Solidarity amid oppression can take many forms, as endless as human creativity. One form — speaking in secret code — lies at the heart of Kyle Lukoff's fascinating non-fiction book for four-to-eight-year-old readers, Are You a Friend of Dorothy?
Even in an atmosphere of oppression and mistrust, "people always know how to find each other," writes Lukoff, a school librarian, former bookseller, and Stonewall award-winning author. Up until 2003, nearly every state in the United States had laws making it illegal to be gay. Because LGBTQ people could be fired from work if their boss found out, arrested for dressing in clothes not considered gender appropriate, or sent to hospitals to be "cured" of their orientation, they came up with ways to find each other that no one else would understand. These included "special phrases and symbols, hints in handkerchiefs and flowers." One such phrase was, "Are you a friend of Dorothy?"
A quizzical or "no" answer meant that the other person had no idea what you were talking about. But a reply like "Yes, darling, I am," meant that two people could know that they were safe together.
Lively illustrations by Levi Hastings show the joy of these connections. They also show marvelously caricatured spies whose real-life counterparts overheard the phrase about Dorothy and tried intensively to figure out who this mysterious figure was. The story makes clear that the joke was on them, once someone told them the truth and "the officers and spies who had made such a big mistake were probably pretty embarrassed."
Lukoff shows how things have changed in the United States since that time, but he does not gloss over ways in which it's still hard to be LGBTQ, from anti-trans sentiments to bathroom bills to "don't say gay." People still need to find ways to stay safe, and "learning about the ways we survived in the past could help people in the future."
The book concludes with two pages of more in-depth explanation and a short bibliography of related books for adults. Its historical account makes it important reading, and its strategy for carrying on with kindness and community when hard pressed by authorities make it essential for our times.
