Non-Fiction

This section currently contains only biographies.  Recommendations for other resources would be appreciated
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Ford, Michael Thomas Outspoken: Role Models in the Gay & Lesbian Community
Young people need role models, perhaps none more so than gay and lesbian youths. In this insightful collection of interviews, a doctor, a TV personality, a religious leader, a police officer, a writer, a teacher, and others talk about their lives, their professions, and their place within and beyond the gay community. Their inspiring stories will help gay teens realize that they, too, can be anything they want.

 

Gray, Mary L. In Your Face: Stories from the Lives of Queer Youth
In Your Face: Stories from the Lives of Queer Youth is a groundbreaking and informative collection of essays derived from discussions about gender and sexuality with gay, lesbian, and bisexual youths. Fifteen teens, age 14-18, discuss their lives, personal backgrounds, and visions for the future to give researchers, parents, and educators rare insight into the difficulties of being a sexual minority. In addition, this book is intended to reach out to other gay, lesbian, and bisexual youths in both rural and suburban areas of the country. In Your Face presents unique identity and social issues experienced by these youths in order to help you understand their needs and how to effectively address their fears, concerns, and questions. Offering responses from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and situations, this book is not confined to stories that involve one family type or religion. The contributors' ages, backgrounds, hometowns, childhood experiences, and plans for the future are discussed to give you a deeper understanding of their emotions and the problems they grapple with. With In Your Face, you will explore the hardships and perspectives of gay, lesbian, and bisexual youths in relation to several issues, including:-coming out to yourself-coming out to family and friends-dealing with the school environment-getting involved in the queer community-realizing how religion impacts one's sense of self In Your Face also investigates the Internet's impact on the global queer movement. Providing you with stories from chat sessions and e-mail messages, this book reveals how youths deal with their sexuality in increasingly public ways, such as becoming editors of online queer magazines and participating in online support groups, and how the Internet can help them find out what is means to be gay, lesbian, and bisexual. In examining many stereotypes and prejudices about sexuality, this valuable text documents essential information to help you relate to and comprehend the normal dilemmas faced by these teens. In Your Face confirms the needs of these youths and will assist you in giving support and reassurance to gay, lesbian, and bisexual youths.

 

Heron, Ann, ed. Two Teenagers in Twenty
From Publishers Weekly
An updated version of Heron's 1983 One Teenager in Ten , this consistently absorbing and frequently moving collection of autobiographical narratives by young gays and lesbians across the country soberingly documents the damaging consequences of the homophobia that pervades even purportedly enlightened families and schools. Many of the authors were kicked out of their homes, were sent to ministers or psychiatrists to be "cured" or attempted suicide. But some found their families and friends supportive and caring. On balance, these stories are overwhelmingly affirmative, buoyed by the authors' new self-awareness and the determination to find a place for themselves in an often hostile country.

 

Mastoon, Adam The Shared Heart
With candor and sensitivity, thirty-nine young people write frankly about their own homosexuality. Told with honesty and courage, their words express the fundamental need all people share for acceptance and respect.

 

Read, Kirk How I Learned to Snap
With bold Southern humor, journalist and performer Kirk Read takes readers on a guided tour of his precocious and courageous adolescence. Recalling his years as an openly gay high school student, Read describes how he navigated the hallways with his sense of humor and dignity intact. He fondly recalls his initiations into sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, as well as his "shy as neon" acts of rabble rousing during high school. How I Learned to Snap is a refreshingly victim-free story in which queer teenagers are creative, resilient, and ultimately heroic.

 

Reid, John The Best Little Boy in the World
"The best little boy in the world never had wet dreams or masturbated; he always topped his class, honored mom and dad, deferred to elders and excelled in sports . . . . The best little boy in the world was . . . the model IBM exec . . . The best little boy in the world was a closet case who 'never read anything about homosexuality.' . . . John Reid comes out slowly, hilariously, brilliantly. One reads this utterly honest account with the shock of recognition." The New York Times

 

Tobias, Andrew The Best Little Boy in the World Grows Up
John Reid's The Best Little Boy in the World was hailed as a classic memoir of growing up gay in a straight world. But "John Reid" didn't write it. Years would pass before the writer could reveal his true identity as Andrew Tobias, America's bestselling financial guru, author of The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need. Now, twenty-five years later, Tobias, proud to use his real name, brings his remarkable life story up to date.

Writing with his customary charm and frank humor, Tobias tells of love affairs and heartbreak, hot New York parties and tough political battles, the excitement of genuine social change and the tragedy of seeing dear friends die young. Here too are the unforgettable scenes of Tobias revealing his sexual orientation not only to his parents but to the president of the United States.

The author is an irresistible companion as he shares with us his proud stories, embarrassing confessions, and hilarious musings on "the homosexual lifestyle." Witty, heartfelt, and wonderfully affirming in every sense, this is Andrew Tobias's finest book to date.

 

Winik, Judd Pedro and Me

"You are eighteen years old. You get up in front of a thousand people--your classmates, your friends, basically the people who make up your entire existence--and announce, 'I'm HIV positive.'"

Told entirely in sequential art, here is the story of the life-changing friendship between the author, a cartoonist from Long Island, and Pedro Zamora, an HIV-positive AIDS activist, which was filmed day by day on MTV's Real World San Francisco. 

As a speaker and educator, a guest on many talk shows (including Oprah), and when his tragic death received front-page coverage in the press, Pedro taught a generation that AIDS was not a punishment for moral defects or a mere killer that reduced humans to wraiths. Rather, he showed how those afflicted with the disease could live and love nobly with intelligence, humor and great humanity. Judd Winick's compelling memoir allows each of us to experience the vitally important message Pedro brought us.

Inspiring, moving, informative, and instantly accessible, Pedro and Me could become one of the books that defines a generation. 

 

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