Quick Dip: Online Resources
Cool Stuff for Queer Kids, by Lee Wind
A blog and website (https://www.leewind.org/) for teens, librarians, teachers, booksellers, and anyone interested in young adult books with LGBTQ+ characters and themes.
The Lammys, from Lambda Literary
The Lambda Literary Awards honor LGBTQ+ children’s and young adult individual works and collections of fiction, nonfiction, picture books, and poetry. For the latest finalists, see https://www.lambdaliterary.org/awards/.
Queer Books for Teens
The website Queer Books for Teens (https://queerbooksforteens.com) offers customizable lists of young adult fiction with significant LGBTQ+ content published since 2000.
Queer Comics Database
The Queer Comics Database (http://queercomicsdatabase.com/series/) was created in 2018 by Aydin Kwan and Le Button as a final project for the University of Washington’s Information School program, with support from Geeks OUT. You can browse the database for comics by series or creator. It includes a glossary of terms and several guides, such as “Search Tips,” “Introduction to Comics,” “How to Buy Comics from a Comic Shop,” and “For Retailers: How to Carry Queer Comics.”
Stonewall Book Awards List from the American Library Association
The Stonewall Book Awards, which collectively encompass the Barbara Gittings Literature Award, the Israel Fishman Nonfiction Award, and the Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award, are presented annually to English-language works of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience. For the latest awards, visit http://www.ala.org/rt/glbtrt/award/stonewall/honored.
Deep Dive: Picture Books
Heather Has Two Mommies, by Lesléa Newman
A young girl realizes her lesbian-parented family is different from many of her classmates’ families when she attends a playgroup for the first time (Boston, MA: Alyson Wonderland, 1989).
Jesse’s Dream Skirt, by Bruce Mack
Jesse is a boy who desires a skirt. His mother helps him make one. When the child goes to school in his new skirt he is celebrated by his teacher and peers (Chapel Hill, NC: Lollipop Power: 1979).
Oliver Button Is a Sissy, by Tomie dePaola
A boy named Oliver is bullied for his effeminate behavior. When his parents enroll him in dance he gains confidence and even acceptance from peers as a result of his talent (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979).
10,000 Dresses, by Marcus Ewert
A transgender child named Bailey solicits family members’ help acquiring a dress. They are not accepting of Bailey’s desire for a dress, but she eventually meets an older girl and they make one together (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2008).
Too Far Away to Touch, by Lesléa Newman
The story centers on a young girl’s relationship with her gay uncle who is dying from AIDS-related complications (New York: Clarion Books, 1995).
When Megan Went Away, by Jane Severance
A young girl must process her mother’s separation from her partner. This is one of the earliest depictions of lesbians in a picture book (Chapel Hill, NC: Lollipop Power, 1979).
When We Love Someone We Sing to Them: Cuando Amamos Cantamos, by Ernesto Javier Martinez
In this story of a father-son relationship and the Mexican tradition of serenata, a young boy and his father write a song for the boy’s crush, another little boy (San Francisco, CA: Reflection Press, 2018).
International LGBTQ+ Literature for Children and Young Adults, by B. J. Epstein and Elizabeth L. Chapman
This edited collection brings together academics and activists from around the world to reflect on LGBTQ+ representations in adolescent literature (London: Anthem Press, 2021).
The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ+ Children’s Picture Books, by Jennifer Miller
This genealogy of English-language LGBTQ+ children’s picture books available in the United States beginning in the late 1970s considers constraints on the production and distribution of LGBTQ+ picture books (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2022).
Deep Dive: Lesbian Young Adult Literature
Annie on My Mind, by Nancy Garden
This story focuses on the romantic relationship of two seventeen-year-old girls. Themes of homophobia are explored through the teenagers’ relationship and that of two teachers at one of the girls’ schools (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1982).
I Am J, by Cris Beam
A transgender teenager named J seeks medical help to transition. J was the first nonwhite transgender teen to appear in young adult literature. The book demonstrates challenges to securing hormones and other medical interventions to help with transition (New York: Little, Brown, 2011).
Luna, by Julie Anne Peters
Sixteen-year-old Reagan explores her feelings about learning that her older sibling is transgender. Their relationship is explored throughout (New York: Little, Brown, 2004).
Ruby, by Rosa Guy
Often identified as the first lesbian young adult novel, this story is about eighteen-year-old Ruby Cathy and her family who move to Harlem from the West Indies. Ruby’s romantic relationship with a classmate, Daphne Duprey, centers the text (New York: Viking Press, 1976).
Symptoms of Being Human, by Jeff Garvin
The novel is about a gender-fluid teen who reflects on binary gender expectations through a series of blog posts (New York: Balzer and Bray, 2016).
Representing the Rainbow in Young Adult Literature: LGBTQ+ Content since 1969, by Christine Jenkins and Michael Cart
The authors survey LGBTQ+ young adult literature from the 1960s to the 2010s (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2018).
Deep Dive: LGBTQ+ Comics
Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
This graphic memoir is a reflection on the creator’s adolescence in rural Pennsylvania. Bechdel’s relationship with her father is highlighted, and sexual identity is explored through both characters (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007).
Life in Hell, by Matt Groening
This weekly comic series, by the creator of The Simpsons, featured anthropomorphized rabbits who were a gay couple (New York: Pantheon Books, 1970–2012).
Stuck Rubber Baby, by Howard Cruse
This semi-autobiographical graphic novel’s protagonist Toland Polk explores gay community and culture in the U.S. South during the 1960s (New York: Paradox Press, 1995).
The Comics of Alison Bechdel: From the Outside In, by Janine Utell
This definitive collection of original essays by scholars covers the span of Bechdel’s career, placing her groundbreaking early work within the context of her more well-known recent projects (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2020).
Deep Dive: Lesbian and Gay Pulp Fiction
The Fall of Valor, by Charles Jackson
This novel focuses on the failing marriage of John and Ethel Grandin, who take a summer vacation to Nantucket during World War II. John becomes enamored with a marine captain he meets while the couple vacation (New York: Rinehart, 1946).
Song of the Loon, by Richard Amory
This novel and its sequels center gay Native Americans who embrace their sexuality. The novel is campy and far lighter in tone than many pulps (San Diego, CA: Greenleaf Classics, 1966).
Women’s Barracks, by Tereska Torrès
This semi-autobiographical reflection is based on the author’s experience at a French military barracks for women. Five women of different ages form sexual relationships (New York: Fawcett, 1950).
Lesbian Pulp Fiction: The Sexually Intrepid World of Lesbian Paperback Novels, 1950–1965, by Katherine Forrest
This book surveys and analyzes lesbian pulp fiction (San Francisco, CA: Cleis Press, 2005).
Deep Dive: LGBTQ+ Memoir and Life Writing
My Butch Career: A Memoir, by Esther Newton
Newton describes her childhood, romantic life, and career in this compelling memoir (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2018).
Times Square Red, Times Square Blue, by Samuel R. Delany
Delaney considers his sexual encounters in Times Square and provides insight into gay sexual cultures and the moralistic policing of sexuality in public spaces and cultures (New York: New York University Press, 1999).
Trans: A Memoir, by Juliet Jacques
This memoir is a reflection of Londoner Jacques’s transition at the age of thirty in 2012 (London: Verso, 2015).
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, by Audre Lorde
Lorde reflects on her childhood, coming of age in Harlem, and her relationship to feminist art and politics (Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 1982).
