20 Favorite LGBTQ Books For Pride Month
as Julie Sara Porter Bookwom
June is Pride Month, so I have compiled a list of 20 of the best books that portray gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.
Since it is such a wide varied topic, I have separated the books in two major categories: Fiction and Non-fiction. Honorable Mention also includes Children's, YA, Plays and other. To qualify for this list, the book has to feature a GLBT character or event in a prominent role, so I did not choose books that only featured such characters in supporting roles or cameos. For the most part, I included works that portray GLBTQ in an understanding and compassionate light. If you agree with this list or know of others to include don't forget to comment below or on Facebook. And as always, there may be spoilers.
Fiction
10. Orlando:A Biography by Virginia Woolf (1928)- Orlando, the eponymous protagonist of Wooolf's novel could be considered way ahead of her time. With all of the current controversies regarding transgender rights it's intriguing to read a book featuring a character that transcends gender.
Orlando begins life as a Elizabethan nobleman and a favorite of the Queen. He is unfortunate in both his love life and his hoped for literary career. A Muscovite princess seduces and then abandons him. A poet insults current literature and Orlando's literary aspirations and then satirizes Orlando in a spoof about a dilletante nobleman.
Orlando is assigned as Ambassador to Turkey where he marries a dancer, falls ill and sleeps for several days. When he wakes up, he discovers that he is now in a woman's body. No reason is given (except maybe magic from three Romany women) and Orlando is not shocked nor amazed. She realizes that she is the same person with the same intellect just in a different body.
As a woman, Orlando is able to retain some power sexually over men.( "Praise God, I'm a woman" she says to herself as the sight of her leg almost sends a sailor overboard.) She also finds limitations in her role when she returns to England almost 300 years from when she left ( and looks ageless) and she is unable to claim her former property because " 1) She was dead and therefore could not hold any property whatsoever 2) that she was a woman which amounts to the same thing and 3) that she was an English Duke who had married Rosina Pepita a dancer; and had by her three sons which sons now declarimg that their father is deceased, claimed that all his property descended to them." (One wonders why being immortal, Orlando doesn't just assume a different identity or claim to be the male Orlando's direct descendant but never mind.) She lives in a wealthy near solitude in an estate.
Orlando later finds happiness in a literary career in the late 19th early 20th Century from a literary society willing to experiment ( shades of Woolf herself or her lover/fellow author and possible inspiration for Orlando, Vita Sackville-West)
She also finds love with a male sailor that Orlando realizes had also once been female. In her 20th century life, Orlando is able to be happy within herself and her identity.
David, the narrator, a young American visits Paris while taking a break from his girlfriend, Hella who goes to Spain on her own. When an acquaintance takes David to a gay bar, the American locks eyes with Giovanni, a handsome Italian bartender. The two engage in an affair that alternately fascinates and frightens David.
David is a character filled with contradictions. He remembers when he was a young boy and felt a sexual arousal for a male friend, Joey then spent the rest of their school days bullying Joey to prove his manhood. He alternates being romantic with Giovanni in their long talks and late night strolls and feelimg smothered during their time in Giovanni's room. (Which David at first finds liberating then compares to a prison.) David can also be cruel and neglectful such as when Giovanni gets fired and depressed and David shows his loving concern by......abandoning him for three days and reuniting with Hella.
David is confused by his sexual identity and role in his relationships with men and women. When he is with women like Hella and another woman, Sue, he thinks that he has to be strong and forceful, his perception of a man. When he is with Giovanni, he cleans his room and cooks his meals and takes a more submissive role. Even though he plays these roles for both genders, David is unable to make a real connection or accept love from either Hella or Giovanni. No wonder why both Giovanni and Hella make variations of the same claim that David can't feel love for anyone. It is only too late when Giovanni makes a destructive decision that David realizes the depth of his feelings for Giovanni.
Irishman Tim Kelly visits his favorite grandson Tom to announce he's dying and to take the "farewell tour" himself to visit his relatives. He examines Tom's beautifully decorated flat (an unfortunate bit of stereotyping) and meets Tom's roommate Frank Davis. Upon finding a portrait Frank painted of Tom that is clearly painted with detail and love, Tim realizes the two men are lovers.
Instead of being furious or even asking questions Tim tells his grandson of when he was a boy and met Jo, a young Traveler boy. Tim explains he and Jo spent a beautiful seven days running, playing, and just being young and carefree. Though the relationship is youthful and Platonic, Tim and Tom both recognize the parallels between Tim and his first love and Tom and his current love.
The title comes from Tim's words of wisdom:"The Better Part of wisdom is what is left unsaid. " Tom never outright tells his his grandfather that he's gay. Nor does Grandfather voice his approval (except to give the standard paternal "you-hurt-my-kid-I-hurt-you" speech to Frank. ) By the end of the story, The Reader realizes that doesn't matter. The movements, gestures, and thoughts between Tim, Tom, Frank, and Jo are enough.
7. Tipping The Velvet by Sarah Waters (1998)- Sarah Waters' picaresque novel explored the lesbian subculture of 19th Century England and provides the Reader with a beguiling narrator who begins the novel as naive to the love between women but by the end not only finds real love but the courage to be true to herself.
Nancy Astley the daughter of fish-mongers finds excitement in her typical dull gray life by going to the music halls. It is at the halls, she encounters Kitty Butler, a talented singer who dresses like a man when she performs. Nancy also catches Kitty's eye and eventually Kitty hires Nancy to be her dresser then her partner on the stage.
The music hall scenes are amazingly detailed of the performing life and reveals a world where some characters show their true selves while others aren't what they seem. This is particularly shown in the characters of Nancy and Kitty.
Nancy, now taking the stage name of Nan King, feels true freedom in her role as a male impersonator and loves to dance and sing of true love on stage while experiencing it off in a slow moving relationship with Kitty. For Kitty however most of her act is simply that: an act. She is terrified of even the slightest suspicion of lesbianism. After a disastrous performance when the audience calls out various names and Nan makes an uncomfortable return home to her family, Nan finds Kitty in bed with their oafish male manager whom Kitty intends to marry.
Nan is heartbroken and like many romantic leads who are dumped by their first loves before and since, Nan swears to never feel love again. Using the tricks of the trade that Kitty taught her, Nan continues to wear men's clothing, to become a rent boy/male prostitute. Nan makes a decent living at prostitution, but feels empty still longing for Kitty. While soliciting company, Nan is put right in the path of Diana, a sinister wealthy woman who sees Nan as a potential plaything. Diana displays Nan in front of friends like a living doll. She indulges in sadistic tricks and mind games that transform Nan into a suffering victim. One of the best moments is when Nan defends a younger maid who is about to be molested by Diana's friends. Nan really let's the upperclass women have it calling them to task with all of the insults she had buried inside for so long. However the denouement is not what Nan or the Reader expected and Nan is left once again left destitute and heartbroken.
Above all this is a story of maturity. When Nan lives with another family, Florence and Ralph, two social workers and union organizers, she reaches out to them in friendship long before she is willing to accept their love. She cares for their home and their young charge, Cyril finding a loving family for the first time in awhile. While at first indifferent to the siblings' causes, Nan becomes involved to the point where she gives a stirring speech at a rally. She also learns of another woman's heartbreak and helps heal it finding a love that accepts her and makes her a whole complete person. No matter if she wears a skirt or slacks
6. Carol AKA The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith (Original title:1952; Revised version with new title: 1984)-
Carol is a beautiful lyrical novel about love between two women and the cost of finding happiness in the repressive 1950's.
Therese Belivet is a young store clerk in the doll department of a fashionable department store but has dreams of being a set designer for the theater. She is in a relationship with a man whom she does not love. She is unsettled with her life but does little about it, until she meets the gorgeous blond female customer, Mrs. Carol Aird.
Carol is buying a Christmas gift for her daughter, Rindy. The two share an interesting first meeting which inspired Therese to visit Carol at her home. (She had given her address and phone number for shipping purposes.) The two spend many evenings talking and sharing stories mostly about their unhappy pasts: Therese's orphaned background and lack of emotion for her boyfriend, Richard and Carol's miserable marriage to her soon-to-be ex-husband, Harge and custody battle over Rindy. While the two are attracted to one another and share kisses, they don't officially become lovers until they talk about their pasts weaving elegant strands of their past hurt to find a real emotional connection with each other.
Their initially secret relationship consisting of "lunches between friends" and understated calls over the phone eventually becomes forced open. Richard thinks that it's just a fling and that Therese will come back to him. Carol's friend and possibly former lover, Abby warns Therese to stay away from Carol. Carol's maid is put on Harge's payroll to spy on the two women. Harge speeds up the divorce proceedings and sues for custody of Rindy. With all of the stress and the lack of acceptance from their peers and wanting some alone time, Carol and Therese decide to take a road trip through the U.S.
The Road Trip features some of the best passages as the Midwest becomes an almost Fairy Land for the two women.
They go to a circus and sit on boxes like small children. They meet with mostly friendly people who offer assistance and their love is strengthened underneath the various natural landscapes. Unfortunately, one person makes Carol and Therese's vacation short of Paradise: a private detective hired by Harge to blackmail Carol into surrendering custody of Rindy.
Carol is forced to return to New York while Therese remains in South Dakota working as a receptionist at a lumber mill and turning date requests from old and new friends (the book's slowest moments. However they do establish Therese as a self-sufficient independent woman.) When Therese returns to New York to see a thinner, saddened more sickly Carol, Carol admits that a sacrifice had to be made., albeit an unfair one. Their final dialogue shows that sometimes in the course of love one must be willing to make a sacrifice to be loved and happy especially in a society that wasn't ready for such love.
5. "Jumping Off The Planet" by David Gerrold (1997)- This wonderful Science Fiction/Family Drama came to life as a Novella for Science Fiction Age Magazine. Then it was expanded into a trilogy novel series called The Dingilliad, which expanded on many of the concepts but lacked the simplicity and coherence of the original novella.
The plot is deceptively simple: three brothers take a vacation with their divorced father up a large futuristic elevator from Earth into space. But the real heart of the story lies in the relationship between the eldest brother, Douglas Dingillian and his lover, Mickey Partridge.
The future world that Gerrolld describes is fascinating, particularly the Elevator AKA The Line. It is seen as the ultimate vacation fantasy (a luxury trip to space and then a private ship to the moon- all this was written before the privately donated space flights.) But it is also shown to be an escape from an earth filled with poverty, environmental disasters, and war. One of the scariest passages happens when one character describes the drastic measures that Line officials would consider in the event of war: Breaking the cables off on Earth and letting the Line pull itself off Earth together. (Thereby affecting Earth at the equator where the Line is connected.) These measures reveal the depth of a planet on the verge of destruction and makes it understandable why the Dingillians choose to leave it.
The novella is narrated by the middle child, 13-year-old, Charles with all the sarcasm and rebellion of a 13-year-old. (He constantly refers to his brothers, Douglas and Bobby as "Weird" and "Stinky" respectively.) We get a young teenage perspective of this future world that he is just barely beginning to understand. He is also caught between his combative parents: his shrill abusive mother who kept using legal loopholes to keep custody of her sons and his passive-aggressive father who has ulterior motives for the family vacation including kidnapping and industrial theft.
Despite the hatred on Earth and between his parents, Charles sees real love and tenderness, that exists between his brother and Mickey. By far the most interesting character in the story, 17-year-old Douglas Dingillian starts as a socially awkward nerd who quotes statistics about corporations, metallurgy, and gravity to the confusion and irritation of his brother. He spends most of his time in cyberspace. (The novel further explains that he "sells technology to the technologically illiterate".) But he is a character who is not without depth or understanding. He is the first to suspect his father's motives for the vacation. He is peacemaker during fights between Charles and their youngest brother, 8 year old Bobby. In one scene Charles has a near breakdown and panic attack, Douglas cares for him like a loving parent would.
Mickey is also a well-written character who takes a liking to Douglas and vice versa. A cabin attendant for the Line, Mickey initially befriends the family just on the basis of his job. However after he and Douglas have sex (or as Douglas describes it:"(He) just joined the Elevator Club")and Mickey is removed from his job "for getting involved" Mickey volunteers to aid the family anyway. He requests help from his attorney mother and judge aunt to help the Dingillians. He and a friend navigate them through the Line's interior system to evade security., after security is notified of their father's theft. After Douglas argues with his father about the abuse and deception that the brothers suffered at the hands of both parents, Mickey provides a shoulder to cry on and a lap to sit on.
In the end the family is dragged into court over custody of the brothers, Douglas and Mickey are proven to be the ideal parents for Charles and Bobby. When Douglas is declared a legal adult and granted custody over his younger brothers (after the wise judge sees both parent's true characters: Mom as a harpy and Dad as a crook.), Mickey willingly accepts co-responsibility. With Douglas and Mickey, Charles finally sees real love and possibly a stable family.
4. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg (1987)- While the 1991 film adaptation is beautiful, moving, and is filled with great performances including Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Mary Louise Parker, it pales in comparison to Fannie Flagg's original novel, because the movie tap dances what the book is not afraid to say aloud: Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison are a lesbian couple and a very sweet devoted loving couple at that.
Idgie is a true original character. She is like a female Huckleberry Finn, wandering the woods in men's clothes, riding trains from one section of the South to the other, getting honeycomb straight from the hive surrounded by bees, and is a charter member of the Dill Pickle Club, a group of yarn spinners and tall tale tellers. She is bound to be wild and unattached until she meets Ruth Jamison. Ruth couldn't be more different than Idgie, a quiet, proper lady who teaches Sunday School and leads youth church activities. From the time they meet in the summer of 1924, they are inseparable until Ruth begins to feel a stirring that she feels is wrong and unnatural. She then leaves for Valdosta, Georgia and throws herself into a marriage with Frank Bennett, who is far from the ideal man.
It doesn't take long for Ruth to realize that Frank is a philanderer with several illegitimate Little Frank Jr.s and Frankies running around not to mention a wife batterer and a Ku Klux Klan member. With the help of Idgie, Idgie's brother, and their servant Big George, a pregnant Ruth manages to leave Frank and settle in Idgie's home of Whistle Stop, Alabama.
Idgie and Ruth open the titular cafe with the house specialty fried green tomatoes. They raise a lot of eyebrows by serving transients for free and seating African-American patrons with whites. They are also very kind to people with mental disabilities, such as Albert, the son of Ninny, the narrator.
Surprisingly despite the time period, the '20s-'50s and the setting in the Bible Belt South, Idgie and Ruth's relationship is not a cause for controversy for the town. They accept it as they would any other relationship. Ninny and the gossipy news writer, Dot Weems refer to Ruth's son, Buddy Jr., as " Ruth and Idgie's boy." Many are on hand to offer marital advice such as when Idgie comes home drunk and their friend, Sipsy reminds her "that Ruth already left one no-account don't make her leave another." This town acceptance of Idgie and Ruth's relationship shows how connected the two are to the town and moves the characters beyond stereotypes into real understanding people.
3. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (2000)- When Joseph Kavalier and his cousin, Sammy Clay the protagonists of Michael Chabon's amazing Pulitzer Prize winning novel, create their famous comic book character, The Escapist in 1938, they little realize how much of an impact the character will have on the comic book world or how much he will become a metaphor for their lives.
For Joe, the character becomes a symbol of liberation and escape, particularly for his family who reside in Nazi-occupied, Prague. For Sammy, The Escapist becomes the strongest source of wish fulfillment, a strong masculine figure who though is disguised is unafraid to be himself. It is Sammy's connection to the character and his own life that is the focus of this review.
As a teenager, Sammy is unable to express his feelings for other boys, such as the erotic twinge that he feels upon encountering his cousin for the first time. It is only after the cousins create The Escapist, that Sammy feels free to explore his sexuality. While Joe pursues a romance with the lovely Surrealist artist, Rosa Sacks, Sammy becomes involved with Tracy Bacon, the charming radio actor who supplies the voice of the Escapist. The two men enjoy a few romantic nights out attending parties, visiting the World's Fairgrounds, and having a night out on a lookout tower while Sammy is on duty spotting for unusual aircraft. Things are about to go well until a police raid frightens Sammy away from moving to California with Tracy and untoward circumstances force him into a life of marriage and suburban respectability.
The Reader feels the ennui of the characters as they settle themselves into suburbia and a comfortable benign life. Sammy in particular tries to put his comic book past and homosexual affairs behind him. Though he edits the comics, he considers them "trash." While he is involved in the life of his adopted son, he thinks that he is indifferent to him and simply friends and colleagues with his wife. He is disconnected and disillusioned to his past until he is called to be a witness for the Kefauver Senate Hearings.
The Kefauver Senate Hearings in 1953 tried to use comic books as a cause for juvenile delinquency. When Sammy is called to testify to defend his characters and their male sidekicks(which he is aware are not meant to be lovers or pedophiles but are stand ins for loving father and son relationships which Sammy did not have.) , Sammy realizes that unlike his crime fighting character, he cannot escape or hide behind a disguise. He has to find the heroism to be himself.
2. The Color Purple by Alice Walker(1982)- Alice Walker's moving Pulitzer Prize winning novel tells the tale of two very unlikely women, the wife and mistress of one man who find love and comfort in each other's arms.
Celie, in particular needs someone to love and hold her. Impregnated twice by a man she believes to be her father and separated from her sister Nettie, her only loving relative, Celie is practically sold as a child in marriage to Mr.-, a cruel abusive man. Mr.-, his children, and associates ridicule Celie as a timid mouse and morsel. Mr.- beats her to force her to "mind." He openly flaunts his mistress, Shug Avery, in front of Celie and when Shug becomes ill, Mr.- practically forces Celie to care for her.
Shug Avery is a fascinating character to Celie and the Reader. Shug is a strong-willed bawdy blues singer who dresses in furs and jewels. At first Celie is intimidated by Shug and Shug thinks Celie is "as ugly as sin." The two women slowly become friends and then lovers after they start sharing a bed.
Shug proves to be a great influence on Celie. She encourages her to stand up for herself against Mr.- in little ways like calling him Albert, his given name. Shug helps the younger woman locate letters that Mr.- hid from Celie detailing Nettie's life in Africa. When Celie begins to doubt God's existence, Shug offers her own philosophy of God "whoever he or she might be."
The greatest gift that Shug gives Celie is the courage to leave Mr.- which she does in the book's best passage when Celie curses him with the hurt he gave her all those years. She and Shug leave for Tennessee where Shug sings with a band and Celie makes a good business designing women's work pants.
1. Maurice by E.M. Forster (1971)- On his deathbed, E.M. Forster left the complete manuscript of his final novel originally written in 1915, , Maurice with a note that said, "Publishable, but is it worth it?" Well, the short answer is, "Yes." The long answer is that this is a beautiful story about a young Englishman coming to terms with his sexuality in repressive Edwardian England and challenging expectations by daring to have a happy ending.
Maurice Hall, a confused snobbish Cambridge student befriends Clive Durham, a handsome freethinking gentleman who talks about Plato and religious philosophies. The duo's friendship evolves to near physical touch until one night when Clive unguardedly confesses that he loves Maurice. Bewildered at first believing this declaration to be "rubbish", Maurice leaves his friend with a kiss and a return of his affection.
Maurice and Clive's relationship becomes merely Platonic, involving sharing of words and ideas and very little else. Just as abruptly as it began, Clive's relationship with Maurice cools, the one weak spot in the book. (The equally well-done Merchant-Ivory 1987 film gives a further reason for Clive's rejection of Maurice: the arrest and disgrace of a friend for sodomy giving more understanding to Clive's decision and also more admiration for Maurice's later actions.)
Clive settles into public life and politics on his country estate and married life with dizzy heiress, Anne Woods. Maurice is devastated and seeks help from others( His family doctor tells him not to let the thought enter his head. A hypnotist urges him to adopt manly poses:. "Stroll around with a gun.") It is not until Maurice falls in love with and sleeps with the assistant gamekeeper, Alec Scudder that Maurice becomes awakened to the idea of true love.
Some of the best passages are Maurice and Alec's time together particularly when Maurice tries to convince Alec to remain with him instead of moving to Argentina like he initially planned. Their reunion, plus the conversation Maurice has with Clive where he can't " hang his whole life on the five minutes (Clive) can spare on ( Maurice) between Anne and politics."is the stuff of good romance.
There have been criticism over the years whether Maurice and Alec's would have a chance of being happy ever after. In his review of the film, Roger Ebert's wrote "in a few weeks or months the British class system would have driven them apart." Forster wrote that when he showed his book to friends, some gave them six months at most. There are two reasons to dismiss the naysayers. 1)Forster believed there should be a happy ending. In his afterward, Forster wrote "I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows, and in this sense Maurice and Alec's still roam the Greenwood." 2) Maurice Hall and Alec Scudder were based on a real-life couple, friends of Forster's. Edward Carpenter, a writer and philosopher and George Merrill, a working class man, lived together as a loving, for all intents and purposes, married couple for over 30 years. Sometimes truth can go hand in hand with fiction
Non-fiction
10. On Being Different: What it Means To Be Homosexual by Merle Miller (1971; Introduction and Afterword: 2012)-
Miller's essay, On Being Different, bears the unique distinction of being topical when it was first published and when it was republished.
Miller wrote this essay in 1971, two years after the Stonewall Riots in which police raided a gay bar in Stonewall Inn. Instead of accepting their arrests, the patrons fought back against the police. This act of courage helped spark the modern LGBT movement and inspired Miller to come out of the closet and write this essay.
While Miller was proud that homosexuals were finally making their voices heard, the reason for this essay was for more personal reasons: He was tired of the jokes, the. comments that people made behind his back and to his face, and the swishy stereotypes shown on television and movies. One particular incident stands out: A former friend refused to let his sixteen-year-old visit Miller anymore because he was afraid Miller would molest his son. "I have never molested a child" Miller wrote.".... Neither have any of my homosexual friends Certainly not in my living room or bedroom. Moreover I have known quite a few homosexuals, and I have listened to a great many accounts of how they got that way or think they got that way. I have never heard anybody say that he (or she) got to be homosexual because of seduction."
While the first half of the essay is mostly dark discussing Miller's difficulties with society's perception of homosexuality, but carries a ray of Hope because of the burgeoning Gay Liberation Movement, the second half of Miller's essay is more hopeful dealing with Miller's sudden fame and notoriety after the original publication of the "On Being Different" essay in The New York Times Magazine. He wrote about his friendships with his former wife who became one of his strongest supporters. He publicly supported the Gay Activists Alliance considering "(his) friends, brothers, and sisters," After another writer posted an article favoring "genocide for queers." Miller spoke out against him in public saying that he was "sick and tired of reading and hearing such goddamn demeaning, degrading b*@##$t about me and my friends." His essay also allowed Miller to help other people come out particularly one he talked out of suicide. For Miller it also meant he could let them know who he really was, and what comments bothered him and that he was happy being himself.
9. Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble Rouser by Rita Mae Brown (1997)- Rita Mae Brown is known to some as an outspoken author of lesbian fiction like Rubyfruit Jungle. Others know her as the author of genteel Southern cozy mysteries like the Mrs. Murphy Series. In her autobiography, Brown combines both aspects of her writing personality: the genteel Southern lady and the outspoken lesbian activist.
The Southern writer aspects emerge when Brown writes of her birth to a young unwed mother and adoption by Juts and Ralph Brown. Brown makes the adults in her life memorable particularly her mother and her Aunt Mimi. Two sisters, Juts and Mimi seem to have argued since birth: One's a Catholic, the other's Lutheran, one's a Democrat, the other's a Republican, one's given to outbursts, the other to cold looks. It seemed that if there were a blank piece of paper on the ground, the two women would have argued over it. The arguments annoyed and amused Brown but helped shape her as a strong independent woman.
Brown's Southern gentility writing also shows when Brown writes of her relationship with animals. Her companion from her college days to middle age is her cat, Baby Jesus. (In one humorous incident, Baby Jesus escaped from her mistress at Sak's only to be found in a leather aisle and was rewarded with her own card marked B.J. Brown.) Brown had other cats such as her Mrs. Murphy Series co-author, Sneaky Pie who gets as much fan mail as Brown does. (Brown was miffed that Sneaky Pie thought of Brown as her secretary.)
The lesbian activism side of Brown comes through when describing her involvement with NOW and it's founder, Betty Friedan. Brown and several lesbians joined the group and Friedan fearful of their involvement in the group called them the "lavender menace." Incensed Brown and the others defected to form a separate group. Brown also founded the Furies Collective, a group which raised consciousness on lesbian issues until Brown's combative behavior forced her removal. Brown then decided to make her lesbianism known best through her writing such as her land mark novel, Rubyfruit Jungle.
Brown also writes of her relationship with other women, such as Fannie Flagg who was too fearful of pursuing an open lesbian relationship ending hers and Brown's. Then there's a messy triangle between Brown, and Tennis great Martina Navatrialova and her then lover, Judy Norton which resulted in gun shots, jealous tantrums, and an infamous lawsuit resulting that gay and lesbian lovers can sue exes for palimony. After the dust settled, Brown found love with a sweet woman who loved animals as much as she does. Still Brown writes in the final chapters that she wants to continue writing showing there's a lot of Rabble rousing left in this genteel Southern lesbian activist.
8. Transition: The Story of How I Became A Man by Chazz Bono (2011)- As the only child of mega-stars Sonny and Cher, Chaz Bono was never comfortable under the spotlight partly because he never felt comfortable in his skin. When he was younger, every time he looked in the mirror at his then female body, he would see a stranger. "Despite my breasts, my curves, and my female genitalia, inside I identified as a man," Bono writes. "This meant of course that I was transgender, literally a man living in n a woman's body. I have always felt more comfortable wearing boy's and men's clothes. Without a doubt, as a child I thought of myself as a boy. But the process of coming to terms with the reality that I am in fact transgender was horrific. It upended my entire life."
It is this journey of transitioning from female to male that is the focus of this touching book. Even as a child with the name of Chastity, Bono knew he was different from female children. As a child, he preferred to play sports and rough games with a boy, Ricky rather than other girls. He was caught between his father encouraged his boyishness and called him "Fred" and his mother, who wanted Bono to dress more feminine and have girlfriends. This division lasted throughout Bono 's life.
As Bono matured, he thought the confusion was sexual, so for a time believed he was a lesbian. "I had skipped over the gender piece of the puzzle," Bono realized recalling the many times in lesbian relationships when he played the male role with women. Bono 's writing illustrates the confusion young Transgenders often feel when they experience the difference between their sexuality and their gender identity. He also writes the extreme pain he felt during puberty during the menstrual cycle and that breasts were an invasion on his body. This shows the physical discomfort those with gender dysphoria feel with their bodies, that it goes beyond a girl liking to play with trucks or a boy playing with dolls. Transitioning to another gender is much deeper than that, it is complete physical and psychological discomfort with the gender one is born with and complete happiness in the opposite gender or in being genderless in some cases.
Bono describes his lesbian relationships many of them unhappy such as Heidi with whom he formed a short-lived pop/rock band, Celebration. Managers wanted the two to hide to hide their relationship and Heidi willingly acquiesced to sexual favors with their manager leading to their break up. Bono had a much happier romance with Joan, an older female friend of his mother's. The two remained intimate until Joan's death in 1994 of cancer. Bono realized being a lesbian but was unfulfilling and that he was still threatened by his body. To numb his pain and confusion, Bono turned to drugs and alcohol.
At the age of 31, Bono began to realize that he was a man in a woman's body. After intense therapy and recovering from the drug and alcohol abuse, Bono began the transition. He found dissension in some of the most unlikely places. His then girlfriend broke up with him saying, " I don't mind that you're Butch, but I can't be with a man." Surprisingly, Cher, his mother (long considered a gay icon) was extremely uncomfortable with Boon's transition and spent a long time freezing him out. (They have since reconciled.)
However, Bono also felt support. Members of the gay community spoke out in favor of his transition. The Bono side of the family all stood by him, even though the majority were Republicans. "I don't mean to offend anyone; my point is that those of us who are politically active often demonize individuals of the opposing party instead of understanding that we are all just people," said Bono, a life-long Democrat.(Unfortunately, Bono began the transition after Sonny's death in 1998, so he never learned what his father would have thought, but hopes he would have understood.) Bono also found love with Jenny, an understanding and supportive fellow recovering alcoholic.
Bono's book is a great example of a man struggling with the body in which he was born and journeying until he found the true person inside the body allowing him to come out.
There are two major themes in the stories. One theme is how only one-half of the couples gained fame while the other supported being the proverbial "wind beneath the wings." Many Readers won't forget the story of Peter Doyle who besides being Walt Whitman's life partner also served as Whitman's secretary, inspiration for his poetry and nurse when the poet suffered a stroke. Another story of love and loyalty is that of Mary Rozet Smith who not only aided her lover Humanitarian, Jane Addams in her endeavors at running a home for immigrants, Hull House and fighting for global peace, but also had the unenviable task of taking care of her workaholic lover and make sure she didn't overexert herself.
Another theme is the lack of acknowledgement that the relationships receive from the media. The obituary of composer, Aaron Copland described him as "a lifelong bachelor" despite his over 30 year relationship with Victor Kraft. Neither the obituaries of Bryn Mawr's first female President, Martha Carey Thomas nor her companion, Mamie Gwinn referred to each other despite that Gwinn helped Thomas organize the college during her presidency.
Not all of the relationships are filled with sacrifice and life-long dedication. Some were as troubled as many heterosexual relationship. The romance between Greta Garbo and her lover, Mercedes De Acosta becomes doomed because of Garbo's desire for privacy and "vanting to be alone" vs. De Acosta's desire for attention including her 1960 book which revealed more than the actress liked. Tennessee Williams' outlaw marriage to Frank Merlo alternated between stability and Williams' fertile inspirations and periods of Williams' infidelity and alcoholism and drug addiction.
Above all, the book reveals relationships that are troubled and loving, unhappy and happy of people who created many things that were beautiful, lasting, and changed the world from ar, to literature, films, education, humanitarian services and other works. People who despite perception found love and happiness and deserved to be recognized just as much as any heterosexual couple.
6. It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living Edited by Dan Savage and Terry Miller (2011)- Justin Asberg was a 15-year-old boy who came out of the closet at age 13. After two years of intense bullying, Justin killed himself in 2010. Billy Lucas, also 15 was perceived gay and was also bullied. In 2010, Billy hanged himself. The news of these suicides grieved Dan Savage. He was also angered that Christian parents blocked efforts to curb anti-gay bullying at Justin's school because they claimed it violated their children's "religious rights." Savage wrote a tribute to Justin and Billy on his blog and read a comment: "My heart breaks for the pain and torment you went through, Billy Lucas. I wish I could have told you that things get better."
Things get better. That simple phrase gave Savage the idea to create a video to let all LGBT kids out there to know that things would get better. The idea was so important that Savage was able to convince his normally publicity-shy husband, Terry Miller to take part in the video. That one video led to hundreds then thousands of videos in which people mostly LGBT adults spoke of their lives and offered words of encouragement to young bullied teens. This wonderful encouraging book is the companion to the It Gets Better Project (http://www.itgetsbetter.org) a website that digitizes, collects, and archives the videos so the videos and the words in this book provide hope to LGBT youth.
The narratives are from a variety of people from college students, to activists, to farmers, to business people to celebrities like Ellen De Generes and Sia. Even former President Barack Obama posted a video. (Savage stated that when Obama posted his video, Savage's computer crashed.) "We've got to dispel the myth that bullying is just a normal rite of passage-that it's some inevitable part of growing up. It's not," Obama said. "We have an obligation to ensure that our schools are safe for all of our kids. And to every young person out there, you need to know that if you're in trouble, there are caring adults who can help."
The stories are wonderful and uplifting. Not many will forget the story of marketing analyst/dancer, Bruce Ortiz who survived a suicide attempt to find support with his family and a loving relationship with "a wonderful partner." Also the story of British Lance Corporal James Wharton who after the ban was lifted in the UK on gay military personnel in 2000, Wharton was pleased. He came out in 2005, after having served in the British army for two years and as of his writing celebrated a civil union with his partner.
Some of the stories are funny. Krissy Mahan who is proud to live in a rural area and build chicken coops in upstate New York writes "Work hard and then go do something fun on Saturday night, like go look at girls....that's better." Author, Michael Cunningham recounts word for word the "typical guy talk" between himself and his friends as teenagers in which they casually threw out the word, "f$#@&t" making him reluctant to come out to his friends. After college and becoming a writer, Cunningham sent a copy of his book to the same friends. The friends greeted him with open arms and teasing such as asking if they could talk about women in front of him (they could) and if he thought one of the guys in the bar was cute. (he wasn't.) Mahan and Cunningham's accounts are among the many that find humor in the years when things get better.
Of course, there is no quick fix and things don't become 100 percent perfect. Author, Gabriella Rivera, wrote this in her account. "What happens is this: You get stronger. You realize what's going on, see how people are you see how the world is. And as an adult, you learn how to deal with it. You learn how to love yourself. You learn to just take it for what it is. You learn that other people are just crazy and are caught up in their own crap."
This book is not only useful for LGBT teens and adults. It's for anyone who reaches that moment where they are standing on a bridge, or looking at the barrel of a gun, or a handful of pills. It's a universal message that helps that person get past that thought and see beyond that moment so they can instead see and visualize a future where, yes, it does get better.
5. The Oldest Gay Couple in America: A 70-Year Journey Through Same-Sex America by Gean Harwood (1997)-Gean Harwood and Bruhs Mero had the kind of romantic partnership that most couples would long to have, gay or straight. Harwood's moving and beautiful memoir recounts his relationship with Mero from the day they met in 1929 through a mutual friend to Mero's death in 1995 from complications from Alzheimer's.
After they first met in 1929, the two did not instantly become lovers. While Harwood had previous relationships with men (including one in which he was raped by a sexually aggressive man), Mero had a girlfriend. The two roomed together and on New Year's Eve,1930 the two kissed and fell into each other. "There was no turning back now," Harwood wrote. "We were starting down a quick descent. There was no time to question my action-no thought of trying to stop. Somewhere along the steepening slope he must have felt any resistance melt, for he gave himself completely in total surrender to my passionate pursuit."
Harwood wrote of the struggles and triumphs the two shared over the years such as when Mero moved to Florida to work with his brother. The separation resulted in " Come and Take My Hand", lyrics by Mero and music by Harwood, the first of many beautiful songs the two wrote together that described their relationship. They were reunited in 1933 and the two explored musical pursuits, Mero began to study modern dance and began to dance professionally, sometimes with female partners. Harwood, who normally worked as a driver for Paramount Pictures, also accompanied Mero on the piano. (A running gag runs through the book that wherever the two moved, Harwood insisted on having a piano no matter the size of the apartment. It's an example of the cute running arguments couples often share which are often amusing, annoying, and endearing. Like a husband constantly quoting from a favorite movie to his wife's chagrin or a girlfriend babying her toy poodle to the embarrassment of her boyfriend.)
The happiest times the duo shared professionally were in the late '30's when the two opened The Dance Gallery, a dance studio and hosted The Nucleus Club, a small group of gay and lesbian lovers who could meet and be themselves without outside interference. (As soon as they left the apartment, men would have to leave alongside female friends so they wouldn't be stopped and questioned.)
Harwood also writes of his and Mero's political ideals including their commitment to pacifism especially their refusal to serve in the military in WWII even after Pearl Harbor. (Harwood wittily recounted their questioning by the local draft board which granted their 4F: Army Psychiatrist: Do you have any male friends? Harwood: Yes. A.P.: Have you had sexual relations with any of these men? H: Yes. A.P.: How recently? H: Last night.) Greatly inspired by Dalton Trump's anti-war novel, Johnny Got His Gun (also the inspiration for Metallica's song and music video, "One".), In 1941, Harwood and Mero created Awake and Speak, a musical about a disillusioned soldier that also included references to lynching of African-Americans and the violence of anti-Semitism. This plus their friendship with outspoken artists like actor, Canada Lee show Harwood and Mero's commitment to equal rights for everyone.
Their relationship was particularly tested in 1943, when Mero suffered a heart attack. While he recovered, Mero had to give up dancing. The two ended up closing the Dance Gallery and working in desk jobs. While they were as close as ever, Harwood described the many times when Mero would be depressed recalling dances that he used to do or would refuse to watch a dance performance because it reminded him of what he lost.
In the '80's, Harwood and Mero came out to friends, family, and the public. The results varied including Mero's niece and her husband who thought their union was "unnatural" to Mero's nephew, Richard who supported the two so much that he moved in with them becoming Harwood 's son and heir. Harwood and Mero's were interviewed by journalist, Arthur Bell and featured in a documentary about couples who had been together for 50+ years. The fame brought some comfort to Harwood allowing him to speak as a senior gay man and some much needed relief from nursing Mero who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1983. Harwood continued to nurse and care for his partner, visiting him in the Amsterdam House, nursing home until his death in 1995.
Harwood died in 2006, but his and Mero's love continues in this book and their songs and poems, one of which Harwood called Assignment For Today:" "We only have today/to nurture every needy soul/ to comfort the disconsolate/to give the fallen hope for their discouragement/ to embrace all men as brothers/for, in truth we are all one."
4. The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family by Dan Savage (2005)- When the subject of gay marriage comes up, many Conservatives that are against believe it will destroy the concept of a traditional family. Not so, argues Dan Savage the author of the funny and touching book, The Commitment. In fact Savage points to his family as an example of one. He works outside the the home albeit as a sex advice columnist while his boyfriend, Terry Miller, was a stay-at-home dad to their young son, D. J. They had everything to mark them as an ideal traditional family the type that many Conservatives dream except a marriage license and it is the journey to get married including the conflicting opinions that result from the issue that is the focus of this book.
At first Savage and Miller were non-committed even blase about the issue. Savage didn't want to jinx their relationship citing divorces such as that of his parents and all of the celebrity gay and lesbian couples who fought for the right to get married only to break up shortly thereafter (such as Ellen De Generes and Anne Heche and Rod and Bob Paris-Jackson who wrote a book about their civil union only to break up shortly after it was published.) Miller said that he "didn't want to act like straight people" but suggested that they get matching tattoos instead.
They also find conflicting opinions within their own family some in surprising places. Savage's Catholic mother is for their marriage sending various news articles about the benefits of marriage ( usually in envelopes with no return address. except "The Mad Clipper.") Their son. D. J. doesn't want them to get married. In some of the most humorous passages the 6-year-old explains his reasons in a child's circular logic such as: " Since you love each other and since you are my dads, you have to live together forever. Married people live together and you wouldn't be able to do that since you have to live with each other and be my dads forever and so you can't get married because then you would have to live with the girls you marry, and not with each other, which you couldn't do that because you're my dads and you have to live together forever because you're my dads." ( " The kid makes sense" Miller said after the boy's tirade.)
While dealing with his family's conflictimg opinions and his and Miller's wavering feelings about whether to get married or not, Savage explores the concept of marriage and relationships in general such as the various relationships within his family such as his grandparents'marriage comparing it to the hand painted topper from Germany on their wedding cake. ('fragile but something of value. something lasting. but with a little touch of fascism about it-but for the whole idea of marriage circa 1939.") He also compares his relationship with Miller with his brother's relationship with his live-in girlfriend, Kelly ("Mom's finally convinced I won't get married so she's given up on me. But you and Terry are getting it with both barrels because she's convinced you should be married and you' ve failed to convince her you shouldn't be.") Savage also looks at the changing tide of heterosexual and homosexual relationships in which young straight people engage in sexual encounters without commitment vs. homosexual couples who have been together many years and want to settle down considering it "borrowing lifestyles from each other."
He also looks with justifiable anger at the politicians during the Bush Administration who created legal battles against civil unions and religious speakers who blame homosexuality for everything even natural disasters. They wete quoted as saying the 2004 Earthquake/Tsunami was "God's wrath for allowing gay marriage." (" God may be all-knowing and all-powerful but He is it seems a lousy shot, the Mr. Magoo of higher powers" Savage writes "Same Sex couples get married in Boston, Toronto and San Francisco and a vengeful nearsighted God triggers an earthquake that slams a killer wave into Indonesia, Thailand, India, and Sri Lanka killing a quarter of a million people who weren't even invited to the wedding.")
Above all this book isn't about politics or religion, or even the changing definition of family, it's about love which Savage's mother reminds the two men in a speech. She tells them their relationship is everything a marriage should be about two people who love and trust each other and should get married because of that love. Ultimately it is that love that allows Savage to add two final chapters to the book in which he, Miller, and D.J. endure a long car ride into Canada, the obtainment of a marriage license in a drug store, and a last minute harried arrangement with a wedding planner to say "I do."
3. Fun Home:A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel- Among the most important details in Alison Bechdel's graphic novel is that the humans are drawn in very unrealistic ways. With large faces and eyes, the characters are drawn in an almost cartoon manner like characters in For Better or Worse or Family Circus. Like they are drawn to be a typical comic strip family or trying to act as one. It is only when the Reader peers inside and reads the story that they find the division within that the Bechdels have secrets that interfere with the image they are trying to portray as w happy loving family. The image that Bechdels opens and exposes of a father who committed suicide rather than reveal his homosexuality and a daughter coming to terms with his death and hidden private life as well as her own lesbianism.
Bruce Bechdel ran a funeral home which Bechdel describes almost as a museum of artifice. Everything had to be arranged just so and it had to be decorated to perfection. Many passages show Bechdels being yelled at by her father for breaking something or making too much noise or some other trivial issue. This care of maintaining a perfect facade carried over into his private life in that only after his death does Bechdel view the photographs and pictures her father saved of handsome young men and boys.
While Bechdel struggled to understand her father, she is aware of a language that the two shared: that of books. Both big readers, Bechdel decodes many of the mysteries of her father's life and her own by comparing them to her and Bruce's favorite works of literature. Bechdel compares her father to Jay Gatsby of F. Scott Fitzgerald' s The Great Gatsby with his desire to project a sophisticated outgoing heterosexual image while hiding secrets that he felt he couldn't express and coming to a bloody end because of them (though unlike Gatsby, his death is by his own hand.) Bechdel compares her mother to Isabel Archer protagonist of Henry James' novel Portrait of a Lady in her earlier free-spiritedness and wanting a to live a nonconformist lifestyle, but instead settling down to a seemingly respectable marriage and putting all her artistic talents into her home. Bechdel and her father also use books to understand their sexuality. While Bruce felt a deep connection to certain characters that he could never articulate or comprehend, his daughter uses books to identify and understand homosexuality and find lesbian characters to relate to and authors that remind her that she wasn't alone.
The most moving section is towards the end when Bechdel compares her decision to come out as a lesbian and the discovery of the true nature of her father's death with her dissertation of James Joyce's Ulysses and the epic poem, The Odyssey. While searching through these works Bechdel finds parallels in her journey in coming out of the closet thinking of it as Leopold Bloom and Odysseus coming home. She also finds a contrast with her father, forever lost at sea unable to truly come to terms with himself. That is when Bechdel realizes that she doesn't want to live as her father did always hiding her true self. It is when she comes out and lives openly that she finds her way home and is able to put the memories of her father to rest.
2. A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski (2011)- When people ask what is the earliest monumental moment GLBTQ history that they know of, some may say "The Identification of the AIDS Virus in 1981", " The Assassination of Harvey Milk in 1978", or 'The Stonewall Riot's in 1969". Some may go global and name " The Trial of Oscar Wilde." All of those are important dates and certainly monumental, but Michael Bronski's factual book, A Queer History of the United States considers those dates just a tip of the iceberg in GLBTQ history.
The book begins in early 17-18th Century. The book describes Native American tribes that had "third sex" figures, men and women who dressed as members of the opposite sex and performed the responsibilities of that sex with acceptance from the other tribe members. This conflicted with the Puritan ideal which forbade any deviations from sexual norms. However many Puritans violated those laws and we're arrested or fined. However, Thomas Morton founded Merrymount which encouraged interracial marriage, open relationships, and homosexuality.
The book describes women like Jemima Wilkinson, an Evangelist who dressed in gender neutral clothes, refused to use the pronouns "she" or "he", and preached sexual abstinence. There are also stories of all male pairings in the Old West that go beyond friendship and "Boston Marriages" in which women live together as a married couple. (Humanitarian and Hull House founder, Jane Addams was in such an arrangement.) These examples show how early Homosexuality and Transsexuality was understood in the early centuries of American history.
The 19th and 20th Centuries reveal various known and some unknown people who fit in the GLBTQ spectrum. Poet Walt Whitman wrote honestly of his love for men, particularly in his poem, Leaves of Grass. One poem "Song of Myself" speaks of an erotic love for a man. There are some who theorize that Emily Dickenson's most sensual poems are for her sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert. Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt had a loving relationship with her husband, but she was also romantically involved with journalist, Lorena Hickock. There is also much discussion about Marlene Dietrich's attraction for men and women and her penchant for wearing men's clothing even when not filming.
Knowing that many writers, performers, and other noted people were also GLBTQ helps readers especially younger readers know they are not alone that there are others like them.
Of course with the stories of acceptance, there are also stories of prejudice such as the Lavender Scare which coincided with the Red Scare of the 1950s in which government employees were fired even if there was even suspicion of homosexuality. There are also stories of gay club raids and threats to diagnose homosexuals as mentally ill. It took until 1973 for the APA to remove homosexuality from the mental illness lists. With the prejudice come those that challenges for GLBTQ groups to be formed and organized, to fight for civil rights, the rights to be married, and to be accepted. This book shows where the GLBTQ community came from and where they are going.
1. And The Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts (1987)-As many know AIDS does not only affect members of the gay community, it affects everyone. However it was first identified within gay men in 1981 and unfairly, they have been tarnished with the disease ever since. Randy Shilts' groundbreaking book peels open the early years when AIDS was first identified. The book becomes not a comedy but a Tragedy of Fatal Errors and Missteps when public ignorance, scientific arrogance, and denial from the Reagan Administration created a perfect storm of an incurable epidemic.
During the early years, there was little progress made to identify or contain the disease let alone cure it. Shilts wrote of various attempts from individuals to receive funding, but being turned down and the CDC fighting a disease that they know little about. Arrogance is abound from various immunologists and retrovirologists, such as Dr. Robert Gallo who care more about getting their names heard than helping sick people. Because of the backbiting and arrogance, it takes many years for the HIV virus to be identified.
The book also finds blame in the Reagan Administration and from the Religious Right who tasted political power on behalf of the Conservative government. Reagan never referred to AIDS in any of his speeches until 7 years into his Presidency and offered very little support to services that tried to help AIDS patients. Many Christian leaders like Jerry Falwell and Anita Bryant felt that AIDS was punishment from God and that the gay men brought it on themselves.
Shilts also points at the media giving the disease very little attention referring to people who died from it as "from unknown circumstances" or "possibly cancer." By comparison the Tylenol Scare of 1982 which killed 7 people received one article everyday from the New York Times through the month of October of that year. It is only after heterosexuals and actor Rock Hudson ( who was believed to be heterosexual through most of his lifetime.) succumbed that the Media began printing articles on the disease that had been in existence for over five years prior and had already affected over thousands of lives.
The book also found blame within the gay communities. Many were in denial that they had the disease wanting to go on with their lives having sex with multiple partners. Many members of the gay leaders such as Bill Kraus wanted the bathhouses to close so casual sex could be avoided and many fought to keep them open calling Kraus "a sex Nazi." Then there's Gaetan Dugas, a French-Canadian flight attendant who was rumored to be "Patient Zero," the person who may have brought the AIDS virus to North America. ( More recent findings since the book's publication dispute Dugas' role in spreading the virus.) Dugas is portrayed as a sociopath who not only is aware he has a dangerous virus but eerily displays his lesions to future conquests saying, "I'm going to die and so are you."
Besides the rage, fear, and sadness And The Band Played On is filled with stories of warmth and compassion. There is the story of San Francisco grandmother, Frances Borchelt who was lovingly cared for by her husband and family. Matt Krieger who wrote in his journal about his tender nursing towards his lover, Gary Walsh and his caregiver fatigue in caring for him. There is also the moving story of Cleve Jones who exhausted from fighting his gay colleagues, the media's lack of attention, and the HIV virus itself became an alcoholic. He recovered from his alcoholism and created what is unquestionably the symbol of AIDS, The Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Honorable Mention
Fiction: The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall, The Martian Child by David Gerrold, Oranges are Not The Only Fruit by Jeannette Winterson, "Death in Venice" by Thomas Mann, Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Non-Fiction: A Liar's Autobiography Vol
VI by Graham Chapman, Sister Outsider, by Audre Lorde, The Naked Civil Servant by Quentin Crisp, Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein, The Kid: What Happened When My Boyfriend and I Decided to Get Pregnant by Dan Savage
Children's Books: Daddy's Roommate by Michael Wilhoite, Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman, King and King by Linda De Haan and Stern Nijland, LGBT Legends Series by Various
YA: Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden Hero by Perry Moore, The Geography Club by Brent Hartinger
Plays: Bent by Martin Sherman, Torch Song Trilogy by Harvey Fierstein, The Sum of Us by David Stevens, The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellman, La Cage Aux Folles by Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Herrman, Rent by Jonathan Larson, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams
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