Focus on MY Family

Overview

Focus on MY Family is a 2004 COLAGE anthology represented in the local catalog as a collection of works by children of gays and lesbians. COLAGE's own Fall 2004 issue of Just For Us gives the fuller title Focus on MY Family: A Queerspawn Anthology and describes writing, art, and poetry by youth with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender parents. The item matters because it is not simply a book about children in LGBTQ families. It is evidence of children and young adults making family-representation media themselves, within a Bay Area youth-leadership network that also produced school, exhibition, and documentary resources.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Youth-Authored Form

The central distinction is authorship. COLAGE described the anthology as a literary collection of writing, art, and poetry by youth with LGBT parents, and its own periodical placed young contributors and youth editors at the center of the project. That makes the item different from picture books in which adult authors represent children with same-sex parents. Here, the children and young adults belong to the creative record as makers, editors, and public witnesses.^[2][8][1]

Visibility Toolkit

COLAGE's anniversary and school issues place Focus on MY Family inside a larger set of youth-created educational and activist tools. The anthology appears near Respect All Families, That Is So Gay, and In My Shoes, a documentary project that extended youth testimony into film. This context changes how the object reads. It is a literary anthology, but it also functioned as a portable resource for classrooms, youth groups, families, and community conversations.^[3][4][5]

Answering Public Debate

The title deliberately echoes Focus on the Family, and COLAGE framed the anthology as a creative response to anti-LGBT-family organizing and public debate around LGBTQ parents. The page can make that point without turning the item into a debate document only. Its stronger contribution is positive: it preserves young people's own language, art, and poetry at a time when adults often spoke about their families without asking them to speak for themselves.^[2][5][1]

Archival Fragility

The public bibliographic trail is thin. The anthology is visible through COLAGE periodicals and a related archival lead, but public catalog records do not yet settle every object-level detail. That fragility is part of the historical meaning. Organizational publications made for youth, schools, and community circulation can disappear from ordinary book systems. A special-collection copy can therefore carry evidence about title-page wording, contributors, design, and distribution that broader cataloging has not preserved.^{[1][9][10][6]}

Timeline

1. 1990sCOLAGE contextCOLAGE's official history and archive place the organization in the movement of people with LGBTQ parents and caregivers.^[7][6]
2. 2003-2004Youth leadership programCOLAGE's anniversary issue describes the youth leadership program that produced several visibility and education tools.^[3]
3. Fall 2004Anthology announcedJust For Us announced Focus on MY Family: A Queerspawn Anthology as a youth-created collection of writing, art, and poetry.^[2]
4. 2005Media networkCOLAGE's media issue connected anthology contributors and youth organizers to broader projects, including In My Shoes.^[4]
5. 2006School useA COLAGE school issue described Focus on MY Family and related projects as resources for classes and school communities.^[5]

Object Evidence

The strongest current record is institutional and contextual rather than edition-complete.

Citation

Focus on MY Family. COLAGE. COLAGE, 2004. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-209.

Sources

1. Local collection catalog record for Focus on MY Family · catalog
2. COLAGE, Just For Us, Fall 2004 Gender issue · primary_periodical
3. COLAGE, Just For Us, Winter 2004 15th Anniversary issue · primary_periodical
4. COLAGE, Just For Us, Fall 2005 Media issue · primary_periodical
5. COLAGE, Just For Us, Fall 2006 School issue · primary_periodical
6. COLAGE, Just For Us archive · organization
7. COLAGE, Our Story · organization
8. COLAGE, COLAGE Lingo · organization
9. Yale Archives, Family Equality Council records collection organization · archive
10. Online Archive of California, COLAGE records lead · archive
11. Mechanics Institute, Special Collections · institutional
12. Candlewick Press, Heather Has Two Mommies · publisher
13. Google Books record for Daddy's Roommate · library
14. Publishers Weekly review of Daddy's Roommate · review
15. Existing v3 record for Tarpey-Schwed Children's Book Collection Files · internal