Rainbow Revolutions - Review

 

Its Pride Month in my local Library, so out of curiosity I picked this off the stand and decided to see what material was being made for younger generations. I'm sure this book was published to target school libraries and young readers. The book is stuffed with beautiful and highly colourful two page pictures that introduce every section, and each section is itself set out in a two page summary of the key facts about the topic. And the section dedicated to discussing the impact of Section 28 mentions that had it still been in force that it would've been impossible for this book to have been published.

I'm not in the target audience for the book, and while some of the more well known sections left me feeling like some important bits were cut out I did still learn some things from it, and I found it to be an easy read, I started and finished it in one sitting.

I can say with confidence that this book is miles better than anything that was available to me on Queer history and identity when I was still a pupil. But then, that's not surprising, there was nothing like this in my school library because most of my early schooling was in the last years of Section 28. A fact that this book reminded me. Looking back this explains why we went from no talk or discussion about Queer issues until 2004-5 when we suddenly had special and clearly very rushed lessons in biology and sexual education about how some people are Gay, Intersex or Transsexual (the term used at the time) and that this was natural and wasn't something to be vilified.

I really like this book, Its making a strong attempt to be as inclusive as possible and acknowledges some of the failings of the older Queer rights and liberation movements, there are sections on issues affecting Trans people, Women, Ethnic minorities, bisexuals and so on. I was also pleased that while it was congratulatory over the recent legislative reforms won in some nations like same-sex marriage and discrimination protections, it always qualified them with reminders that phobia, discrimination violence and other challenges didn't disappear with them.