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I’ve had librarians say to me, “People in my school don’t agree with homosexuality, so it’s difficult to have your book on the shelves.” Here’s the thing: Being gay is not an issue, it is an identity. It is not something that you can agree or disagree with. It is a fact, and must be defended and represented as a fact.
To use another part of my identity as an example: if someone said to me, “I’m sorry, but we can’t carry that book because it’s so Jewish and some people in my school don’t agree with Jewish culture,” I would protest until I reached my last gasp. Prohibiting gay books is just as abhorrent…
Discrimination is not a legitimate point of view. Silencing books silences the readers who need them most. And silencing these readers can have dire, tragic consequences. Never forget who these readers are. They are just as curious and anxious about life as any other teenager.
"David Levithan - Supporting Gay Teen Literature (via cake-light)
SERIOUSLY! I’m sick of LGBTQ culture being treated as just some political issue. Queer people aren’t just a handful of people who want to get married, okay? We’re real, and we’re fucking important, and we need to be represented accurately and positively in the media and on the book shelf, especially in schools, where kids are still discovering who they are and maybe they feel really alone and they need a book they can relate to …
(via riotisnotquiet)
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT WE TALK ABOUT IN CHILDREN’S LITERACY.
Okay, when I was a little girl, I was a tomboy. I was loud. I was passionate. And when I discovered Jo March, EVERYTHING changed. She gave me so much power because hey, there’s a character exactly like me.
THIS IS WHY WE NEED DIVERSE LITERATURE. Relating to a literary character gives a reader power AND gives that reader more reason to keep reading. Try and disagree with me on this. You won’t win.
(via twenty4mixtapes)
You know I actually can’t think of a canonically queer literary hero or heroine to look up to, male or female. There are a few more in tv now but even then there is nothing like the bredth and scale…
The closest I ever got was Nymphadora Tonks in Harry Potter but even then a lot of it was assigned from my own head. Its so scary feeling alienated and alone even in something that otherwise provides solace and a place to belong, and one of the most frustrating things is not being able to show someone a character and go “this is me. They understands, I AM NOT A FREAK.”
(via doctorabbywatson)
I think the closest I ever got as a kid was George from the Famous Five, and even then- I dunno. It was like all bookish characters were girly girls and all tomboys loved the outdoors and hated reading, and I could never have both.
I mean, granted, I’ve become a lot less of a tomboy over the years, but it would have been nice to have someone like me in my library.
(via aimsme)
I remember how completely fucking overjoyed I was when I read Tamora Pierce’s Will of the Empress, in which one of the main characters (and one of my favorites in the Circle series) comes out as a lesbian and has a relationship with another woman. I thought something seemed awfully familiar about the way Daja reacted to Rizu, so I flipped through the book for scenes where they appeared together and hoped it wasn’t just me picking up on slashy subtext, that maybe this time the author meant it to be there and visible and important all along. I found the scene where Daja and Rizu kissed, and I was overjoyed. So overjoyed.
I was so hungry for that spark of recognition. I’d discovered slash by that point, and I’d more-or-less accepted that the moments in most of the media I consumed that tripped my queerdar weren’t indicators that the canon would go in that direction — but that I could appreciate those relationships and moments anyway, and seek out or write stories that went where the canon wasn’t going to. Still, though, I kept hoping that those little prickles in the back of my head of wait, are they…? would get answered with an unambiguous yes, the way they did for so many straight relationships. I learned not to expect that yes, to resign myself to the fact that most of the movies and shows and books and comics I liked wouldn’t actually risk alienating part of their fanbase (or whatever) and depict queer relationships. But I kept searching, and I still do, and even today I can’t help smiling when finally, finally, I get that yes, when that prickle of recognition turns out to be real. It means I’m not just making up stories in my head; other people want to see and tell the same kinds of stories that I do.
(via aimsme)
