Authors Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith wrote in a post at Publishers Weekly this week that a literary agent told them to make a gay character in their young adult novel straight if they wanted the agent to represent them. It’s unfortunately not an isolated occurence. If you’re wondering why, author Patricia Nell Warren
Glee actor Jane Lynch spoke with the Advocate about her new memoir, Happy Accidents, her early life and career, coming out, and becoming a sudden mother after meeting and marrying psychologist Lara Embry, who has two children from a previous relationship. “Motherhood has changed me,” she says. You and all the rest of us, darling. But there’s
Books about LGBT parenting are few and far between, but here are ten that I recommend for all LGBT parents and prospective parents. I chose works that each showcase a variety of voices, rather than single-person memoirs, so each one would resonate as widely as possible. I also chose books that focus on the emotional side of parenting rather than medical and legal how-to works, since the latter tend to be specific to particular segments of the LGBT community.
I hope these selections, taken together, will help us better understand our collective, yet diverse, experience of being LGBT parents.
I often write about banned books here, and love the annual Banned Books Week in September. This year, the American Library Association is encouraging anyone celebrating the freedom to read to take part in a Virtual Read-Out on YouTube. School Library Journal has the details: The criteria are simple: create a video that’s less than two minutes
I’m passing along this casting call with the caveat that I have no personal experience with the project or company. If you’re interested, please contact them at the e-mail address below. (And if you’re selected, please let us know so we can all watch when it airs.) Even if you’re not interested, but have thoughts
From USA Today’s review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2: On the surface, Harry Potter was a tale of magic. But it also was a story about love, for friends, teachers and family—biological or otherwise—and the ability of love to flourish in the most difficult circumstances.
Let’s face it: for many of us, there’s only one thing on our minds this week: the release of the final Harry Potter film. I’m not ashamed to say that I’m a huge fan—and not just because the series has a definite queer sensibility, what with its themes of social justice, author J.K. Rowling’s admission
Jewish LGBT organization Keshet has announced the winner of its first Jewish Children’s Book Writing Contest (mentioned here in February): The Purim Superhero, by Elisabeth Kushner, a public librarian in Vancouver, Canada—and a lesbian mom herself. Kushner told Keshet: When I heard about the Keshet contest, it seemed like a perfect fit: in the Purim story,
Over the Rainbow: Queer Children’s and Young Adult Literature (University of Michigan: 2011) is the first collection of essays devoted to LGBTQ children’s and young adult literature. Edited by Michelle Ann Abate, associate professor of English at Hollins University, and Kenneth Kidd, associate professor of English at the University of Florida, the collection gathers 17
This Wednesday, June 8, at 8:00 pm ET/PT, PBS will be airing the premiere of OUT in America, a documentary by Emmy award-winning director Andrew Goldberg in association with Oregon Public Broadcasting. I have not yet seen the film, though I’ve heard good things about it. Here’s the official blurb, plus a video clip. If
