anyone behind.
No Way, They Were Gay?: Hidden Lives and Secret Loves (Queer History Project) by Lee Wind. Lerner/Zest, $18.99 paper Apr. 6 ISBN 978-1-5415-8162-3
Lee Wind is the founding blogger and publisher of I’m Here. I’m Queer. What The Hell Do I Read?, an award-winning website about books, culture, and empowerment for Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Questioning and Queer youth, and their Allies. He is the author of No Way, They Were Gay: Hidden Lives and Secret Loves, a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Lee also works for IBPA and SCBWI. Visit him online at www.leewind.org to see and share how #QueerHistoryIsEverywhere.
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INTERVIEW
What was your favorite book when you were a child?
Dune by Frank Herbert
What’s your favorite line from a book?
“Are you now in feeling as well as in judgement glad that you are married as you are?” Abraham Lincoln asked that in an 1842 letter to Joshua Fry Speed. It’s the question that cracked open the false facade of history for me, because that’s exactly how I felt as a closeted Gay teen—I judged dating girls the right thing to do, but I didn’t feel it, and I kept hoping the feeling would come… It didn’t, and I finally got honest with myself and others and came out in my 20s, but reading this line from Abraham made me see myself (my Gay self) in history for the very first time.
Who are your top three favorite authors or illustrators?
An impossible question—but I recently read and loved Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro, and Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park
Why did you want to become an author or illustrator?
I don’t have a time machine. Let me explain… when I found out that there were guys who like-liked other guys (just like me!) in history, I wanted to travel back in time and share the news with my 11-year-old self. My 15-year-old self. Back then, I felt so alone. This information would have changed my life. But… no time machine. So I’m paying it forward, with my blog and with my books. No Way, They Were Gay? is packed with 24 true stories of men who loved men, women who loved women, people who loved without regard to gender, and people who lived outside gender boundaries. Any one of those stories would have rocked my world when I was a kid/teen. I’m so happy to be sharing them with readers of all ages now.
Do you have any advice for future authors or illustrators?
Write your book in the way only YOU can write it. That’s what everyone calls “voice.” Make it your take on your subject, and have your passion shine through. When I was in school, history was always presented as medicine—lists of names and dates to memorize. So I’ve flipped the whole idea of history upside down, letting people from history speak for themselves through primary sources in a celebration of our LGBTQ legacy. It’s history as chocolate, not medicine. Empowering chocolate. That’s my voice. What’s yours?
QUOTED: "I hope that this book helps them be more critical and questioning consumers of history as it’s packaged for us. That they start to dig into primary source materials themselves. That they find the true stories of under-represented people that resonate for them, too."
NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY?: AN INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR LEE WIND
History has often ignored men who loved men, women who loved women, and people who lived outside gender boundaries. In No Way, They Were Gay?: Hidden Lives and Secret Loves, author Lee Wind examines primary source letters, poems, and more to rethink the lives and loves of historical figures.
Today Lee joins us to give readers insight into the inspiration and purpose of this fascinating YA nonfiction!
Why this book?
In 2011 I heard a talk about the letters that Abraham Lincoln wrote Joshua Fry Speed, letters that convinced the speaker that Abraham and Joshua were in love. I’d been out for a long time, and had never heard of this. And I thought, no way.
Everything up until then that I had learned about history taught me that history is the story of rich, white, able-bodied, cis-gendered, hetero men from Europe. And maybe a few from America, like Abraham Lincoln. He couldn’t possibly have been gay!
But I couldn’t shake the idea, so I went to the library and got copies of the letters. I didn’t come out as a gay man until my twenties, and I spent a lot of time and energy in high school and college and grad school dating girls, judging it the right thing to do, but not feeling it. It was what my homophobic family, and my homophobic culture wanted, but I just didn’t feel what I was supposed to. And I kept hoping the feelings would come. They didn’t, and I finally got honest with myself (at 21) and with the rest of the world (at 23) and with my family (at 25.)
Back in the 1840s, Abraham and Joshua had lived together for four years, they shared a bed that whole time, and then Joshua moves back to Kentucky and marries this woman named Fanny. Eight months later, Abraham writes him and asks, “Are you now in feeling, as well as judgment, glad that you are married as you are? From anybody but me this would be an impudent question, not to be tolerated, but I know you will tolerate it from me.” And then he ends the letter asking for an answer quickly, as he’s impatient to know.
We don’t have Joshua’s answer, but it was only four weeks later that Abraham married Mary Todd.
I had goosebumps. Abraham was describing exactly how I had felt, back when I was in the closet. In judgment, but not in feeling. And I thought, maybe they were in love…
I started to do more and more research, and I became convinced: Yes, Abraham was in love with Joshua. And I couldn’t shake the thought of how knowing this, even hearing the possibility of the 16th president of the United States having been in love with another guy, would have changed my whole life.
That if I had heard about this when I was 11, or 15, or heck, any time before I was 25, maybe I would have found the courage to be my authentic self earlier. Maybe I could have accepted my own difference, knowing I wasn’t alone in the world, alone in history.
No Way, They Were Gay? is all about tearing down that false heterosexual and cis-gendered façade of history. Because the story of Abraham and Joshua being in love is just one crack in that false façade that starts to let some rainbow light shine through. And there are so many more stories that can tear that wall down and fill our world with light and hope. Stories of men who loved men, and women who loved women, and people who lived outside gender boundaries—all of whom made real history, too.
These stories can empower us, and I’m excited to share them in this book.
Did you always like history?
A: Ha! No, I actually hated history. The way it was taught in school, it was all about memorizing names and dates, and there was never anyone like me in those history books.
What’s so ironic is that now I’m obsessed with history—LGBTQIA2+ history, that is—and I collect the stories like other people collect salt and pepper shakers, or snow globes.
There are so many surprising people in history who are part of our Queer heritage. Mahatma Gandhi and the soul mate of his life, Hermann Kallenbach. William Shakespeare and the 126 love sonnets he wrote to another guy. Sappho and her love poems about loving women that changed our whole culture. Eleanor Roosevelt who loved Lorena Hickok and wore her ring. The Pharaoh Hatshepsut who changed their public image from that of a woman to that of a man over 22 years of ruling Egypt. We’wha, the Zuni who charmed 1880s Washington D.C. as a “princess” – but no one knew of their third-gender status.
I’ve collected the most surprising stories—and the primary sources that back them up—in this book. And I think it can change everything.
How can knowing the past change anything about the present, or the future?
If young LGBTQIA2+ people today know that pride didn’t begin at Stonewall in 1969, but that Queer people have existed for as far back as history goes, in every culture all over our world, then they’ll know that they are not alone.
They’ll know that they have a place at the table today.
And knowing they have a place at the table today, they’ll be able to envision a limitless future.
How is this appropriate for kids? Aren’t they too young to know about sex?
That’s the thing: we’re not talking about sex. We’re talking about love, and identity. There’s no age too young to know about men loving other men, or women loving other women, or people who love other people no matter their gender, or people living outside gender boundaries. Love is the glue that holds every family together. And identity is not so binary as the folks in charge would have us believe.
What about all the historians who don’t agree with you?
They’ve had hundreds of years and tens of thousands of books to make their case – that every man in history loved a woman, and that every woman in history loved a man, and that every person fit neatly into one of two gender boxes.
The problem is: that’s completely untrue. And they know it. Our Queer history has been burned, torn up, hidden, disrespected, coded, and only very rarely shared.
No Way, They Were Gay? sets aside all that, and lets the voices of these people from history speak for themselves. With reproductions of primary sources and chatty “pop up” commentaries, it’s an eye-opening ride through the history they’ve been keeping from us. And every reader gets to decide for themselves what they believe.
I don’t need to convince anyone that I’m right and they’re wrong about who loved who, or who lived how. There’s this great saying by Anne Lamott in her book Bird by Bird, where she explains that lighthouses don’t run all over an island looking for boats to save. They just stand there and shine. This book is another light in my lighthouse. With all this big, beautiful, rainbow light of history shining out. People are welcome to come to the light, or stay away—I can’t control that. But the light’s shining bright. That’s what I focus on.
What’s your hope for No Way, They Were Gay?
My hope is really for readers. I hope that this book helps them be more critical and questioning consumers of history as it’s packaged for us. That they start to dig into primary source materials themselves. That they find the true stories of under-represented people that resonate for them, too.
Because history is also the stories of women, and poor people, and people of color, and disabled people, and people from all over the world, and just as importantly, men who loved men, women who loved women, people who loved without regard to gender, and people who lived outside gender boundaries.
Because we all deserve to know that we’re not the first person like us to walk on this planet.
Because we can all be better allies to each other.
And I guess it would be amazing if No Way, They Were Gay? was used in schools, so maybe we could start teaching a more inclusive history. That would be a powerful step forward that could really change individual students’ lives, as well as the culture in schools.
And if there were GSA (Gender and Sexuality Alliance) clubs out there that would want to read it like a book club – that would be so cool, because the book’s all about empowering LGBTQIA2+ kids and teens and their allies. And I can’t wait for them to read it.
Is there more?
There’s so much more. No Way, They Were Gay? is the first book in the QUEER HISTORY PROJECT series. Next up a title showing readers that gender is an idea held by a group of people, and that so many other cultures saw – and still see – gender differently than we teach it in the West. Knowing that is empowering, for all of us.
And I’ll continue collecting stories about LGBTQIA2+ people and cultures and legends, and I’ll be sharing them on my blog (I’m Here. I’m Queer. What The Hell Do I Read? at www.leewind.org) and on social media with the hashtag #QueerHistoryisEverywhere.
I’ll keep lighting lights in the lighthouse. And I hope it will light your way, too.
Praise for No Way, They Were Gay?
“[S]olidly written, well-documented and organized . . . a modest, well-intentioned contribution to gay history.”—Booklist
“Entertaining, illuminating, and an accessible antidote to dominant histories.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Such an important book, both enlightening and entertaining. Highly recommended for readers age 10-110!”—Linda Sue Park, Newbery Medalist
“I think as a teen I might’ve chosen to major in History if I’d read Lee Wind’s fun, fast-paced, and thought-provoking book. I love how it lays out the evidence about some of our past’s greatest heroes, invites us to draw our own conclusions, and inspires us, regardless of our sexual orientation or gender identity to be true to who we are.”—Alex Sanchez, author of Rainbow Boys and You Brought Me the Ocean
“This fascinating look at the hidden lives of some of history’s most important figures deserves a place in every library, not to mention the hands of readers, many of whom will see much needed reflections of themselves.”—Ellen Hopkins, New York Times bestselling author of Crank
“Lee’s work reminds readers, especially LGBTQ readers, that we all come from somewhere and that even though the history books may seek to silence or throw a shadow over our truths, our truths are ours to share with the world with pride.”—Matthew C. Winner, host of The Children’s Book Podcast
Teaching Resources
Be sure to check out Lee’s Website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
Give your students something to think about with this thought-provoking (and free) discussion guide!
Share recordings and more from TeachingBooks.net with your classroom!
Read an interview with Lee Wind and Betsy Bird from A Fuse #8 Production.
Read more author and illustrator interviews on our blog!
QUOTED: "I was closeted from age 11 until I was 25, so much of what I do (my blog, my books) is aimed at empowering young people to be their authentic selves now (or at least as soon as they can safely do so.)"
"Red and Green and Blue and White is all about letting kids know they have the power to make our world a better place—right now! They don’t have to wait to be bigger, or all grown up. If you can stand up for yourself, if you can stand up for a friend, you have the power. The two kids in the story stand up with poems and drawings—and every kid can do that!"
Edward Sylvan, CEO of Sycamore Entertainment Group
Nov 21, 2021
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8 min read
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Listen
Social Impact Authors: How & Why Lee Wind Is Helping To Change Our World
An Interview With Edward Sylvan
Photo Credit: Michele Baron
Red and Green and Blue and White is all about letting kids know they have the power to make our world a better place — right now! They don’t have to wait to be bigger, or all grown up. If you can stand up for yourself, if you can stand up for a friend, you have the power. The two kids in the story stand up with poems and drawings — and every kid can do that!
Aspart of my series about “authors who are making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lee Wind.
Lee Wind says that his superpower is stories — true and fictional — that empower kids and teens to be their authentic selves and change the world. His Masters Degree from Harvard didn’t include blueprints for a time machine to go back and tell these stories to himself, so Lee pays it forward with a popular blog with over 3 million page views (I’m Here. I’m Queer. What The Hell Do I Read?) and books for kids and teens. His latest is the picture book Red and Green and Blue and White, illustrated by Caldecott winning illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky — which has received four starred reviews. He is the author of the nonfiction No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves, a Junior Library Guild gold standard selection, and the YA novel Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill, a Publishers Weekly “Indie Success Story.” Outside of writing, Lee works for the Independent Book Publishers Association (as their director of education and programs) and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (as their official blogger).
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
Sure! Happy to be here. I’m a first-generation American — my mom was an abstract artist, my dad a college professor, and while they’re amazing people, our house and the Philadelphia suburbs of the 1970s and 80s were a pretty homophobic setting to be growing up in as a young gay kid. I was closeted from age 11 until I was 25, so much of what I do (my blog, my books) is aimed at empowering young people to be their authentic selves now (or at least as soon as they can safely do so.)
When you were younger, was there a book that you read that inspired you to take action or changed your life? Can you share a story about that?
I spent a lot of time reading between the lines. Trying to find gay romance (or just lives) in-between what Anne McCaffrey wrote in her Dragonriders of Pern series. I think the big change that happened for me was as an adult, realizing I could write the books I didn’t have as a kid.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?
The most interesting mistake was that I didn’t trust my gut and asked more questions when an editor didn’t know something my agent at the time had told me — that the editor was supposedly planning to acquire my manuscript. The editor made it seem when I brought it up, like they didn’t know what I was talking about and changed the topic, and I thought — wow, that’s an awkward interaction. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. Maybe that was a terrible breach of protocol. I was so hung up on feeling I had no power in the situation it took another six months before it was revealed (by someone who did ask questions) that my agent at the time had been lying to nearly all her clients about fake pending deals. I wish I had trusted my gut and asked more questions sooner! I hope I would have landed my awesome current — and honest — agent that much sooner.
Can you describe how you aim to make a significant social impact with your book?
Red and Green and Blue and White is all about letting kids know they have the power to make our world a better place — right now! They don’t have to wait to be bigger, or all grown up. If you can stand up for yourself, if you can stand up for a friend, you have the power. The two kids in the story stand up with poems and drawings — and every kid can do that!
Can you share with us the most interesting story that you shared in your book?
I was really moved by the true story that inspired my picture book. It had received a lot of attention (including national press coverage on NPR and in the New York Times, a PBS documentary, and the formation of the nonprofit Not in Our Town). What happened was that in December 1993 in Billings, Montana, someone threw a stone through the window of the home of a little boy, Isaac — a window that was decorated for Chanukah. When the window was repaired the next day, Isaac and his family had to make a decision — would they hide being Jewish, or stand up for themselves? They stood up.
The hate crime, as the New York Times put it, “sent a powerful message: Jews aren’t welcome here. But Isaac, 5, had friends. Among them was Teresa Hanley, a kindergarten classmate who found out about the attack the next day. When Teresa came home crying, her parents convened a family meeting and came up with a heroic plan: they would draw a picture of a menorah and put it on their window as a sign of solidarity.” The standing up for others caught on, and the local newspaper, The Billings Gazette, ran a full-page editorial with a large image of a menorah, urging townsfolk to display it “as a symbol of … our determination to live together in harmony, and our dedication to the principle of religious liberty embodied in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.”
Within three weeks more than 10,000 menorahs were displayed across Billings. And when the whole community stood up together, the haters backed down. And in this small town, love won.
What was the “aha moment” or series of events that made you decide to bring your message to the greater world? Can you share a story about that?
I loved the story of what happened in Billings, but the challenge was how to tell it for little kids — for kids, the age Isaac and Teresa had been. The “aha moment” was realizing I could tell it as a fictional story inspired by what happened. And then pulling back from the details of what happened to be more lyrical –focusing on how Red and Green are Christmas colors, and Blue and White are Chanukah colors. And then I had the idea: what if the poems in the book — Isaac’s poems — build to him realizing that Red and Green and Blue and White are stronger together… That’s where I got the title: Red and Green and Blue and White.
Without sharing specific names, can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
Right now in America, there is so much “us” vs. “them” at play — and unfortunately hate crimes against Jews and against Asians and against gender-nonconforming and Trans people — against the “other”– are ongoing. I hope Red and Green and Blue and White can play a small part in empowering folks to realize that we can — and must — stand up for ourselves and stand up for others to achieve the full promise of community. To my mind, that’s the real meaning of the holidays.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve
1) Let’s listen to others and their experiences.
2) Let’s use our privilege to make things better and more fair.
3) Let’s aim to not just tolerate differences (a.k.a diversity) but celebrate them.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Being a leader does not mean you’re the loudest person in the room. You can be a quiet leader, who speaks when they have something they’ve thought about and really believe in to say. Who passes the microphone to someone who hasn’t been heard so that person can speak and be listened to. Who leads with kindness.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
1) If you want to be a writer, write every day. Even if it’s just for 12 minutes (Thank you Linda Sue Park!)
2) Stop caring about what other people think about you. (Thank you RuPaul!)
3) Be yourself [your authentic self.] Everyone else is already taken. (Thank you Oscar Wilde!)
4) Stress is not a happiness habit. (Thank you, Mark — my husband!)
5) The universe listens. It’s just not very concerned with our timelines. (That one’s me.)
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
At the top of my research document for the book I’m currently working on, I have this amazing and inspiring quote from James Baldwin:
“Literature is indispensable to the world…. The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way a person looks or people look at reality, then you can change it.” — James Baldwin, from a 1979 interview published in the New York Times
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
I’m a huge fan of Alok Vaid Menon — they’re changing how folks see and understand gender, working to #DeGenderFashion, and approaching the flak they receive from a place of love that is startling and humbling to witness. Follow them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alokvmenon/
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I invite them to check out my website and blog at leewind.org
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
Thank you for the opportunity!
QUOTED: "Knowing our Queer history is incredibly empowering. ... Because knowing we have a place in the past assures us we deserve a place at the table today. And knowing we have a place at the table today lets us know that our future is limitless."
Guest Blogger: Lee Wind
June 7, 2021 in Guest Author Blog Posts 0
Why LGBTQ History Matters (To Queer People and Everyone Else)
By Lee Wind
Imagine that every single important thing in history, across time and around our world, was done by a man. In our mind’s eye, let’s make him white. Rich. Cis. Hetero. Able-Bodied. From Europe.
Every. Single. Important. Person.
Oh, wait, you don’t have to imagine it. It’s basically how history has been taught in the United States. And it’s as untrue as it is implausible.
History’s false facade was built for the protection of the people in power, and it’s shut out so many stories. The stories of women. The stories of people of color. The stories of indigenous people. The stories of disabled people. And the stories of men who loved men, women who loved women, people who loved without regard to gender, and people who lived outside gender boundaries.
Knowing even one story from those last four categories, for me, would have changed everything. As a closeted gay 11 year old, I really thought I was the only guy in the world who like-liked other guys. As a closeted gay 15 year old, I was sure I couldn’t be gay because I believed all the stereotypes that told me being gay meant I wanted to be a girl. As a closeted gay 21 year old, I cringed at the flamboyance of drag queens, not understanding their defiance and beauty was a legacy of its own.
I didn’t come out fully as a gay man until I was 25 years old. And I look back at the fourteen years of actively hiding who I was with such a mix of emotions. Anger. Sadness. Frustration.
I look at that wall, that false façade of history, and I think, we have to take that down.
I look at that wall, that false façade of history, and I think, ‘we have to take that down.’
The first crack in that wall, for me, were the letters Abraham Lincoln wrote Joshua Fry Speed. Most historians dismiss their relationship as nothing more than a friendship, but when I read the letter Abraham wrote Joshua eight months after Joshua married a woman named Fanny, asking, “are you now in feeling, as well as in judgment, glad that you are married as you are?”1 I saw a reflection of myself in history. Because back in high school, and college, and even grad school, I judged dating girls the right thing to do, but I didn’t feel what I knew I was supposed to. The more I read, the more convinced I became – Abraham Lincoln was a guy who like-liked other guys. Like me!
I started to do more research, and found more stories.
Like Eleanor Roosevelt and her decades-long romance with Lorena Hickok – a relationship that bloomed when Eleanor took on the role of First Lady and Lorena was assigned to cover her as a reporter! Many of their letters were burned (by Lorena and a mutual friend after Eleanor died) for not being sufficiently “discreet”, but there are thousands that survive, including a 1933 letter where Eleanor wrote Lorena, “Your ring is a great comfort. I look at it & think she does love me, or I wouldn’t be wearing it!“2
And Christine Jorgensen, who became world-famous in the 1950s for changing her physical body to match her gender. Christine wrote to friends in 1950, “I think we (the doctors and I) are fighting this the right way–make the body fit the soul, rather than vice-versa.”3
By going back to the primary sources, I was able to hear their voices. To discover the heritage I was searching for. Each story was another crack in that false façade, but the wall was still there.
By going back to the primary sources, I was able to hear their voices. To discover the heritage I was searching for. Each story was another crack in that false façade, but the wall was still there.
All along I’d been thinking that being queer was a footnote to the accomplishments of these people from the past. But reading Mohandas Gandhi’s letters to Hermann Kallenbach, the German-Jewish architect who was the soul mate of his life, I started to think, maybe Gandhi had this breakthrough of human insight – “You worship facing one way and I worship facing the other. Why should I become your enemy for that reason? We all belong to the human race…”4 – because he was a man who loved another man.
Maybe Eleanor Roosevelt championed the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights because she was a woman who loved another woman.
That was the moment, for me, that the false façade crumbled…
No Way, They Were Gay?: Hidden Lives and Secret Loves
That was the moment, for me, that the false façade crumbled – and all this beautiful, rainbow light of history shone out. That’s why I wrote No Way, They Were Gay? So kids and teens today would have what I didn’t have when I was their age – the tools to tear down that false façade for themselves, and let the beautiful diverse light of our true heritage shine on them.
Knowing our Queer history is incredibly empowering. For all of us who identify as LGBTQ, and everyone else, too. Once that wall is down, it’s down for all of us. And we can hear the stories of women, and people of color, and indigenous people, and disabled people, too.
Because knowing we have a place in the past assures us we deserve a place at the table today. And knowing we have a place at the table today lets us know that our future is limitless.
Lee Wind writes the books that would have changed his life as a young gay kid. His Masters degree from Harvard didn’t include blueprints for a time machine to go back and tell these stories to himself, so Lee pays it forward with a popular blog with over 3 million page views (I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the Hell Do I read?) and books for kids and teens. In addition to the nonfiction “No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves” he is the author of the award-winning YA novel “Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill” and the upcoming picture book “Red and Green and Blue and White.” Visit leewind.org to discover our past and live your future.
QUOTED: "Aside from Wyatt, the characters are not fully developed."
"The use of social media to cause positive change is a refreshing, positive aspect."
Wind, Lee. Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill. BookBaby, 2018. 300p. $13.99 Trade pb. 978-1-73222-811-5.
Wyatt lives in Lincolnville, a small town proud of its civil war history. His best friend, Mackenzie, has decided it is time to be more than friends, which is awkward for Wyatt as he is dealing with thoughts of being attracted to boys. His ninth-grade class has to complete a book project on an assigned book about Abraham Lincoln, and Wyatt thinks he discovers a secret that could change the world. On his project blog, he announces that Abraham Lincoln was gay. This proclamation lands Wyatt in hot water with the school, with his friend, and with an ultra-conservative talk show host. He meets Martin and his lawyer mother who help Wyatt fight to bring truth to power, and in the process, help him discover who he is.
Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill is about self-discovery. The author includes a letter to the reader explaining that, while the characters are fiction, the idea of Lincoln being gay is an issue he has thoroughly researched and believes to be true. Every historical quote used in the book is authentic and Wind provides references in the endnotes. There are, however, plot holes and threads that are too neatly tied up. Aside from Wyatt, the characters are not fully developed, making it hard to believe some of the choices they make in the story. The use of social media to cause positive change is a refreshing, positive aspect that may appeal to young adult readers.--Elizabeth Nebeker.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
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Nebeker, Elizabeth. "Wind, Lee. Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill." Voice of Youth Advocates, vol. 41, no. 4, Oct. 2018, p. 72. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A560013629/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=f6c1786f. Accessed 11 Mar. 2022.
QUOTED: "entertaining, thought-provoking."
Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill
Lee Wind
https://www.leewind.org
Book Baby Publishers
www.bookbaby.com
9781732228108, $25.99, HC, 300pp, www.amazon.com
Wyatt is fifteen, and nobody in his homophobic small town of Lincolnville, Oregon, knows that he's Gay. Not even his best friend (and accidental girlfriend) Mackenzie. Then he discovers a secret from actual history: Abraham Lincoln was in love with another guy! Since everyone loves Lincoln, Wyatt's sure that if the world knew about it, they would treat Gay people differently and it would solve everything about his life. So Wyatt outs Lincoln online, triggering a media firestorm that threatens to destroy everything he cares about-and he has to pretend more than ever that he's straight. Only then he meets Martin, who is openly Gay and who just might be the guy Wyatt's been hoping to find. Inspired by real historical evidence that Abraham Lincoln was in love-romantic love-with another man, "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" is all the more impressive when considering that it is author Lee Wind's debut as a novelist. Entertaining, thought-provoking, "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" is recommended for school and community library YA fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" is also available in a paperback edition (9781732228115, $13.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $6.99).
Please Note: Illustration(s) are not available due to copyright restrictions.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/cbw/index.htm
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Wind, Lee. "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill." Children's Bookwatch, Sept. 2018. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A557997547/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c2b13ac4. Accessed 11 Mar. 2022.
QUOTED: "a powerful and inspiring example of community, friendship, respect, and love."
WIND, Lee. Red and Green and Blue and White. illus. by Paul O. Zelinksy. 32p. Levine Querido. Oct. 2021. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9781646140879.
Gr 1-5--In The Christmas Menorahs: How a Town Fought Hate, Janice Cohn described in great detail how the people of Billings, Montana, joined together in 1993 to fight a series of hate crimes against one of their Jewish neighbors. Wind has simplified this true story with beautiful, poetic text paired with Zelinksy s rich, layered, and stunning illustrations. On Chanukah, Isaac lights the menorah in his front window, making his house glow blue and white in the night, "on a block dressed up in Red and Green." When a rock smashes Isaac's window, his family is afraid to light their menorah. But, "if they didn't, Isaac knew it would be like hiding they were Jewish. That didn't feel right." In a simple act of compassion and solidarity, Isaac's best friend and neighbor, Teresa, affixes a hand-drawn picture of a menorah to her front window, so that "through the paper, the light shone Blue and White." Others followed Teresa's example, and within three weeks menorahs were displayed in more than 10,000 windows so that the entire town glowed "Red and Green and Blue and White." While the source of the violence is never stated or explained, the dark, expressive illustrations depict the scary, emotional scene with sensitivity. A brief author's note explains, "the people in Billings chose to not just stand by and be BYstanders while bad things happened to others. They chose to be UPstanders." VERDICT A powerful and inspiring example of community, friendship, respect, and love.--Rachel Kamin, North Suburban Synagogue Beth El, Highland Park, IL
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
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Kamin, Rachel. "WIND, Lee. Red and Green and Blue and White." School Library Journal, vol. 67, no. 11, Nov. 2021, p. 52. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A683721390/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=bb2da36a. Accessed 11 Mar. 2022.
QUOTED: "Readers will feel heartened at children's power to influence others to stand up for justice and defeat vile prejudice."
Wind, Lee RED AND GREEN AND BLUE AND WHITE Levine Querido (Children's None) $17.99 10, 19 ISBN: 978-1-64614-087-9
Kids teach a valuable lesson about community spirit.
A city block is ablaze with red and green lights for Christmas; one house glows blue and white for Hanukkah. This is where Isaac, a Jewish boy, lives, across the street from best friend Teresa, excitedly preparing for Christmas. They love lighting up their homes in holiday colors. After an antisemitic bigot smashes a window in Isaac's house, Isaac relights the menorah the next night, knowing if his family doesn't, it means hiding their Jewishness, which doesn't "feel right." Artistic Teresa supports Isaac by drawing a menorah, inscribed to her friend, and placing the picture in her window. What occurs subsequently is a remarkable demonstration of community solidarity for Isaac and his family from everyone, including the media. Galvanized into defiant action against hate, thousands of townspeople display menorahs in windows in residences and public buildings. This quiet, uplifting tale is inspired by an incident that occurred in Billings, Montana, in 1993. Readers will feel heartened at children's power to influence others to stand up for justice and defeat vile prejudice. The colorful illustrations, rendered digitally with brushes of the artist's devising, resemble scratch art. Isaac and Teresa are White, and there is some racial diversity among the townspeople; one child is depicted in a wheelchair. An author's note provides information about the actual event.
The true meaning of the holiday season shines here. (Picture book. 5-8)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Wind, Lee: RED AND GREEN AND BLUE AND WHITE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2021, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A673649874/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=576f7ff3. Accessed 11 Mar. 2022.
QUOTED: "His book is solidly written, well-documented and organized."
"It's a modest, well-intentioned contribution to gay history."
No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves. By Lee Wind. Apr. 2021. 296p. illus. Lerner/Zest, paper, $18.99 (9781541581623); lib. ed., $37.32 (9781541581586). Gr. 7-12.306.76.
What's that you say? Abraham Lincoln was gay? No way! Uh, way! declares Wind, asserting Lincoln was, indeed, gay, as were 11 others he profiles: 3 men, 4 women, and 4 individuals who lived outside gender boundaries. Some of them are well known--Shakespeare, Eleanor Roosevelt--others, not so: for example, M'E Mpho Nthunya and We'wha. How does Wind know all of them were gay when none of them are living? That can be difficult, since sometimes homophobic history has, Wind points out, erased evidence of some people's sexual identity. Happily, to correct that, he has searched out primary-source materials--letters in the cases of Lincoln, Gandhi, and Roosevelt; autobiographies (Catalina de Erauso and Sarah Churchill); anthropological field notes (We'wha)--and a clutch of secondary sources by those who weren't present--like, Wind acknowledges, this book. Nevertheless, his book is solidly written, well-documented and organized, and illustrated with period photos and portraits. On the whole, it's a modest, well-intentioned contribution to gay history. It's also going to inflame passions, so be prepared for controversy. --Michael Cart
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Cart, Michael. "No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves." Booklist, vol. 117, no. 14, 15 Mar. 2021, p. 45. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A656304070/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=300c3245. Accessed 11 Mar. 2022.