Gail Marlene Schwartz, Lalita du Perron, June BlueSpruce, & Taylor Farley

Editors and contributors of Boyhood Reimagined: Stories of Queer Moms Raising Sons visit the store, in partnership with the Queer Power Alliance. Editor and contributor Gail Marlene Schwartz, contributor Lalita du Perron, contributor June BlueSpruce, and Executive Director of Queer Power Alliance Taylor Farley will be reading from and discussing their book and its connections to Seattle’s queer communities.

A family with two moms and a son seems pretty ordinary to many Americans in 2025. But with the reelection of Trump, the rise of Christian nationalism, and the ultra-conservative Supreme court, queer moms face ongoing and accelerating challenges to their families. Boyhood Reimagined asks particular questions about parenting and feminism during a time when traditional male dominance continues to shape societal expectations, limit opportunities for women and non-binary individuals, and influence political and economic power structures.

Do queer moms practicing feminist parenting raise sons with a healthy relationship to gender and masculinity? Are sons of queer moms protected from a culture of misogyny? And what important lessons do queer moms of sons have to teach other progressive parents?

Gail Marlene Schwartz is a queer mom, a dual citizen, and pickleball champion of her household. She is the co-editor of the anthology Boyhood Reimagined: Stories of Queer Moms Parenting Sons (Motina Books), a #1 New Release on Amazon, which launched in June of 2025. Her adult novel, Falling Through the Night (Demeter Press), won the National Indie Excellence Award for LGBTQ fiction and was a finalist for an Independent Publishers of New England book award. Other titles include the middle grade novel, My Sister’s Girlfriend, a picture book, The Loudest Bark (both from Rebel Mountain Press), and a chapter book, Clementine in Quarantine (Facile á lire). She is a founding member of the magazine, Hotch Potch Literature and Art, and hosts the Substack Writers in Relationship. Gail lives and writes in Ottawa, Ontario with her partner, visual artist Erin Needham, and their occasional roommate Alexi, who is 15. Check out her website for more info.

Lalita du Perron was born in Amsterdam and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has a PhD in South Asian Studies (SOAS, 2000) and is the Associate Director of the Center for South Asia at Stanford. She has published two books and a number of articles on the song texts of North Indian art music, and is currently working on a project on consent. In a separate incarnation Lalita performs and writes comedy, as Lalita Dee (@lalitadeecomedy). Lalita is the proud queer single mother by choice of a teenage son.

June BlueSpruce lives with her wife in Seattle, where they raised their two sons, now grown. She has been an activist in movements for women’s and LGBTQ+ rights and health care justice for decades. She now focuses on protecting Seattle’s tree canopy, fighting for environmental equity, and writing. Her essays have appeared in Whiteness Is Not an Ancestor: Essays on Life and Lineage by white Women; Sacred Stone, Sacred Water: Women Writers and Artists Encounter Ireland; Catamaran Literary Reader; the chapbook Coming Home; and HerStry. Her poems have been published in Sisters Singing: Blessings, Prayers, Art, Songs, Poetry, and Sacred Stories by Women; My Lover Is a Woman: Contemporary Lesbian Love Poems; and journals including off our backs. June writes about healing, spirituality, and social change on her blog at https://www.junebluespruce.com/blog/.

Taylor Farley (they/them) is Executive Director of Queer Power Alliance. They bring over 20 years of entrepreneurial experience, having owned and operated small businesses in healthcare, professional organizing, and instruction. Their passion for justice and community began early—Taylor first stepped into advocacy as a high school student during the early fight for reproductive rights. Their nonprofit journey began at the Sharehouse, where they helped ensure that people transitioning into housing received not just a place to live, but a true home—complete with comfort, dignity, and the everyday essentials many take for granted. Taylor has also worked in public health, with a focus on harm reduction and housing stability, consistently centering the needs of those most impacted by systemic inequities. As Development Manager at White Center Community Development, Taylor built deep community relationships through the Rise Together Campaign. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they joined Queer Power Alliance as Program & Development Manager, securing critical funding for projects addressing service gaps for LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and disabled communities in South King County. In 2023, they became the executive director of QPA, deepening the organization’s mission to build collective power for LGBTQIA+ liberation. Taylor’s leadership is rooted in community; they believe in the transformative power of collective action, the importance of centering those most impacted, and the necessity of creating spaces where people are not just included—but empowered to lead. Their work prioritizes housing justice, economic opportunity, affirming healthcare, and civic engagement, always through an intersectional lens. In 2023, Taylor was honored as a community partner by POCAAN for their unwavering commitment to LGBTQIA+ rights and social justice. They identify as genderqueer, queer, and working class, and use they/them pronouns.

Copies of Boyhood Reimagined will be available for purchase at the event.

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