It’s 2022 but you wouldn’t be wrong in thinking we’re taking a few steps backward with school boards, parents, and politicians from Texas to Florida banning hundreds of books from schools and libraries that trigger their straight fragility.
In states across the country, prosecutors have threatened librarians, school boards have voted to remove, legislators have introduced bills to prohibit, and conservative parents and activists are challenging the presence of books that even mention sexual and gender identity. The books that they target feature LGBTQ+ themes and characters that may or may not engage in romantic or sexual relationships. The books are no more explicit than books that feature straight characters that are often assigned in class. So why the double standard?
Straight Fragility
The mere idea of LGBTQ+ identities is causing the pearl-clutching. Enter “straight fragility,” a complex concept born from a few different but overlapping phenomena that we have been tackling for decades. Start with the baseless fear that exposure to queer identities, people, and things will make a person queer. Add fragile masculinity, where straight men are afraid to appear “feminine” or constantly express that they are not gay. Throw in the “gay panic defense”, a legal defense that argues a defendant’s actions were the direct result of a victim’s sexual or gender identity. And finally, a touch of the “ick factor,” the idea that when someone else’s romantic or sexual relationships don’t align with another’s it must be gross or “icky.”
So spend some time this winter and help trigger some straight fragility by reading these books that are being banned across the country. Bonus points if you buy from a local book store, like White Whale Books, or borrow from the Carnegie Library.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
No list of LGBTQ+ books by a Pittsburgh-based queer magazine would be complete without “Perks of Being of Wallflower.” The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up. All set in Pittsburgh.
Melissa (Previously Published as George)
Melissa (Previously Published as George) by Alex Gino is probably this year’s most banned book. “Melissa,” was a winner of the Children’s Stonewall Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Children’s Choice Book Award.
Gender Queer
Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer” is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts)
“Riverdale” meets “Love, Simon” in this modern, fresh, YA debut by L.C. Rosen about an unapologetically queer teen working to uncover a blackmailer threatening him back into the closet.
Lawn Boy
In this funny, biting, touching, and ultimately inspiring novel, bestselling author Jonathan Evison takes the reader into the heart and mind of a young man determined to achieve the American dream of happiness and prosperity–who just so happens to find himself along the way.
All Boys Aren’t Blue
“All Boys Aren’t Blue” covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. George M. Johnson has an appealing and emotionally frank style of writing.
Better Nate Than Ever
Tim Federle’s debut novel is full of broken curfews, second chances, and the adventure of growing up—because sometimes you have to get four hundred miles from your backyard to finally feel at home. Winner of the Lambda Literary Award.
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out
Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them thoughtfully and respectfully before, during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender identity.
The Breakaways
Cathy G. Johnson’s “The Breakaways” is a raw, and beautifully honest graphic novel that looks into the lives of a diverse and defiantly independent group of kids learning to make room for themselves in the world.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club.
