My Two Moms: Lessons of Love, Strength, and What Makes a Family

In 2011, Wahls, a 19-year-old Eagle Scout and engineering student, stood before the Iowa House Judiciary Committee on civil unions and declared that "the sexual orientation of my parents has had zero effect on the content of my character." Here, Wahls follows up on what would become a viral video of his testimony with this memoir and written defense of his moms. Wahls considers a different value in each chapter (following those espoused by the Boy Scout motto, law, oath, and slogan), including obedience, kindness, reverence, helpfulness, loyalty, thriftiness, and bravery, and tells what he has learned through situations he's encountered with family and friends regarding his nontraditional family. "I'm not gay, but I know how it feels to be in the closet," he writes of his sometimes veiled responses when asked as a child about his father. Wahls reflects on bullies and bullying, family values, Unitarian-Universalism (of which he is an adherent), the impact of chronic disease on the family (one of his moms has MS), and the reality of a marriage between women. Wahls has a fresh voice, and while still relatively young, his evenhandedness and willingness to use his own experiences to address larger social issues is admirable and will likely appeal to all walks of life. (May)