Body and Mind: LGBTQ Health Issues by
Feeling good inside and out should be everyone's goal. But lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) people often have a tough time as they grapple with issues such as shame, rejection, and low self-esteem. This book discusses the unique pressures that lead too many LGBTQ youth to alcohol, drug, and tobacco abuse, as well as to eating disorders, unsafe sex, and unwanted pregnancy. Learn how to cope with feelings of alienation and depression, confusion about gender identity and sexual orientation and how to integrate your sexual and gender identity with your larger self. Liking yourself for who you are is the key to getting and staying mentally and physically healthy. And having the support of family, friends, or trusted mentors can make all the difference for LGBTQ young people who are learning to respect themselves and each other and to lead healthy, happy, and productive lives.
Brown Trans Figurations: Rethinking Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Chicanx/Latinx Studies by
Honorable Mention for the National Women's Studies Association's 2021 Gloria E. Anzaldúa Book Prize 2021 Finalist Best LGBTQ+ Themed Book, International Latino Book Awards 2022 John Leo & Dana Heller Award for Best Single Work, Anthology, Multi-Authored, or Edited Book in LGBTQ Studies, Popular Culture Association Within queer, transgender, and Latinx and Chicanx cultural politics, brown transgender narratives are frequently silenced and erased. Brown trans subjects are treated as deceptive, unnatural, nonexistent, or impossible, their bodies, lives, and material circumstances represented through tropes and used as metaphors. Restoring personhood and agency to these subjects, Francisco J. Galarte advances “brown trans figuration” as a theoretical framework to describe how transness and brownness coexist within the larger queer, trans, and Latinx historical experiences. Brown Trans Figurations presents a collection of representations that reveal the repression of brown trans narratives and make that repression visible and palpable. Galarte examines the violent deaths of two transgender Latinas and the corresponding narratives that emerged about their lives, analyzes the invisibility of brown transmasculinity in Chicana feminist works, and explores how issues such as transgender politics can be imagined as part of Chicanx and Latinx political movements. This book considers the contexts in which brown trans narratives appear, how they circulate, and how they are reproduced in politics, sexual cultures, and racialized economies.
Everyday Violence: The Public Harassment of Women and LGBTQ People by
Everyday Violence is based on ten years of scholarly rage against catcalling and aggression directed at women and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) people of New York City. Simone Kolysh recasts public harassment as everyday violence and demands an immediate end to this pervasive social problem. Analyzing interviews with initiators and recipients of everyday violence through an intersectional lens, Kolysh argues that gender and sexuality, shaped by race, class, and space, are violent processes that are reproduced through these interactions in the public sphere. They examine short and long-term impacts and make inroads in urban sociology, queer and trans geographies, and feminist thought. Kolysh also draws a connection between public harassment, gentrification, and police brutality resisting criminalizing narratives in favor of restorative justice. Through this work, they hope for a future where women and LGBTQ people can live on their own terms, free from violence.
Fighting with Pride: LGBTQ in the Armed Forces by
LGBTQ+ personnel who served in the British military despite the gay ban tell their stories in a moving testament to their patriotism and courage.On January 12th, 2000, the British Armed Forces took a major step toward greater equality by ending its restriction against members of the LGBTQ+ community. To honor that historic event, this volume presents the personal reflections of ten LGBTQ+ personnel who had served under the ban since the Second World War. All of them lived remarkable lives, though some were dismissed in disgrace or asked to resign because of their identity.These brave men and women tell of remarkable careers, courage in battle, and private lives kept secret at all cost. They include stories of serving on the front line of operations worldwide, including in the Second World War, the Falklands War, the Gulf Wars and the war in Afghanistan. This book celebrates their lives, as well as all servicepeople who have stood tall and taken their place with pride in the fighting units of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Royal Air Force and the British Army.
Forget Burial: HIV Kinship, Disability, and Queer/Trans Narratives of Care by
Finalist for the LGBTQ Nonfiction Award from Lambda Literary Queers and trans people in the 1980s and early ‘90s were dying of AIDS and the government failed to care. Lovers, strangers, artists, and community activists came together take care of each other in the face of state violence. In revisiting these histories alongside ongoing queer and trans movements, this book uncovers how early HIV care-giving narratives actually shape how we continue to understand our genders and our disabilities. The queer and trans care-giving kinships that formed in response to HIV continue to inspire how we have sex and build chosen families in the present. In unearthing HIV community newsletters, media, zines, porn, literature, and even vampires, Forget Burial bridges early HIV care-giving activisms with contemporary disability movements. In refusing to bury the legacies of long-term survivors and of those we have lost, this book brings early HIV kinships together with ongoing movements for queer and trans body self-determination.
Introduction to Transgender Studies by
This is the first introductory textbook intended for transgender/trans studies at the undergraduate level. The book can also be used for related courses in LGBTQ, queer, and gender/feminist studies.It encompasses and connects global contexts, intersecting identities, historic and contemporary issues, literature, history, politics, art, and culture. Ardel Haefele-Thomas embraces the richness of intersecting identities—how race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, nation, religion, and ability have cross-influenced to shape the transgender experience and trans culture across and beyond the binary. Written by an accomplished teacher with experience in a wide variety of higher learning institutions, this new text inspires readers to explore not only contemporary transgender issues and experiences but also the global history of gender diversity through the ages.Introduction to Transgender Studies features:-A welcoming approach that creates a safe space for a wide range of students, from those who have never thought about gender issues to those who identify as transgender, trans, nonbinary, agender, and/or gender expansive.-Writings from the Community essays that relate the chapter theme to the lived experiences of trans and LGB people and allies from different parts of the world.-Key concepts, film and media suggestions, topics for discussion, activities, and ideas for writing and research to engage students and serve as a review at exam time.-Instructors'resources that will be available that include key teaching points with discussion questions, activities, research projects, tips for using the media suggestions, PowerPoint presentations, and sample syllabi for various course configurations.Intended for introductory transgender, LGBTQ+, or gender studies courses through upper-level electives related to the expanding field of transgender studies, this text has been successfully class-tested in community colleges and public and private colleges and universities.
LGBTQ Film Festivals: Curating Queerness by
While scholars have theorized major film festivals, they have ignored smaller, ephemeral, events. In taking seriously minor European and North-American LGBT festivals which often only exist as traces within archival collections, this book revisits festival studies'methodological and theoretical apparatuses. As the first'critique'of festival studies from within, LGBTQ Film Festivals argues that both festivals and queer film cultures are by definition ephemeral. The book is organized around two concepts: First,'critical festival studies'examines the political project and disciplinary assumptions that structure festival research. Second,'the festival as a method'pays attention to festivals'role as producers of knowledge: it argues that festivals are not mere objects of research but also actors already shaping academic, industrial, and popular cinematic knowledge. Drawing on my experience on the festival circuit, this book pays homage to the labour of queer organizers, critics, and scholars and opens up new avenues for festival research.
The LGBTQ Story
The book provides an overview of LGBTQ history and current issues. It includes biographies of some notable figures in LGBTQ history as well as a timeline of major events.
Queer and Trans Migrations: Dynamics of Illegalization, Detention, and Deportation by
More than a quarter of a million LGBTQ-identified migrants in the United States lack documentation and constantly risk detention and deportation. LGBTQ migrants around the world endure similarly precarious situations. Eithne Luibhéid's and Karma R. Chávez's edited collection provides a first-of-its-kind look at LGBTQ migrants and communities. The academics, activists, and artists in the volume center illegalization, detention, and deportation in national and transnational contexts, and examine how migrants and allies negotiate, resist, refuse, and critique these processes. The works contribute to the fields of gender and sexuality studies, critical race and ethnic studies, borders and migration studies, and decolonial studies. Bridging voices and works from inside and outside of the academy, and international in scope, Queer and Trans Migrations illuminates new perspectives in the field of queer and trans migration studies. Contributors: Andrew J. Brown, Julio Capó, Jr., Anna Carastathis, Jack Cáraves, Karma R. Chávez, Ryan Conrad, Elif, Katherine Fobear, Monisha Das Gupta, Jamila Hammami, Edward Ou Jin Lee, Leece Lee-Oliver, Eithne Luibhéid, Hana Masri, Yasmin Nair, Bamby Salcedo, Fadi Saleh, Rafael Ramirez Solórzano, José Guadalupe Herrera Soto, Myrto Tsilimpounidi, Suyapa Portillo Villeda, Sasha Wijeyeratne, Ruben Zecena
Queer Migration and Asylum in Europe by
Europe is a popular destination for LGBTQ people seeking to escape discrimination and persecution. Yet, while European institutions have done much to promote the legal equality of sexual minorities and a number of states pride themselves on their acceptance of sexual diversity, the image of European tolerance and the reality faced by LGBTQ migrants and asylum seekers are often quite different.To engage with these conflicting discourses, Queer Migration and Asylum in Europe brings together scholars from politics, sociology, urban studies, anthropology and law to analyse how and why queer individuals migrate to or seek asylum in Europe, as well as the legal, social and political frameworks they are forced to navigate to feel at home or to regularise their status in the destination societies. The subjects covered include LGBTQ Latino migrants'relationship with queer and diasporic spaces in London; diasporic consciousness of queer Polish, Russian and Brazilian migrants in Berlin; the role of the Council of Europe in shaping legal and policy frameworks relating to queer migration and asylum; the challenges facing bisexual asylum seekers; queer asylum and homonationalism in the Netherlands; and the role of space, faith and LGBTQ organisations in Germany, Italy, the UK and France in supporting queer asylum seekers.
Streetwalking: LGBTQ Lives and Protest in the Dominican Republic by
Honorable Mention, Isis Duarte Book Prize (Latin American Studies Association) Streetwalking: LGBTQ Lives and Protest in the Dominican Republic is an exploration of the ways that lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer persons exercise power in a Catholic Hispanic heteropatriarchal nation-state, namely the Dominican Republic. Lara presents the specific strategies employed by LGBTQ community leaders in the Dominican Republic in their struggle for subjectivity, recognition, and rights. Drawing on ethnographic encounters, film and video, and interviews, LGBTQ community leaders teach readers about streetwalking, confrontación, flipping the script, cuentos, and the use of strategic universalisms in the exercise of power and agency. Rooted in Maria Lugones's theorization of streetwalker strategies and Audre Lorde's theorization of silence and action, this text re-imagines the exercise and locus of power in examples provided by the living, thriving LGBTQ community of the Dominican Republic.
Teaching the Teacher: LGBTQ Issues in Teacher Education by
Teacher educators have opportunities to include issues of multicultural education, equity, and social justice in the work done with preservice teachers. Including the educational and societal experiences of historically marginalized populations in curriculum creates spaces for teacher educators to model multicultural and social justice based pedagogies, while preparing teachers to work with and work for these students. The most effective way for teacher educators to address the unique perspectives of historically and currently marginalized populations is to integrate various perspectives throughout the curriculum (Grant & Zwier, 2012). Most teacher education programs address diverse populations via an integrated approach. In fact, Sherwin and Jennings (2006) found that potential student experiences regarding social class, race, and special needs populations were typically integrated into the curriculum, however, lesbian, gay bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues were not. There is research that demonstrates how carefully planned and implemented educational interventions can have a positive effect on preservice teachers'knowledge of and attitudes toward gays and lesbians (Butler, 1999). Despite the positive impact of addressing LGBTQ issues as a part of the teacher preparation program, Gorski et al. (2013) found that LGBTQ issues receive significantly less class time than other issues, especially race, and are, in fact, eight times more likely to actually be omitted from multicultural teacher educator courses. The inclusion of LGBT topics is important for a myriad of reasons. Most importantly, studies (GLSEN & Harris Interactive, 2012; Kosciw, Greytak, Diaz, Bartkiewicz, 2010, 2012; Kosciw, Greytak, Palmer, Boesen, 2014; Kosciw, Greytak, Giga, & Danischewski, 2016) have revealed a negative school climate for students who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender; this hostile environment can have dire consequences for these students. The impact of bullying and harassment due to LGBTQ students'gender and/or sexual identities can produce a number of negative effects, including isolation from friends and family, depression, drug and/or alcohol use and addiction, low selfesteem, lack of engagement in school, academic failure, and fighting (Beam, 2007; Holmes & Cahill, 2004; Kosciw et al., 2010, 2012; Kosciw et al, 2014; Kosciw et al, 2016, Meyer, 2010; Wilkinson & Pearson, 2009). The negative climate does not just come from peer-to-peer negative interactions. In the most recent GLSEN study (Kosciw et al, 2016) it was found that • 57.6% of LGBTQ students who were harassed or assaulted in school did not report the incident to school staff, most commonly because they doubted that effective intervention would occur or the situation could become worse if reported. • 63.5% of the students who did report an incident said that school staff did nothing in response or told the student to ignore it. • 56.2% of students reported hearing homophobic remarks from their teachers or other school staff, and 63.5% of students reported hearing negative remarks about gender expression from teachers or other school staff The aim of this book is to support teacher educators as they engage in the work of preparing pre-service teacher to work with and work for LGBTQ youth through explicit discussions of gender and sexuality. Chapters for this book include personal anecdotes regarding shifts in author's thinking about including LGBTQ as a part of teacher preparation; specific pedagogical practices employed by authors to present LGBTQ focused material as a part of their coursework; the resistance authors have faced from students, parents and administration and their responses.
You Are Not Alone: Finding Your LGBTQ Community by
For LGBTQ youth, finding a community of supportive and affirming friends and allies can make all the difference as they find their way in the world. But finding that community can be challenging. This book will point the way toward discovering like-minded people who share your interests. No matter your sexuality, gender identity, race, religion, or personal interests, there is a place for you in the LGBTQ community and a support network of people who understand how you feel. This book will help you find that community while still in school, or if you're not able or ready to do that right now, see the community that is there waiting for you when you are ready.
Beyond Male and Female: The Gender Identity Spectrum by
Gender identity helps define who each of us is, but it's also complicated—especially for those who do not identify as male or female but as something more fluid. Beyond Male and Female : The Gender Identity Spectrum carefully explains terminology, the reality of living beyond traditional genders, and the real-life experiences of genderqueer people. Finding one's true self and living that truth openly are not always easy. But with the right tools, the path is easier. Understanding traditional male and female stereotypes helps genderqueer students and their allies to advocate and educate people about gender identities that are neither male nor female but infinitely more complex and beautiful. There's nothing new about people with gender fluid identities—history is full of examples. Today, however, people with non-binary genders are increasingly able to live openly and honestly as their true selves. This book points the way.
Boycotts, Marches, and Strikes: Protests of the Civil Rights Era by
An in-depth exploration of five different marches, protests, and boycotts of the Civil Rights Era—actions that made it impossible for the people in power to ignore the social injustices rampant in the United States. Part of a new series on the civil rights era for ages 12 to 15 from Nomad Press. Thousands of protests, marches, and demonstrations of the Civil Rights Era gave a strong voice to people and groups who were traditionally ignored. These protests led to important legal and social changes that continue to impact our nation today. In Boycotts, Strikes, and Marches: Protests of the Civil Rights Era, readers 12 through 15 explore five ground-breaking events that took place during the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s. Become immersed in the excitement, challenges, and spirit of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Draft Card Burning Protests of the Vietnam War, the Delano Grape Strike and Boycott, the first Gay Pride March, and the Women's Strike for Equality. Kids learn about the conditions that prompted these demonstrations and how protest organizers used critical and creative thinking to surmount the challenges they faced to initiate meaningful change. When these protests began, American society looked vastly different than it does today. African Americans were denied the same rights as whites in many parts of the country. Women couldn't pursue the same jobs as men. The LGBTQ community was forced to live in secrecy. Farm workers were forbidden to join unions to advocate for fair wages and working conditions. Protests were a tool the people used to express their discontent and start to make essential change in the fabric of both society and politics. And today, we're seeing that the job is still unfinished, as protestors take to the streets and make their voices heard in a call for anti-racism through the Black Lives Matter movement. In this book, hands-on projects and research activities alongside essential questions, links to online resources, and text-to-world connections all help further explain a complicated era and offer opportunities for social-emotional learning. Boycotts, Strikes, and Marches: Protests of the Civil Rights Era is part of a new series from Nomad Press, The Civil Rights Era, that captures the passion and conviction of the 1950s,'60s, and'70s. Other titles in this set include Changing Laws: Politics of the Civil Rights Era; Sitting In, Standing Up: Leaders of the Civil Rights Era; and Singing for Equality: Musicians of the Civil Rights Era.
Cultural Diversity, Inclusion and Justice: being a community activist by
This book is not an impersonal academic treatise on social justice activism but instead the author's description of what social justice activism has looked like through the prism of his eyes. The methods of the book are straightforward, using historical, current and personal data--all of which were inextricably entwined. The text focuses on the truth that bigotry is perpetuated by countless white, black and brown people. More important than academic debates about bigotry, the book is about negating or preventing bigotry. The author reviews historical incidents and also tells portions of his own life stories. His goal is to help readers know his perceptions of bigotry and then compare and contrast his perceptions with their own. The text is organized in major topics: Beginnings of Bigotry; Creation of a Nation; Migrants, Immigrants and Slaves; Quest for Civil Rights; Women's Rights Movement; Disability Rights Movement; Elder Rights Movement; LGBTQ Rights Movement; Social Class Matters; and Going Forward. This book is written to be actively read and to initiate meaningful conversations about social justice. The primary audiences for the text are college students who are majoring in social and behavioral sciences, social work and health care. The book will also be a valuable resource to teachers, community activists, and other persons who want to enhance their knowledge of racism, sexism, homonegativity, ableism, ageism, xenophobia and classism.
Double Challenge: Being LGBTQ and a Minority by
This book celebrates the diversity of the LGBTQ community. Whether you are Asian, black, Hispanic, white, disabled, or any other religious or ethnic identity, there is a place for everyone to be queer and be themselves. Double Challenge: Being LGBTQ and a Minority provides answers that LGBTQ teens need, putting to bed myths and stereotypes about what it means to be queer or questioning. Inside, you'll find advice for LGBTQ young people of color on unique challenges they may face when coming out to their families and responding to homophobia in their respective communities. Society is more accepting than ever of LGBTQ individuals; however, legal equality remains elusive. This book recognizes the achievement, while remaining honest about the challenges that remain.
Gender Fulfilled: Being Transgender by
Have you ever felt that your mind and soul are at odds with the gender you were assigned at birth? Gender Fulfilled: Being Transgender will help you understand what you're feeling. Starting on your transgender journey can be scary, and you may feel that you are alone, but you are not—far from it. From the first moments of questioning to realizing the incredible human being you were meant to be, Gender Fulfilled: Being Transgender will help guide you. You will learn how to trust yourself to make your own decisions. You will learn how to approach the important people in your life and what to do if things do not go as easily as you would wish. You will find resources for getting support and information on the transitioning process. And most importantly, you will learn how to free that unique individual trapped inside you to find the happiness you deserve.
Growing up Queer: Kids and the Remaking of LGBTQ Identity by
LGBTQ kids reveal what it's like to be young and queer today Growing Up Queer explores the changing ways that young people are now becoming LGBT-identified in the US. Through interviews and three years of ethnographic research at an LGBTQ youth drop-in center, Mary Robertson focuses on the voices and stories of youths themselves in order to show how young people understand their sexual and gender identities, their interest in queer media, and the role that family plays in their lives. The young people who participated in this research are among the first generation to embrace queer identities as children and adolescents. This groundbreaking and timely consideration of queer identity demonstrates how sexual and gender identities are formed through complicated, ambivalent processes as opposed to being natural characteristics that one is born with. In addition to showing how youth understand their identities, Growing Up Queer describes how young people navigate queerness within a culture where being gay is the “new normal.” Using Sara Ahmed's concept of queer orientation, Robertson argues that being queer is not just about one's sexual and/or gender identity, but is understood through intersecting identities including race, class, ability, and more. By showing how society accepts some kinds of LGBTQ-identified people while rejecting others, Growing Up Queer provides evidence of queerness as a site of social inequality. The book moves beyond an oversimplified examination of teenage sexuality and shows, through the voices of young people themselves, the exciting yet complicated terrain of queer adolescence.
The Lexington Six: Lesbian and Gay Resistance in 1970s America by
On September 23, 1970, a group of antiwar activists staged a robbery at a bank in Massachusetts, during which a police officer was killed. While the three men who participated in the robbery were soon apprehended, two women escaped and became fugitives on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, eventually landing in a lesbian collective in Lexington, Kentucky, during the summer of 1974. In pursuit, the FBI launched a massive dragnet. Five lesbian women and one gay man ended up in jail for refusing to cooperate with federal officials, whom they saw as invading their lives and community. Dubbed the Lexington Six, the group's resistance attracted national attention, inspiring a nationwide movement in other minority communities. Like the iconic Stonewall demonstrations, this gripping story of spirited defiance has special resonance in today's America. Drawing on transcripts of the judicial hearings, contemporaneous newspaper accounts, hundreds of pages of FBI files released to the author under the Freedom of Information Act, and interviews with many of the participants, Josephine Donovan reconstructs this fascinating, untold story. The Lexington Six is a vital addition to LGBTQ, feminist, and radical American history.
LGBTQ at Work: Your Personal and Working Life by
Living as an LGBTQ individual can be complicated, especially at work. You have rights, but you are not always protected when it comes to the workplace. While same-sex couples can get married in all states, there are no federal laws that protect LGBTQ individuals from discrimination in the workplace. Fewer than half of the states have laws that protect LGBTQ workers, and several have laws that specifically prohibit this type of protection. Coming out at work is a personal choice but one that can have serious consequences in the wrong environment. Laws will continue to improve for LGBTQ individuals over time, but in the meantime, it's important to keep standing up for who you are, no matter what. LGBTQ at Work: Your Personal and Working Life provides the tools and knowledge to make your own informed decisions.
LGBTQ History and Current Issues
The book provides an overview of LGBTQ history and current issues. It includes biographies of some notable figures in LGBTQ history.
Pocket Guide for Understanding LGBTQ Mental Health: Understanding the Spectrum of Gender and Sexuality by
The Pocket Guide to LGBTQ Mental Health is a down-to-earth, informative, and affirming manual for mental health clinicians working with patients of diverse gender and sexual identities. In recent years, people have begun to grapple with these issues in a healthier, more public way, and mental health practitioners must be prepared to meet their patients with the knowledge, understanding, and grasp of the context in which patients live their lives. The editors have brought their specialized knowledge to the project and, along with contributors who are experts in the field of LGBTQ mental health, have created a book of uncommon empathy. The volume's structure is simple, consistent, and effective, with 10 chapters covering lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, pansexual, and allied individuals. Some chapters overlap because some people identify with more than one of these identities. The writers have drawn on both the scientific literature and their own clinical experience to create a volume that is informative, practical, and easy to read.The book possesses an abundance of useful features: All diagnostic and treatment discussions are based on the latest information found in DSM-5. Each chapter includes straightforward, real-world, and evidence-based answers to'Questions Well-Meaning People Ask'-- essentially,'What would patients, their friends, their parents, their physicians like to know about being X, Y, or Z?' A special section in each chapter addresses themes that may emerge during therapy, preparing the clinician to identify and respond sensitively and knowledgeably to issues that may become salient as counseling progresses. Each chapter concludes with'Five Take-Home Points,'a handy summary of the most important information, allowing the reader to identify essential material and consolidate learning. An extensive collection of resources is included, helping the reader to locate more information on reliable websites and from other authoritative sources. Written in a conversational style that will appeal to patients and families, as well as clinicians, the Pocket Guide to LGBTQ Mental Health explores the psychological and cultural context for each gender or sexual identity in a comprehensive, realistic, and affirming way.
Queer Approaches: Emotion, Expression and Communication in the Classroom by
This edited collection supports queer educators and students, underscores the reasons society does not see LGBTQ representation in classroom spaces, and offers “queered” pedagogical approaches for teaching students from diverse backgrounds. This collection places value on every educator and student through prioritizing inclusivity, and the chapters carefully articulate what (queer) inclusivity is, why it matters for all educators, students, and administrators, and what can happen when inclusive environments are not created and/or sustained. When prompted to think about marginalized educators and students, most literature and research focuses on federal/state laws and instances of bullying. The chapters in this collection are farther reaching and provide (queered) solutions for these individuals'needs and challenges. This volume addresses the ability of the LGBTQ community to see themselves represented in the curriculum of schools, discussed in the language of society, and valued in all discourse settings. In addition, this volume uses queerness as a lens through which to reimagine classroom spaces and institutions of higher learning.
Rainbow Warrior: My Life in Color by
In 1978, Harvey Milk asked Gilbert Baker to create a unifying symbol for the growing gay rights movement, and on June 25 of that year, Baker's Rainbow Flag debuted at San Francisco's Gay Freedom Day Parade. Baker had no idea his creation would become an international emblem of liberation, forever cementing his pivotal role in helping to define the modern LGBTQ movement. Rainbow Warrior is Baker's passionate personal chronicle, from a repressive childhood in 1950s Kansas to a harrowing stint in the US Army, and finally his arrival in San Francisco, where he bloomed as both a visual artist and social justice activist. His fascinating story weaves through the early years of the struggle for LGBTQ rights, when he worked closely with Milk, Cleve Jones, and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Baker continued his flag-making, street theater and activism through the Reagan years and the AIDS crisis. And in 1994, Baker spearheaded the effort to fabricate a mile-long Rainbow Flag—at the time, the world's longest—to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising in New York City. Gilbert and parade organizers battled with Mayor Rudy Giuliani for the right to carry it up Fifth Avenue, past St. Patrick's Cathedral. Today, the Rainbow Flag has become a worldwide symbol of LGBTQ diversity and inclusiveness, and its colorful hues have illuminated landmarks from the White House to the Eiffel Tower to the Sydney Opera House. Gilbert Baker often called himself the'Gay Betsy Ross,'and readers of his colorful, irreverent, and deeply personal memoir will find it difficult to disagree.
When You're Ready: coming out by
“Coming out.” The phrase alone may arouse feelings of uncertainty, anxiety, pride, doubt, or excitement. When You're Ready: Coming Out explains why the process is such a significant aspect of living life as an LGBTQ person and how to make the experience positive and right for you. This book includes practical information and insight from leading national organizations that provide support, services, and advocacy for LGBTQ youth, including the Human Rights Campaign, PFLAG, GLAAD, and The Trevor Project. You will learn helpful new terms, meet people who likely share very similar experiences, and gain answers on coming out selectively at home, school, work, and elsewhere. Most importantly, you will know definitively that you are not alone. Across the world, millions of people identify as LGBTQ, and most of them started just as you are now: reading a book or other material to help them better understand themselves and explore how to share their sexual orientation and/or gender identity with loved ones, friends, and acquaintances so they could be accepted just as they are.