When Narelda Jacobs and Karina Natt announced on social media that they were expecting, they initially received a lot of love. But then things changed.
“The trolls came for us,” Jacobs tells Women’s Agenda.
The Whadjuk Noongar journalist and news presenter has been working in media for more than two decades. But now believes the increase in global homophobia is setting back decades of progress.
“It is not a coincidence that this is happening alongside an increase in far-right extremism, algorithms that push hate, and dangerous political rhetoric,” she says.
When Jacobs and her wife, fellow journalist Karina Natt, announced their exciting news last year, they anticipated some interest from people about “the who and how” of their pregnancy. Around the time, Sam Kerr had announced her baby news with her wife, Kristie Mewis, and the homophonic trolling they received was so severe that Chelsea Football Club was forced to turn off comments.
That’s when Jacobs and Natt decided to write a book with a simple ambition: take the sting out of trolling, normalise queer families, and make other queer people feel seen and less alone.
If Queers Weren’t Meant to Have Kids …, published by UQP last November, is a joyful illustrated adult picture book that celebrates the love and care within queer communities while satirising conservative moral panic. For Jacobs, the book is both a love letter to queer parents and a clever rebuttal to those who police LGBTQIA+ identity and parenting.
“We wanted to use our story to both control the narrative about our rainbow family and to help change people’s views and combat misconceptions about queers having kids,” the pair said in a statement.
“We knew people would have some questions about how [our child] Sanna came to be, and thought we could answer them through a book. We also wanted to show that love makes a family and to celebrate chosen family – or the village of queers. Books should reflect all parts of society back at us and we hope our book delivers for those who might not see themselves in existing books.”
The reception the book has received has been overwhelmingly positive, Jacobs says.
“The two-way sharing with fellow queer parents has been a beautiful experience we weren’t expecting. The feedback has really confirmed for us that visibility is as important as ever, and even our little adult satirical picture book can support folks to have difficult conversations, feel seen, and deliver some hope at a time it’s hard to come by for many.”
The book is illustrated by award‑winning First Nations artist Molly Hunt, who worked with the pair to bring the joyful representative of queer communities to life.
“We have fun with queer culture and flipping the bird at homophobes but we also put our lived experience and chosen family into the story so it almost wrote itself,” Jacobs said. “Most of the people in the book are chosen family who we love and we wanted to make sure they were accurately depicted but also representative of queer communities.”
This week, the pair celebrated their child’s first birthday, with Natt posting a moving tribute on her socials.