Special Topics Paper: LGBTQ Young Adult Literature

All the Colors of the Rainbow: LGBTQ Literature for Young Adults

When children are very young, the television shows they watch often discuss the differences in people and the need to embrace and respect those differences. Yet, somewhere along the way, this message gets muddled when children are totally immersed into the world around them.  Prejudice is an unfortunate, yet very real part of the world around us and it can be challenging when one does not fit within the confines of what some individuals consider ‘normal.’  This is especially true when those differences are founded in sexuality.  Exploration of sexuality begins at a young age, but buds in the tween and teen years.  When adding in the general angst of the already tough teen years, societal prejudices can almost be too much to take when one is just trying to find and be true to themselves.  According to the Trevor Project, “LGB youth are 4 times more likely, and questioning youth are 3 times more likely, to attempt suicide as their straight peers” (“Facts About Suicide”).  Acceptance is a large part of the solution and there is a growing awareness in society as a whole, although we have a long way to go.  Change can even be seen in libraries where the number of young adult titles with LGBTQ characters is continuing to grow at a rapid pace. The history of LGBTQ literature is fascinating and highlights the changes that have happened in the LGBTQ movement over the last five decades.

The beginning of LGBTQ young adult literature harkens back to the late 1960’s, fitting in with the theme of “free love” that was so popular at the time.  Author Albert Spring notes that “The first novel to focus on a homosexual relationship was John Donovan’s I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip (1969)” (45). Yet, these early titles often did not have happy endings for the characters because “homosexuality itself was viewed as a ‘problem’ that had to be dealt with by the gay characters and their friends and family.  In these books, ‘a gay lifestyle’ was often accompanied by risks and dangers, ranging from losing one’s job to being beat up” (Spring 46).  In the case of I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip, when the dog of the main character Davy (who is also the character exploring his homosexual feelings) runs away and is killed, Davy concludes that the death is a punishment for his homosexual feelings.  Repercussions from homosexuality were a common theme over the next several years in the few books that did tackle the issue.

One of the most notable early YA books dealing positively with homosexual characters was 1982’s Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden.  This title was notable in that “it depicts the powerful and enduring love between the characters.  In addition, Annie and Liza remain a couple at the end of the novel despite the obstacles in their way” (Renzi, Letcher, and Miraglia 121).  Thus, it took over a decade from the time Donovan’s I’ll Get There… was published and the publication of Annie on My Mind before LGBTQ characters found happiness rather than shame.  Yet, while slow, change was continuing to be made.  Four years later, “The first YA novel to deal with AIDS was M.E. Kerr’s Night Kites, published in 1986, five years after the official discovery of the disease” (Renzi, Letcher, and Miraglia 121).  While the AIDS epidemic brought the gay community yet again into a negative light, Kerr’s novel treated the issue sensitively and also showed a positive relationship between the parents (who initially held negative feelings against gays as well as AIDS) and their son.  Even now, teens who are struggling in coming out of the closet will appreciate this story for the parents’ journey just as much as the journeys of Erick and Pete.

Before the late 1990s, “only 130 novels total [were] published in this [LGBTQ] category in the last 100 years, according to Christine Jenkins, a library science professor at the University of Illinois” (Spring 47).  The late 1990’s brought in the biggest wave of LGBTQ literature yet, and the contents of the stories were mostly positive.  Of these titles, “two works were published that still stand as strong representations of what teen LGBTQ literature can accomplish:  Stephen Chobsky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Ellen Wittlinger’s Hard Love, both published in 1999” (Renzi, Letcher, and Miraglia 122).  Even fifteen years later, The Perks of Being a Wallflower continues to be popular.  Not only does it tackle LGBTQ issues, it also brings to the forefront the importance of allies.  For example, when Patrick, who is gay, kisses the main character, Charlie, who isn’t gay, Patrick immediately apologizes.  Charlie does not freak out on him because he understands Patrick has just been through a rough situation where his closeted football player boyfriend screamed and demeaned him to protect his own false non-gay identity.  From this scene alone, the reader not only gets Patrick’s struggle, they also learn the importance for LGBTQ individuals to have allies of all sexual preferences.

The 2000’s continued the push of LGTBQ acceptance.  It was in 2000 that “President Bill Clinton first declared June as Gay and Lesbian Pride month” (Thompson). A few years later, author David Levithan made a splash on the scene.  His first book, “Boy Meets Boy (2003) is significant for the ways in which he disrupts the idea of a heteronormative society and moves beyond a call for tolerance for LGBTQ teens, imaging a world in which acceptance is the norm rather than the exception” (Renzi, Letcher, and Miraglia 122).  The very next year, “Julie Anne Peter’s Luna: A Novel, published in 2004, was the first YA novel to feature a transgender main character” (Renzi, Letcher, and Miraglia 122).  Luna earmarked a slow start of novels featuring transgendered characters.  A great stride was finally hit in 2012 with titles such as Being Emily by Rachel Gold, I Am J by Cris Beam, and Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills.  The year 2012 also saw the publication of David Levithan’s Every Day which completely stepped outside of any barriers of gender and sexuality ideals because the main character, A, wakes up every day in a different body.  In 2014, the nonfiction book Beyond Magenta:  Transgender Teens Speak Out took discussion and acceptance one step farther by allowing readers to meet six real-life teens and learn their stories.

These first years of the new millennium are note-worthy as “Michael Cart and Christine Jenkins observed, ‘In the five publishing years from 2000 to 2004, a total of sixty-six young adult (YA) titles with (LGBTQ) content appeared, as compared to the total of seventy titles that appeared during the entire decade of the 1990s.’” (Manfredi 26).  LGBTQ literature was not only growing, but growing in the right direction.  In 2008, ALA started The Rainbow List.  The Rainbow List “is a bibliography of books with significant gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender content, and which are aimed at youth, birth through age 18” (“Rainbow Books”).  Some of the notable young adult titles that made the list that year included grl2grl by Julie Anne Peters, Freak Show by James St. James, and Breathing Underwater by Lu Vickers.  The ALA has continued to publish this list annually and libraries should find this list beneficial for collection development and as handouts; however, LGBTQ titles should also be incorporated into booklists with non-LGBTQ titles.  Angie Manfredi notes that “Even adding a single title with LGBTQ content to reading lists available at the library can help the process of advocating and integrating” (27-28).  LGBTQ novels should be no different than novels featuring multi-cultural characters or individuals with disabilities.  Organizing by theme or genre rather than characteristics of characters helps readers to branch out without even realizing it.  Integration is a key to acceptance.

While the last decade has seen a mostly positive collection of LGTBQ titles, “it grows obvious that books being published for young adults are not queer friendly by default. Although the field has expanded in many positive ways, it is not free from some of the pitfalls of earlier eras” (Manfredi 27).  For example, “Negative messages about homosexuality crop up in Cecily von Ziegesar's best-selling Gossip Girl series…using regressive and problematic stereotypes about homosexuality” (Manfredi 26-27). Also, in Jo Knowles’s Lessons From a Dead Girl, “Leah meets the same grisly fate as LGBTQ characters in older narratives: she becomes the dead girl of the title” (Manfredi 27).  This does not mean a library should not carry these titles (Gossip Girl fans would most certainly rebel), rather these titles serve as a good platform for reflection and open discussion on the problems surrounding stereotyping. This study also points out that by no means is every LGBTQ book perfect.  Book reviews should matter just as much for LGBTQ novels as they do with any other novel.

In the last decade, the literature growth has matched the growth of LGBTQ acceptance around the country.  In 2004, Massachusetts was the first state to allow same-sex marriage; today, 37 states have legal same-sex marriage (Karimi and Pearson).  In 2011, “President Barack Obama recently expanded the observance [Gay and Lesbian Pride Month] by designating June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month” (Thompson). Meanwhile, young adult literature has been incorporating this overarching acceptance into more and more novels.  In recognition of GLTBQ writing, The Children’s and YA version of the Stonewall Books Award began in 2010, a clear testament to the rise of quality and quantity of LGBTQ for young people (“Stonewall Book Awards List).  In the article “A New Way for Gay Characters in Y.A.,” Scholastic Publisher and author David Levithan notes that “2013 represents another wave of change” (Doll).  He adds that "For so many years, so many characters have been defined by their sexuality—they're 'gay'; we don't have to give them any other characteristics," he says. "But gay characters and gay kids have lots of other things going on. No one is just this one thing” (Doll).  LGBTQ characters are appearing in non-LGBTQ novels as friends, family, enemies, and allies.  Sexuality is no longer the sole thing that defines the person or the context of the novel, it is just but one thing that adds to the complexity of the characters and the world of a great novel.

In conclusion, the history of LGBTQ literature shows that the reader has gone from a road of few choices and negative repercussions to a varied super-highway of quality novels where the focus is not just on a person’s sexuality but on the person themselves.  LGBTQ characters are the leading ladies and gentlemen but they are also best friends, brothers/sisters, classmates, teammates, and co-workers.  We all must remember that the United States started as a melting pot of people from all different ethnicities and religious backgrounds.  Somewhere along the way, this acceptance became muddled with unfair prejudices and hierarchical structures.  In order to fix this problem, people have to continue to take a stand and to support and embrace their differences and the differences of those around them.  Libraries can help support this cause by ensuring that collections of print and digital materials remain diversified and that people have the freedom to access these materials for years, decades, and even centuries to come.  We’ve come a long way, but now it is time to go even farther.  The world is a rainbow just waiting to be explored and embraced.

Works Cited

“About.”  Rainbow Books – GLBTQ Books for Children & Teens. American Library Association, 2015. Web. 1 Mar. 2015.

Doll, Jen.  “A New Way for Gay Characters in Y.A.”  The Wire.  The Atlantic Monthly Group, 28 Mar. 2013.  Web. 1 Mar. 2015.

“Facts About Suicide.”  The Trevor Project.  The Trevor Project, 2015.  Web. 2 Mar. 2015.

Karimi, Faith and Michael Pearson.  “The 13 states that still ban same-sex marriage.” CNN.com. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., 13 Feb. 2015. Web. 2 Mar. 2015.

Manfredi, Angie. "Accept The Universal Freak Show." Young Adult Library Services 7.4 (2009): 26-31. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts. Web. 1 Mar. 2015.

Renzi, Laura A., Mark Letcher, and Kristen Miraglia.  “Out of the Closet and Into the Open: LGBTQ Young Adult Literature in the Language Arts Classroom.”  Teaching Young Adult Literature Today: Insights, Considerations, and Perspectives for the Classroom Teacher.  Eds. Judith A. Hayn and Jeffrey S. Kaplan. Maryland: Rowan &   Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2012. 117-134. Print.

Spring, Albert.  M.E. Kerr.  New York:  The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2006.  Print.

“Stonewall Book Awards List.”  GLBTRT – A Round Table of the American Library Association. American Library Association, 2015.  Web. 1 Mar. 2015.

Thompson, Ian S. “President Obama Proclaims LGBT Pride Month.” ACLU.  American Civil Liberties Union, 3 Jun. 2011.  Web. 2 Mar. 2015.