National Coming Out Day and LBGTQ+ YA Books

Today is National Coming Out Day, a special day for the LBGTQ+ community and its allies. A day to stand and be counted. A day to be strong and kind. A day to recognize love and courage. A day to remember how far the LBGTQ+ community has come and to stare down the path that lies ahead with conviction and compassion.

It's a day to support each other. To make sure no one feels alone.

Teens in the LBGTQ+ community often feel isolated. They are at higher risk for mental illnesses like depression and anxiety, suicide, homelessness, drug abuse, and physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. That's a shit-ton of risk right there, friends.

National Coming Out Day is one way the LBGTQ+ community and its allies can show these teens they are not alone.

As part of the YA book community, I want to help connect teens with YA books for, by, and about people just like them. When I felt overwhelmed, misunderstood, or alone, I'd retreat to my books. There I could find a safe space to explore, not only other lands and times, but emotions I wasn't yet equipped to understand. That's the beauty of reading.

As a white cishet teen it was never difficult to find people somewhat similar to myself in books, movies, and TV shows. But thinking back on the books I read as a teen twenty-five years ago, the books that were sometimes my lifeline, I don't remember any LGBTQ+ characters. Not one. Not even the stereotypical "gay friend" that became prevalent in teen movies and TV programming in the 90s was in the pages of the books I read. I cannot imagine how isolating that must have been for LGBTQ+ friends.

And the thing is, at the time, I didn't even realize LGBTQ+ kids were missing from the stories I was reading. That's how blind I was to an entire community's lives and stories. That's how I became complicit in isolating people I loved because of ignorance and privilege. How could my LGBTQ+ friends, none of whom were out, have found any real escape in the books we read if they couldn't see themselves in the stories? They couldn't have, which means that reading was no escape for them, not really, but just another reminder that they were "other"—they were outside the story.

Thankfully, the landscape of YA literature is changing in today's publishing world. It's a slow and arduous sort of change, but a change nevertheless. There are more stories for and about LGBTQ+ teens. There are more LGBTQ+ writers, editors, agents, and publishers actively working on broadening the scope of diverse stories for us all.

Finding the right book to read can be tricky for anyone, but especially tricky if you're not sure where to look for quality LBGTQ+ stories. Luckily there is this amazing writer/blogger/goddess, Dahlia Adler. Dahlia runs the LGBTQ Reads blog, as well as The Daily Dahlia, and also (I did say she was a goddess) writes YA and NA stories with LGBTQ+ main characters. She's known on Twitter as the Rec-ing Ball because of her dedication to helping anyone find the perfect "next book."

This past year, Dahlia compiled all her book and publishing recs into a QUILTBAG Compendium, an amazing resource I implore you all to check out. Teens, librarians, teachers, parents, and writers interested in reading more LGBTQ+ YA will find tons of resources and titles (with links!) in Dahlia's Compendium. I have it bookmarked on my web browser so I can refer back to it when I'm adding books to my TBR.

Books like the ones on Dahlia's extensive list can help teens identify, explore, and imagine the possibilities that lay before them. And not just LGBTQ+ teens! Everyone should be reading these books!

These are some of my favorites books with LBGTQ+ main characters.