Foreword

Foreword for Picture Book

Naomi Gaincola

 A few years ago, when I was about 8, my mom told me a story about how her grandpa was gay but couldn't come out until he was in his 30s because he was scared. She told me that when he eventually came out, het got beat-up almost everyday and tried to commit suicide twice before he met my great grandpa. When my mom told me this, i didn't get why anyone would beat-up anyone for any reason so I just brushed off the story as not important but now that I’m older, I understand what it means and it’s so awful that that could happen to people. And I get that it still happens today and that’s why I wrote this book, I want to eliminate that for the kids of our generation. 

In my research, I found out that, "About 9 out of 10 LGBT teens have reported being bullied at school within the past year." That’s 90% of all LGBT teens in America that might quit school because they feel unsafe where they should feel safe. It’s really shocking to me how people could be so cold hearted and hurt someone because of something that they can’t change. I think that if we could raise awareness to people who are not part of the LGBT community about all the bullying that’s going on then maybe we could make a difference. Another shocking fact is, “LGBT teens are 4 times more likely, and questioning youth are 3 times more likely, to attempt suicide as their straight peers.” This is really awful because people who are “different” shouldn’t be treated differently, and then feel like they aren’t good enough. I hope that soon kids don’t ever feel like that.

In the end I hope that this picture book is able to change how some people see gay teens and really anyone who is feeling bad about them selves. I hope that in the next few years, people become more accepting about people who aren’t the exact same as them.

1."Gay Bullying Statistics." - Bullying Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2015. 

2."Facts About Suicide." Facts About Suicide. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2015.