A new children’s book has recently released and it shares LGBTQ history.
"Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag" was written by Rob Sanders and illustrated by Steven Salerno. The book hopes to explain to children how Milk was an advocate for gay rights and the first openly gay man to be elected to political office in the United States.
That said, the story also folds in the creation and influence of the rainbow flag. This is due to it being the 40th anniversary of the Rainbow Flag's creation in 1978.
"Young readers will be provided with an inspirational universal example of how the energy and focus of people acting together can actually make positive changes in society in the face of unjust laws and attitudes," said artist Salerno to First Coast News.
Salerno also expressed how difficult it was to create the illustrations for the book. He says it took two months to create the initial sketches for each page. From there, it took another four to five months to finish the illustrations.
Salerno created the pages by drawing a variety of options for even the littlest of details. Then, he would upload the pages to Adobe Photoshop to add color, position the drawings, and create the final copies.
All of this was to create a children’s book that will properly express the struggle and joys that the LGBTQ rights movement went through to get to today's America.
“Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag” is out now, and can be purchased on Amazon.