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There’s Magic in the Ordinary New Welcoming Schools Book of the Month Uplifts Joyful, Authentic LGBTQ+ Stories
Summer 2025 • Carolyn Simon She/Her
Reading books about LGBTQ+ lives and families is an incredibly powerful way to celebrate our stories, highlight representation for our community and create connection and understanding with our non-LGBTQ+ friends and neighbors.
For a decade, the Welcoming Schools National Day of Reading has been at the forefront of promoting inclusive stories inside and outside the classroom. Amid growing political attacks on books with LGBTQ+ characters and content, there is an urgency in seizing every possible opportunity to amplify our stories. In August 2025, the HRC Foundation launched the Welcoming Schools Book of the Month to create a national movement that uplifts LGBTQ+-inclusive school-age books and fosters dialogue grounded in putting the spotlight on joyful stories of authentic LGBTQ+ lives.
It’s so clear that we don’t need just one day to celebrate the National Day of Reading,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign and Human Rights Campaign Foundation. “We want to be thinking about stories every day that lift up our families and our lives, as well as the ordinariness of what it means to just show people that live and love like we do."
A new title in the Welcoming Schools Book of the Month will be released on the first Friday of each month, culminating in the National Day of Reading on February 27, 2026. The selections will alternate between elementary and young adult titles. Each featured book will be accompanied by a discussion guide, available in both English and Spanish, to support meaningful conversations with readers of all ages.
The first Book of the Month selection in August is an elementary-level book called “Papa's Coming Home” by Chasten Buttigieg. To celebrate the launch of the Book of the Month, Buttigieg and Robinson teamed up for a conversation that premiered on HRC’s social channels. They talked about parenting and how the book celebrates love, family and the everyday magic of welcoming a parent home from a trip.
“The initial inspiration for the book was a frustration that we didn’t have a lot of books that looked like our family,” said Buttigieg, who shares 4-year-old twins Gus and Poppy with his husband Pete Buttigieg, the former U.S. secretary of transportation. “And many of the books that we had, or the books that we were gifted when our kids were born, were focused on difference. And I didn’t want to only read books to my kids that highlighted our difference. And I think every family and every kid is deserving of books that look like them and represent their family.”
In “Papa’s Coming Home,” the children’s papa has been away on a trip, and they pull out all the stops to make sure he knows how much he was missed. They make signs, bring flowers and bake a cake. Writing the book and reading it to audiences across the country has been a gentle reminder to appreciate the little things in life, said Buttigieg.
“For me, the lesson in the end of the book is how Papa says, ‘I like all of these things, but the best part about coming home is you.’ And I’m always trying to remind myself that the best thing that you have is right here in front of you."
When he embarked on a recent book tour, Buttigieg expected to meet LGBTQ+ families and allies and talk about shared identities and experiences. But he didn’t expect to find so much good, so much hope in people whom he met in the small towns and big cities he visited.
“If you spend all day on social media, if you go hunting for the negative, you’ll find it,” said Buttigieg. “And then you go to a library, a book talk, you’re just reminded of how good people are. The more time we spend face-to-face in community, the less time we spend online, the more we might feel inspired to keep doing the work, and the more we might be reminded about how important the work is.”
This is why we fight for inclusive schools and libraries, and why the work of Welcoming Schools is so important. In 2025 alone, hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ bills have again been introduced across the country, with many specifically targeting school curriculums. For years, bills have been filed and passed that strip educators of the ability to discuss the LGBTQ+ community and its contributions to society, and the right wing has relentlessly targeted and banned books with LGBTQ+ authors and/or characters. The Welcoming Schools Book of the Month aims to combat surging right-wing censorship by amplifying the very LGBTQ+ stories being targeted and sending a message to young people that they belong and that their stories deserve to be heard.
Reading with youth is one of the most powerful ways to model inclusion and nurture empathy. Read along with us as Welcoming Schools highlights a new book each month. Follow the Human Rights Campaign on social media or visit the Welcoming Schools Book of the Month webpage on the first Friday of the month through February to find out which books will be featured!
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