By Anne-Marie jones

Recently, I watched the excellent new Babysitters Club series on Netflix, which was a big burst of nostalgia! I love what they did with it, the changes they made were positive and it still remained true to the 90’s book series.

I was a little surprised to see a minor character put into an LGBTQ+ relationship on the show, and then I saw a comment on reddit that surprised me further – Ann M.Martin herself is known to be queer, and was In a long-term relationship with a woman.

Here are some of your millenial childhood icons you might not know were LGBTQ+

Ann M. Martin (Babysitters Club author)

So, as I’ve just mentioned, it was a surprise to learn Ann M. Martin is queer, simply because it was never mentioned. As a kid, I was a massive fan, even reading the “Ann M. Martin : the Story of the Author of the Baby-Sitters Club” biography book. the book, of course, did not go into her relationships.

While Ann kept her private life very private, I eagerly ate up every ‘fun fact’ she shared with fans, even getting into watching “I Love Lucy” because she mentioned her love for the show. I think I just assumed I knew everything about her!

(Ann has publicly discussed her relationship but has not put a label on her sexuality, I have used the term queer as that is what is in her Wikipedia page).

Arnold Lobel (Frog and Toad Author)

If you missed out on the delightful frog and toad books in your childhood, you may remember them from a popular meme about 12 years ago (not gonna share it here! Frog and Toad ride a bike with an ‘FTP’ Caption – if you know, you know).

Arnold Lobel was married with two children, and came out privately to his family. He later separated from his wife and moved in with a male partner. He died from cardiac arrest after suffering from AIDS for a long time.

I don’t like to project sexuality onto fictional characters (Bert and Ernie are absolutely not gay, by the way), but Arnolds daughter Adrienne Lobel has confirmed she believes her fathers intention was that the two friends are gay.
Who knows for sure, but they are incredibly sweet books either way.

Mara Wilson (Child Actress from Mrs Doubtfire, Matilda and more amazing 90’s movies)

I think as a kid in the 90’s, we mostly assumed our favourite child stars would grow up to be heterosexual, so we wouldn’t have given much thought to Mara Wilsons sexuality, since she retired from acting before doing any roles involving relationships.
Our household were massive fans of Mara when I was growing up, and it’s great to see her living her best life right now – she’s a very talented writer!

In her book ‘Where Am I Now?”, Mara speaks very candidly about her life, and she came out as bisexual in 2016, although she now prefers the term queer, but says she also doesn’t mind being called bi.

Louise Fitzhugh (Harriet The Spy author)

Harriet the Spy was my absolute fave when I was growing up! I was obsessed with the movie and loved the book too.

When Michelle Trachenberg died this year (the actress who brought Harriet to life), I also found out that Louise Fitzhugh was a lesbian (this is according to her Wikipedia page, she did have some romantic relationships with men in her teens and married at nineteen, although the marriage was unconsummated and got annulled).

Harriet is thought to be a self-insert character, wearing masculine clothing and not having any interest in boys or ‘feminine things’ (the book was written in 1964 so gender stereotypes were stronger back then), although of course that’s speculative.

Jonathan Knight (New Kids On the Block)

I totally missed the boat on NKOTB in the 90’s so I didn’t know this one, but Jonathan Knight was one of the singers of this iconic band.

Being a singer in one of the most popular bands of it’s time, there was a lot of pressure to be a pin-up for teen girls. Jon had a brief relationship with singer Tiffany, but says he was never really ‘closeted’, he says he just didn’t feel the need to shout it on a magazine cover.

Since 2008 , Jon has been in a relationship with Harley Rodriguez (who played Manny Lopez on the TV show of Sweet Valley High, that makes my nostalgic heart so happy!), and they recently married.

Maurice Sendak (author)

Best known for the classic picture book “Where The Wild Things Are”, as well as his version of “The Nutcracker” for the Pacifc Northwest Ballet, Maurice Sendak was gay, and came out later in life, after the death of his long-term partner of 50 years.

Tomie dePaola (Author)

You may not know the name, but you will probably remember ‘Strega Nona’, the story of an Italian witch who made way too much pasta! This is just one of the 200+ books created by Tomie dePaola.

Tomie dePaola had a brief marriage to a woman, but came out much later in life. he said he felt being gay as a childrens author affected book sales, as schools were less comfortable to purchase books by gay authors.