YA*LIT TRACK, LGBT PANEL - recs, discussion

[rm]

Hello folks from the LGBT YA*Lit Panel!

I'm still running around with too much programming, but I wanted to make this placeholder post. I will edit it soon to add in some of the books we talked about in the panel last night.

Meanwhile, if you all, or my other regular readers, want to make book recs, please do in the comments.

Things we are specifically looking for, based on last night's conversation:

- YA books with queer main characters that aren't issue books
- YA books with with queer characters in the background that help round out the world
- YA books that allow queer characters to have straight same-gender friends, as opposed to the usual trope of gay guy's best friend is a chick or lesbian's best friend is some dude.
- YA books that have trans characters
- YA books that have asexual characters, or barring that, YA books that would be appealing to YA readers interested in asexual identities
- YA books that might be appealing to young men in the military who may be uncomfortable with the coming repeal of DADT.
- YA books that may address other aspects of sexual identity such as BDSM-interest or polyamory
- Suggestions on how to combat challenges to LGBT-themed YA books in libraries and schools
- Suggestions for how to let publishers know we want more YA books with LGBT content

Did I miss anything?

Comments

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

YA books - Warchild and the others of the series by Karin Lowachee. I highly recommend them.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Awesome. Can you tell us which of those categories I listed it suits?

[neifile7.livejournal.com]

I took notes on the titles mentioned -- will add here later if needed. (Working nao.)

[yamx]

I don't have any recs, I just wanted to thank you for realizing asexuals exist.

[rm.livejournal.com]

No problem!

I actually got schooled on this the first time I was on this panel three years ago, so I make sure to bring it up every year, although this year the audience got to it way before I had a chance. It definitely seems to be the thing way more people are being out about of late.

[macadamanaity.livejournal.com]

- YA books with with queer characters in the background that help round out the world

It's the teensiest bit subtextual, but as subtle as a brick to the head-- The So You Want to Be a Wizard series has the wizarding mentors, Tom and Carl,to Our Heroes, Nita, Darine and Kit.

They live together and they are "two tall, good looking men, one with a mustache, one without; Carl a native New Yorker and Tom an unrepentant Californian. They had all the things their neighbors had -- mortgages and phone bills and pets and occasional fights. They mowed the lawn and went to work like everyone else (at least Carl did; Tom worked at home)."

Later one is talking to one of the young wizards about being 'out' (as a Wizard): "Being out in the open," Tom said, "causes even more problems than 'passing'... as you'll have noticed. But the truth works best."

[evil_plotbunny]

I'm pretty sure Tom/Carl has been acknowledged in the text in the last few books.

[spiderine.livejournal.com]

WTF is BGSM?

[rm.livejournal.com]

A typo that has now been fixed.

[evil_plotbunny]

A list I posted in January. Not complete, but it's a good place to start. I know we've received more since then, but I couldn't tell you what until I get to work on Tuesday. Except for Very LeFreak by Rachel Cohn, which has a girl comfortable in her bisexuality.

The interesting trend I'm seeing this year is "issue" books involving queer content where being queer is not the issue. (Very LeFreak is ostensibly about technology addiction, Rage by Julie Anne Peters is about an abusive relationship).

[marita-c.livejournal.com]

"Evil?" By Timothy Carter.

See reviews here:
http://www.linussblanket.com/evil-timothy-carter/

and here:
http://dreaminginbooks.blogspot.com/2010/08/review-evil-by-timothy-carter.html

[i-am-schizo.livejournal.com]

YA books with queer main characters that aren't issue books

Emily Horner's A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend perhaps, which I wouldn't call an "issue book" even though at least one of the characters has had issues with being gay in the past. The main character not so much though. It certainly is worth a read, though it could have been better IMHO.

[weirdquark]

The GLBT Round Table for the American Library Association has complied a list of resources here which includes bibliographies for children and young adults. They have some subject categories including trans -- I haven't downloaded the pdf, so I don't know if it has any YA lit or if it's more non-fiction resource-y.

They also have resources for libraries -- nothing is technically about combating challenges to GLBT-themed books in schools, but having taken a class on intellectual freedom issues in libraries, what libraries are supposed to do with challenges is to consult their collection policy. Libraries are supposed to serve their community, and their collection policy is supposed to reflect the needs of the community. (And this is how a library, having gotten a challenge about Madonna's Sex, consulted their policies, saw that they were supposed to order a new copy for every ten people on their waiting list, and promptly ordered several more. And that was it for that challenge.) So if the library is being good about following the ALA code of ethics and has a collection policy with a commitment to building a collection with GLBT books, that is how to combat challenges.

The Rainbow Project is to promote books for young readers that reflect gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender/questioning experiences. The GLBT Round Table puts out a list (jointly with the Social Responsibilities Round Table) every year, and they welcome suggestions.

The Stonewall Book Awards is not specifically for young adults, but they have a YA section.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Tamora Pierce's Tortall-universe books get more and more queer-friendly as the books continue.

There are definitely gay characters in the supporting cast as early as the Daine books. No kind of deal is made of characters' sexuality.

Also, there's enough shapeshifting and cross-dressing along the way that it becomes less and less of an issue.

ETA: Also, same author...

I haven't read the Circle of Magic series, but I've heard there are both queer and asexual characters in it.

[puella-nerdii.livejournal.com]

Queer, yes -- one of the girls comes out as a lesbian in The Will of the Empress, and it's handled very well, I think. (Will of the Empress also confirms that two of the quartet's teachers in the earlier Circle of Magic books are a couple. Before that, the nature of their relationship was implied quite strongly but wasn't stated outright, probably because the earlier books were published at a time when that wouldn't have gone over well.) You can definitely read Tris as asexual, though I don't think it's confirmed in canon. Her general disinterest in sex or romance of any sort is notable, though, especially since the other three all have romantic/sexual subplots of some kind in that book.

The second book of the Beka Cooper trilogy, Bloodhound, features a trans character prominently in the supporting cast.

...so yeah, Tamora Pierce is awesome for the kinds of books you're talking about.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

YA books with queer main characters that aren't issue books

The book that IMHO should be on every such list is E.L. Konigsburg's The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World. Both the main young character and several of the adult characters are IMHO clearly gay, but it's not stated explicitly. I am very sure, though, that Konigsburg intended it: that she deliberately wrote a book where young gay people could see someone like themselves, while keep it below the radar of the disappoving.

[firefly124.livejournal.com]

Awesome wish list. I wish I had something to rec, but I look forward to seeing what others do.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

I really like EF Benson's David Blaize, though I don't know that it would count as a "YA" book due to having been written so long before the term was coined. (1916). It is a really charming "romantic friendship" story, not an issue book, and while it reflects the attitudes of its day it does so in a very low-key way while celebrating the love between the two main characters.

What's fascinating to me is how positive the reviews were when it was first published.

[rhiannonstone.livejournal.com]

YA books that may address other aspects of sexual identity such as BDSM-interest or polyamory

I don't have a recommendation, but now I am inspired. :)

[marieoroumania.livejournal.com]

I deleted because I think I am missing the point. Do you mean sci-fi/fantasy books with queer subtext or...?

And ca you define "issue books?"

[rm.livejournal.com]

It means a book where the essential conflict is about homosexuality - I.e., the protagonist learns to accept they are gay, or comes out to their parents or has to deal with bullying, as opposed to a book where a gay character has adventures that are not centered around dealing with the problems of gayneSs.

[only-sound.livejournal.com]

The Order of the Poison Oak (Brent Hartinger) is a sequel to an issue book but is, itself, about summer camp.

Also - http://believermag.com/issues/201009/?read=interview_nagle - this is an interview with the Resident Anthropologist at the NYC dept of sanitation. It's kind of fascinating, it's focus on what real and transitory and permanent seems right up your alley.

[teaotter.livejournal.com]

YA books that have asexual characters

Not as the main character, but as an important one: Guardian of the Dead, by Karen Healey.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Awesome, that one came up in the discussion last night I think, and sounds super interesting.

[luke-jaywalker.livejournal.com]

By asexual: "It is specifically mentioned that this main character is not interested in sex", or just "the main character does not, in the course of the story, have a love interest"?

Superficially, I'm not sure how you'd tell, in the latter, whether it was "the character is asexual" or just "the writer did not see fit to give them a sexual/romantic interest - the focus is on defeating antagonist, and anything else gets in the way."

Oh, and "Coming repeal of DADT"? You're far more optimistic than I am.

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

- YA books with queer main characters that aren't issue books
"Vintage" by Steve Berman
"Ash" by Malinda Loh
"One for Sorrow" by Christopher Barzak

- YA books with with queer characters in the background that help round out the world -
- YA books that allow queer characters to have straight same-gender friends, as opposed to the usual trope of gay guy's best friend is a chick or lesbian's best friend is some dude.
"Tithe" by Holly Black

Most things by Francesca Lia Block move about through these categories
"Liar" by Justine Larbalestier - not sure where to put this one.

Plus, a review site with lots of current reviews of a range of queer ya - http://daisyporter.org/queerya/?cat=39

[methleigh.livejournal.com]

The Enid Blyton Famous Five series has George (once Georgina) an FTM child who lives mostly as a boy. This is a main character, but there is also Jo, also FTM, but more of a background character who looks enough like George that they are often mistaken for one another. These are books from the 30s and Jo is Romany, so there is some 30s-style stereotyping in that regard. These books are scheduled to be rewritten within the next year, long after the author's death, so I fear they will change the FTM content to be more 'wholesome.'

The Chalet School books, a British Boarding School series, written from 1924 to 1962 has several FTM characters which are occasionally the main characters in the books. There are 65 books and the main characters are different in each one. The books cover about a half a year per book, so the girls come and go. At different times there are FTM characters called Jack and Bill, respectively. I believe the series ends before Jack graduates, but Bill ends up training inner city children in woodworking and crafts under the auspices of a church program. Jack knows of Bill and finds comfort and inspiration from him, and neither is ever treated poorly for their differences, rather character is the focus of the books. There is also Simone, a lesbian character who loves another girl passionately, though she grows up to marry and have children as does the girl she loves. Again, these books are products of another time and though not all the characters are privileged, they are all caucasian.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

While there's much for FTMs to find to identify with in Enid Blyton's George/Bill/Jo, etc, there's also much that butch women, gay women, and perfectly cisgendered female tomboys could find to identify with too. All of them are presented as female characters and referred to by female pronouns, so I think it's a little hasty to declare them all to be FTM characters without qualification (and I seriously doubt that was Blyton's intention). Which is not to say that interpretation isn't valid, but it's not the only one available. And honestly, also, the implication that tomboyishness must automatically = transness is one that makes me a little uncomfortable, though I am trans myself. It's worth bearing in mind also that in the era Blyton was writing, girls were much more restricted in terms of acceptable behaviour and activities, so for her characters, identifying as like a boy/as good as a boy was often an issue of asserting competence and independence as much as it was about gender identity.

Similarly, the phenomenon of girls having passionate crushes on each other was part of the British boarding school culture, and wouldn't necessarily have been considered to be a sexual thing, and the usual expectation was that girls would just grow out of it. I have a number older YA books which talk of girls having "pashes" and crushes on each other as a matter of course and in total innocence. Which, again, the interpretation of lesbianism is there, and it's certainly interesting and valid, but that's unlikely to be the light the author intended to present the relationship in. I think there's a definite danger here of imposing modern - and quite binary - interpretations of behaviour and identity on a very different culture.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what falls under the category of "issue" books, but I recently read some awesome LGBT-centric YA fiction books and I think they're worth reading:

Brian Katcher - "Almost Perfect" (I was wary of this one at first, but by the end I found myself loving it. Even if the main character pisses you off at first, it's worth it to stick it out until the end.)
Mayra Lazara Dole - "Down To the Bone"
Sara Ryan - "Empress of the World"
Sara Ryan - "The Rules for Hearts"

Sara Ryan, who is also a librarian, points to an excellent list here.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry, categories:

- YA books with queer main characters that aren't issue books (assuming I've guessed your meaning correctly: Dole, Ryan, and Katcher)
- YA books with with queer characters in the background that help round out the world (Dole, Ryan)
- YA books that allow queer characters to have straight same-gender friends, as opposed to the usual trope of gay guy's best friend is a chick or lesbian's best friend is some dude. (Dole, Ryan)
- YA books that have trans characters (Dole, Katcher)

[theizz.livejournal.com]

"Will Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green and David Levithan


- YA books with queer main characters that aren't issue books
- YA books that allow queer characters to have straight same-gender friends, as opposed to the usual trope of gay guy's best friend is a chick or lesbian's best friend is some dude.

This book does go into some issues of being gay, but is more about the difficulties of high school romantic relationships for gay and straight boys.

2 of the main characters are gay and the main friendship is between a straight and gay teen.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

Here's my list of some YA GLBT lit.: http://gwyd.livejournal.com/577378.html

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Talia, one of the main characters in Jim C. Hines' princess series, is a mostly out lesbian. She's also a stupendous badass.

[novin-ha.livejournal.com]

Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar novels are kind of Young Adult. Arrows trilogy has minor and secondary lesbian and gay characters, which round up the world and who are important mythology-wise. However, the novels are also triggering regarding sexual assault, and some of the lesbian characters die in a way that is kind of cliche. There is no polyamory in the text, but its possibility is mentioned. Overall, I'd say that these novels really try - they are certainly not cliched in the way that they're sex-positive, sexuality is not only about one true love and 'after marriage', but on the other hand, their handling of sensitive topics isn't always great. Oh, and the secondary lesbian character(s) is(are) friend(s) of the straight girl protagonist.

Certainly not issue books - they're fantasy, and mostly about straight characters. One prequel trilogy in the series is devoted to gay protagonists, but I haven't read it.

Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments trilogy (with some more books to be published, I think) is similarly, devoted to a straight female protagonist, but there is a secondary (well, almost main) character who is gay (and who gets a couple of POV scenes, as well as a love interest). The novel addresses homophobia and being in the closet briefly, but is mostly devoted to the action/adventure plot (and to the love life of the straight protagonist). It's nothing terribly brilliant, but a decent read which attempts to be inclusive (while at the same time using some very racist tropes if we consider being a supernatural being as a race metaphor, which I think is on some level unavoidable considering the conflicts in the narrative). Book three introduces a background lesbian character (who is almost raped). Again, attempts at inclusivity which don't always really work out that well.

It seems I don't read any books I wouldn't have a lot of issues with... I'd be happy to answer any questions.