Openly gay reality TV star claims his Christian faith moved him to write a children's book with his pansexual son

Reality TV star Karamo Brown says his new children's book explores how each individual person is "perfectly designed."

 

Brown, most famous for his role in Netflix's "Queer Eye," says that he implemented the mantra "I am perfectly designed" — which he claims stems from his Christian faith and upbringing — for his own sons when they were young and growing.

The new book of the same name — "I Am Perfectly Designed — features the family mantra as its title and is co-written by his son, 22-year-old Jason "Rachel" Brown.

Brown also has a 16-year-old son.

What are the details?

Brown, 38, who recently appeared on "Dancing with the Stars," told USA Today that he always wanted to write a children's book.

Brown, who is openly gay and partnered, features a variety of diverse families in the book, as well as myriad sexual orientations and races — a move that he says was "100% intentional."

He told the outlet that he previously had a hard time coming to grips with kids' books that feature characters who are identical to one another, so he was moved to create a more inclusive work for children.

"That's just not true for the world," he insisted, and pointed out the importance of people seeing through the lens of different perspectives, sexualities, genders, and races.

"This is a mantra, 'I am perfectly designed,' that I'd tell my kids when they were younger," he said.

The reality star and author also touched upon his son Jason's sexuality, as the 22-year-old recently came out as "pansexual." A person with a pansexual orientation doesn't limit him or herself to any one particular sexual preference with regard to gender or orientation.

Brown admitted that his son often struggled with his identity growing up despite living in an LGBTQ-friendly family.

"We live in a house where he has two dads and I've worked with LGBT causes, worked with LGBT youth, and yet he still felt uncomfortable," Brown told the publication.

"We didn't grow up rich," Brown added. "When I got custody of my kids, I was on a social worker's salary, which wasn't a lot. The kids got bullied — their dad was gay — and they would come home really sad, and I would just sit them down and remind them, 'You are perfectly designed.' Which was sort of a message I got growing up, because my parents were religious, I grew up in a church, and I was always told I was made just the way I am by God."

What else?

Brown said that though Jason identifies as atheist, he isn't deterred.

"People are always like, 'How do you deal with that?'" he said. "And I'm like, 'I love my son.' Because that is what my religion says. It says you do not judge someone, you love them and respect them. That's what the religion and the Christ that I follow taught me."