How Would You Feel if Your Dad Was Gay?

Overview

How Would You Feel if Your Dad Was Gay? is an early 1990s Alyson Wonderland book by Ann Heron and Meredith Maran, illustrated by Kris Kovick. The story follows children who decide how, when, and whether to tell classmates about families with gay fathers and lesbian mothers. That child-centered problem gives the work a different emphasis from many picture books about same-sex parents: the central conflict is not family formation, but disclosure, privacy, teasing, and institutional response at school. The collection holds both a 1991 edition and a 1994 softcover, allowing the work to be read as a small edition trail inside Alyson’s publishing network. The 1994 copy also has local value because the collection record notes a back-cover author photograph and profile.^{[1][2][3][6][8]}

Two Local Editions

The collection’s two copies are best read together. External records support a 1991 Alyson Wonderland edition and a 1994 Alyson paperback, while the local descriptions identify the earlier copy as a hardcover first and the later copy as a smaller softcover with added back-cover author material. The text appears to have circulated across formats at a moment when Alyson was building a children’s list for gay and lesbian families. The edition difference is therefore not only bibliographic; it shows how a child-facing family story moved between durable library-style publication and paperback circulation.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Privacy And Disclosure

The book’s most distinctive theme is the difference between children’s choices about disclosure. The local account describes Jasmine speaking openly at school about having three dads, while Michael finds that disclosure frightening after other children use anti-gay insults. That contrast gives the story an unusually specific social texture. It does not simply ask whether gay and lesbian parents are legitimate. It asks how a child carries family knowledge into a peer setting, what happens when language becomes hostile, and how privacy can become both protection and burden.^[1][6][13]

School As Public Setting

The classroom and school assembly make the story institutional rather than purely domestic. In the local description, family structure becomes visible through peer talk, bullying, and a school response that gathers children into a public conversation. This places the book near other collection items where recognition happens at school, including Canadian and French-language titles about two-mother families. The school setting matters because it shows LGBTQ-parent family life being negotiated through children, teachers, classmates, and public rules of speech, not only through parents’ identities.^[1][6]

Alyson Wonderland Network

Alyson Wonderland connected the book to a larger publishing experiment. Sasha Alyson’s press was known for gay and lesbian books for adults, and the Wonderland line extended that network toward children and families. In this context, How Would You Feel if Your Dad Was Gay? sits beside Heather Has Two Mommies, Daddy’s Roommate, and the Johnny Valentine titles. The result is a useful cross-section of early 1990s LGBTQ children’s publishing: realistic school stories, domestic family narratives, and fantasy or fairy-tale books all emerging through related imprints and audiences.^[8][14][7]

Timeline

1. 1980Alyson network beginsAlyson Publications begins the adult gay and lesbian publishing network later connected to Alyson Wonderland.^[8]
2. 1983Youth anthology contextAnn Heron edits One Teenager in Ten for Alyson.^[11]
3. 1989Family-book contextHeather Has Two Mommies appears, helping define the early family-book field in which Alyson Wonderland would work.^[8]
4. 1991First edition trailExternal records support the 1991 Alyson edition of How Would You Feel if Your Dad Was Gay?^[2][4]
5. 1992ALA reviewThe ALA GLBTRT review discusses the book alongside Gloria Goes to Gay Pride.^[6]
6. 1992Lambda recognitionLambda Literary Awards listings place the book among 1991 finalists.^[7]
7. 1994Softcover editionExternal records support the 1994 paperback edition held in the collection.^[3][5]
8. 2001Kris Kovick rememberedKovick’s obituary records her work as an author, cartoonist, and activist.^[12]

Local Edition Pair

The collection holds two editions of the same Alyson title.

Citation

How Would You Feel if Your Dad Was Gay?. Ann Heron and Meredith Maran; illustrated by Kris Kovick. Alyson Wonderland / Alyson Publications, 1991. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-144.

Sources

Cover image from Open Library.

1. Local collection catalog record for How Would You Feel if Your Dad Was Gay? (hardcover first) · catalog
2. Open Library ISBN record for the 1991 edition · library
3. Open Library ISBN record for the 1994 edition · library
4. ABAA listing for the 1991 Alyson edition · bookseller
5. AbeBooks metadata for the 1994 paperback · bookseller
6. ALA GLBTRT review of How Would You Feel if Your Dad Was Gay? · review
7. Lambda Literary Awards 1991 finalist listing · award
8. Publishers Weekly profile of Alyson's gay and lesbian publishing network · trade
9. Penguin Random House author page for Meredith Maran · creator
10. Macmillan author page for Meredith Maran · creator
11. CiNii record for One Teenager in Ten · library
12. San Francisco Chronicle obituary for Kris Kovick · news
13. Queerspawn Resource Project youth and young adult book list · resource
14. Open Library publisher record for Alyson Publications · library