May 6, 2011
Rainbow Rumpus Launches New Online Magazine for Teens with LGBT Parents
Robert Doyle READ TIME: 2 MIN.
MINNEAPOLIS, April, 2011 - Rainbow Riot, a new online magazine for teens with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) parents, has launched at www.rainbowriot.org
Rainbow Riot is published by Rainbow Rumpus, a Minnesota-based nonprofit that has been publishing an award winning online magazine for children and grown-ups for over five years. The Riot site is linked to the Rumpus site so young readers can explore the content of both magazines.
"We launched Rainbow Riot in response to feedback from the hundreds of youth that read the online magazine," said Laura Matanah, Rainbow Rumpus's executive director. "Teens wanted their own site so we created a whole magazine just for older youth."
Response to the site has been tremendous. "Ur issues r the best thing i do online," wrote a 14-year-old reader. Another shared, "I like being able to see my artwork on the site."
Rainbow Rumpus is the primary publisher of LGBT family fiction in the United States, publishing more new fiction each year than all other publishers combined. Noted authors Marion Dane Bauer (Newbery Award), Nancy Garden (Margaret A. Edwards Award), Gregory Maguire (author of Wicked), and Jacqueline Woodson (Newbery honor) sit on the organization's author advisory board.
April's issue of Rainbow Riot features an interview with Avery Klein Cloud, who was raised by two moms and discusses the process of making a documentary about her life during a period when she was searching for her birth mother and going through a "racial identity crisis." It also includes an interview with a young adult with a gay father who created a video project to explore what it means to "come out" as the child of one or more LGBT parents.
"We're excited for the Rainbow Riot site to bring our teen fiction to a wider audience," said Matanah. "The site as a whole will help us achieve our vision of a world where kids and teens with LGBT parents are safe, welcomed, and powerful."
Teens and young adults are encouraged to submit photos, artwork, writing, and video to Rainbow Riot. Contributions can be emailed to [email protected]
Visit www.rainbowrumpus.org
Long-term New Yorkers, Mark and Robert have also lived in San Francisco, Boston, Provincetown, D.C., Miami Beach and the south of France. The recipient of fellowships at MacDowell, Yaddo, and Blue Mountain Center, Mark is a PhD in American history and literature, as well as the author of the novels Wolfchild and My Hawaiian Penthouse. Robert is the producer of the documentary We Are All Children of God. Their work has appeared in numerous publications, as well as at : www.mrny.com.
