Growing up in a family of Evangelical pastors and missionaries, Charlotte Sullivan Wild had only negative words and images of queerness in her life. “I longed to be good. Loved. Family. How could I be queer?” she said in her remarks when her picture book, Love,Violet, received the 2023 Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award.
It wasn’t until she was in her 30s that she was able to express who she really was. Although she felt liberated and knew she had the support she needed, she also saw the negative reactions from her religious community.
She wanted kids who felt like her to feel seen. “I wrote Love, Violet directly to them. Around the politics and terms and slurs. I wanted to break the silence with a love story,” she said.
Now, her book is part of a case that the Supreme Court will hear April 22, about whether a Maryland school district must provide parents who object to LGBTQ+ books on religious grounds with an option to take their children out of lessons involving them.
Wild shared her thoughts with PEN America on the role books can play in bringing people together, and how censorship impacts not only authors and illustrators, but also the kids caught in the middle.
What was the impetus for writing (the book cited in this case)?
I was inspired to write Love, Violet because of the joy of finally understanding and accepting who I am. I was also inspired by my own innocent crushes in pre-K and elementary school.
Not one word in this story focuses on gender, sex, or orientation, no matter what the hate mail writers say. And that was my point. I was just a kid like anyone else. But my culture had tried to erase me. I was harmed by growing up with censorship and dehumanizing images of LGBTQ+ people. My only goal is to bear witness to what it’s like to be an LGBTQ+ child. I want children today to see themselves and each other as they are—unique, ordinary, extraordinary, able to face their fears and adventure, and able to love and be loved.
What have readers—young and old—told you about what your book meant to them?
The highest praise is when children enjoy Love, Violet, when teachers describe classes demanding to know what happens next. When parents describe kids hugging this book, wanting to read it again and again. Adults have described weeping over Love, Violet, as “old wounds” healed. One reader found Love, Violet after coming out as an adult, something I did, too. Over and over, readers have shared how much they needed a story like this as children.
Violet is inspired by some of the most important people in my life, and myself. When children care about her and cheer for her happy ending, it is a beautiful reversal of the rejection, judgment, and violence too many children like Violet face. I’m thrilled by what that means for all the Violets out there.
We know what censorship does, what it feels like, how it ruins lives. And that censorship was strong when I first started Love, Violet. The resistance to our honest stories made getting feedback on early drafts tricky. It made submissions impossible for a long time. But I had grown up in an age of LGBTQ+ silence and dehumanization. I was patient. We’ve only just begun to let our stories out into books. Now is not the time to erase us again.
What does it say to you when someone says LGBTQ+ content violates their religious beliefs?
One of the hardest parts of this case is that I identify so strongly with the families bringing this lawsuit. I know what it feels like to be a devout child who loves your religious community. And to hear that community say horrible things about LGBTQ+ people–about yourself. I learned fear and revulsion to the point that I didn’t know how to be kind when my close friend was outed. I also didn’t know how to love myself. I tried to erase myself. I know there are children in these families hearing terrifying things being said about themselves.
At the Evangelical school where I taught, colleagues repeated ugly stereotypes to my face about LGBTQ+ people. They couldn’t imagine that I, someone they knew and respected, could be lesbian.
After one of my Evangelical students read a memoir about a gay man, he said, “I never really thought of homosexuality as a person before.” That’s what books do. Whatever your views, it is impossible to treat a neighbor with respect, to care about their safety or human rights, if you don’t see them as a person.
Children have great capacity to accept each other—if kindness is the norm. They are equally capable of learning prejudice, just as I did. Books perform that miracle of letting us travel in a character’s skin. We don’t have to agree to care. To be kind. To want everyone to have a happy, safe ever after.
Religion can be a force for good. But religion should never be a justification for trying to erase and denigrate whole groups of people. Kindness should never be censored. Schools should be a place where every child feels safe and welcome.
What have you personally experienced during this wave of book bans and having your book cited in this case?
While this case has been incredibly stressful and hard on my health, and while there has been an increase in hate messages, my greatest worry is for the children caught in the middle. There is no bright side when children are losing access to important books, when they are being told that some people don’t belong.
If they were listening, what would you say to people who don’t want their children to read this book or want to make these books part of an opt-out policy?
Children who don’t learn about people in their own community aren’t prepared for the world, for school, for the workplace. But more importantly, I don’t want anyone’s identity banned at school. We are fighting this fight on behalf of the families bringing this lawsuit, too.
Many of the books cited in the case have been badly misrepresented in the media. What would you like people to understand that they might have missed?
Read challenged books yourself. Read them completely. Check out Dana Rudolph’s description of how Love, Violet and the other books in this case have been mischaracterized on her Mombian blog. Also see Julie McLaughlin’s presentation of how Pride Puppy! pages contrast with the intentional distortions. This dishonestly about us and our books hurts children most. I wrote Love, Violet so that young people would see themselves and their peers honestly, through a lens of love and respect, not fear and hate. Censoring our books means censoring us. It means telling children they don’t belong. And every child should feel safe and welcome in this world, especially at home and school.
What is it like to know that your book is being used in this case?
A few people congratulated me when they read Love, Violet was “going to the Supreme Court.” But this case has been deeply upsetting from the beginning. I identify with the children in these religious families. I know what it is like to be LGBTQ+ and born into a pious family. The things people said to my face about LGBTQ+ people at the Evangelical college where I taught are strikingly similar to the hate messages I receive now, decades later. They are trying to silence me. To disfigure my books with bizarre accusations.
It doesn’t work, by the way. That prejudice is the reason I wrote Love, Violet. This book is about my experience. It doesn’t match the malicious stereotypes about us. So, I’m going to write the truth. Kids deserve honest books in which they can see themselves and each other with kindness.
My stomach has been in knots since January. I wake up with my teeth aching from clenching them all night. I’m worried about what this case already means for real children who are unsure whether they are welcome and safe at school and in their own homes. As a former educator I worry about what this could do to freedom in the classroom and support for all students. All I want is for children to know they belong, to know that their classmates belong.
But the joy of this case has been connecting with the authors and illustrators involved–and so many people advocating for children, including students themselves! So many people care. That gives me hope. Whatever the Supreme Court decides, we will never stop working for a safer, more loving world for children!
