LGBTQIA – Page 4

Review of I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN

By Katie|2020-03-28T13:42:07-05:00February 13th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Book Review|Tags: gay, LGBTQIA, New Releases, Queer Guys, Realistic, Romance|

I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN by Jandy Nelson I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN is a complex story about FAMILY, secrets, GRIEF, love, growing up, FINDING AND BECOMING YOURSELF, self-esteem, and art. It’s perfectly described in one of the epigraphs with the following e. e. cummings quote, “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are” (spoiler alert: It takes a whole lot of courage. And it’s incredibly difficult). The novel reflects on the journey to becoming that person. FROM GOODREADS: Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly [...]

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Gay YA: a personal retrospective

By Nathaniel|2020-03-28T13:42:18-05:00January 14th, 2015|Categories: Archive|Tags: LGBTQIA, Representation|

How They Met and Other Stories (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2008) The first gay YA I picked up, in early 2009, was David Levithan’s short story collection How They Met, and Other Stories, recommended to me by someone on tumblr. The first story in the collection, “Starbucks Boy”, radically changed the way I thought about myself. My interest in guys, to that point, had been mostly theoretical. I knew I liked them, theoretically and I knew there were some attractive ones at school with me, but only towards the end of 2008 did the idea [...]

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Haircuts, the Media, and Free Electrons

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:44-05:00April 14th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs, Teen Voices|Tags: LGBTQIA, Representation|

About a year ago today, I announced to my friends that I was going to be somewhat spur-of-the-moment and chop off my waist-length hair for charity. I wasn't expecting huge applause, or great concern, or really any kind of reaction that involved a lot of emotion. All I wanted was someone to come with me to get it cut, for moral support. Instead I got: "Are you sure, Georgie? I mean - won't you look a bit - lesbiany?" At the time, of course, I rolled my eyes, believing it made absolutely no difference what these girls thought. I told myself they [...]

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Stereotypes

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:42:44-05:00April 7th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|Tags: LGBTQIA, Stereotypes|

It wasn’t long ago that you’d be hard pressed to find a YA book with a gay character in it all. We’ve come a long way. Yet there’s still a long way to go. While gay characters are represented in YA fiction, far too often they are stereotypes, there to provide an appearance of diversity without actually being fully realized characters. How often does a female YA protagonist have a quirky, funny, gay best friend? This is a great character because it’s a male presence, but one without any threat associated with him. Then there’s the sporty lesbian, another stereotype [...]

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