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Mechanics' Institute

Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection

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The Advocate: "Gay Dad. Alternative Ways You Can Become a Father"
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The Advocate: "Gay Dad. Alternative Ways You Can Become a Father"

Creator

The Advocate

Date

December 8, 1987

Format

Periodical

A periodical record about gay fatherhood and family formation in late-1980s LGBTQ journalism.

Two fathersLGBT periodicalsFamily formationAdoption and reproductionThe AdvocateParenthood before the 1990s picture-book wave
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Overview

The local catalog identifies this item as a December 8, 1987 issue of The Advocate with the cover line "Gay Dad. Alternative Ways You Can Become a Father." The same local record also contains a conflicting 1977 date in its description. A public law-review article cites Kevin McKinney's "How to Become a Gay Father" in The Advocate on December 8, 1987, page 43, which supports the 1987 trail but does not replace object-level evidence. The page therefore treats the issue as an inspection-limited periodical record. Its significance is clear enough for discovery: it belongs to the collection's wider history of gay fatherhood, reproduction, adoption, and family language before many of these subjects became common in children's books.[1][2][3]

Gay Fatherhood Before Picture Books

The record points to gay fatherhood as a subject of adult LGBTQ journalism before the better-known 1990s picture books about gay fathers reached classrooms and libraries. That timing matters. Children's books often translate already active adult debates into language a young reader can use. This periodical record keeps the adult debate visible beside the later child-facing works.[1][2][3]

Date And Title Ambiguity

The public record must preserve uncertainty without making it the whole story. The local title points to December 8, 1987, while the local prose gives 1977. The law-review citation also points to December 8, 1987, but uses the article title How to Become a Gay Father. The safest public identification is therefore an Advocate periodical record connected to the local cover line and a matching 1987 article lead.[1][2]

Periodicals As Collection Context

A periodical issue can sit productively inside a children's-book collection when the collection is about social history as well as books. The Advocate record helps explain the adult world around later children's literature: legal possibility, reproductive choice, adoption, disclosure, and the public image of gay men as parents. It does not need to be a children's book to help visitors understand why the children's books mattered.[1][3][2]

Timeline

  1. 1967Periodical historyThe Advocate dates its publication history to 1967.[3]
  2. December 8, 1987Article citationA public law-review article cites Kevin McKinney's How to Become a Gay Father in The Advocate on this date.[2]
  3. 1990Children's-book comparisonGay-father picture-book representation became more visible in the collection around the early 1990s.[4]

Issue Trail

The record is anchored by the local catalog and a matching public article citation; issue photography can refine the cover and article details.

1987

The Advocate issue lead

The local title and a public article citation both point to December 8, 1987.

Explore Connections

Browse direct links, shared themes, and nearby publication dates.

Linked records

Advocate periodical shelf

The Advocate: The Great California Marriage Rush

Both records use The Advocate to place family and legal questions in adult LGBTQ journalism.

References [3]

Gay-father children's books

Daddy's Roommate

The periodical record supplies adult family-formation context for later children's books about gay fathers and their households.

References [2][4]

Juvenile nonfiction context

Coping When a Parent Is Gay

Both records belong to the collection's nonfiction and context layer around children, parents, and gay identity.

References [2][3]

Shared themes

Two fathers

Prism: Daddy and Papa

A periodical record centered on parenting, gay fatherhood, and adoption in LGBTQ print culture.

Two fathers

The Roos, a Home for Baby

A Lulu picture book about two Daddyroos adopting a Babyroo and finding a way to carry the child.

Two fathers

That's My Daddy and Pop

A two-father adoption story in a small companion set about how lesbian and gay parent families are formed.

Two fathers

Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin

A photographic picture book about a girl, her father, and her father's male partner.

Nearby dates

Published 1988

The Boy Toy

A late Lollipop Power picture book about a boy, a doll, and gendered rules around care.

Published 1985

Chag Sameach! = Happy Holidays

A Jewish holiday book illustrated with photographs of diverse families and community observances.

First published 1989

Heather Has Two Mommies

A 1989 picture book about a child with two mothers, represented here through its In Other Words first-edition history and later public life.

Published 1990

Asha’s Mums

A Canadian picture book in which a school permission form brings a two-mother family into public view.

Citation

The Advocate: "Gay Dad. Alternative Ways You Can Become a Father". The Advocate. The Advocate, 1987. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-177.

Showing Plain text citation format.

Sources

  1. Local collection catalog record for The Advocate: Gay Dad · catalog
  2. Fred Bernstein, This Child Does Have Two Mothers, NYU Review of Law and Social Change · legal
  3. About The Advocate · institutional
  4. Checklist of Children's Books Featuring LGBT Family Members · bibliography