Washoe County Library System

A first book by the prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist shares personal essays that chronicle his childhood, adolescence and college years as a Black queer youth, exploring subjects ranging from gender identity and toxic masculinity to structural marginalization and Black joy. In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and...

An O, The Oprah Magazine LGBTQ Book "Changing the Literary Landscape"

A gorgeously illustrated collection of essays written by today’s queer heroes—featuring contributions from Elton John, Tan France, Gus Kenworthy, Paris Lees, Russell Tovey, Munroe Bergdorf, and many others. The Queer Bible is a celebration of LGBTQ+ history and culture, edited by model, performer, and GQ contributing editor Jack

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This is not your mothers memoir. In The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch expertly moves the reader through issues of gender, sexuality, violence, and the family from the point of view of a lifelong swimmer turned artist. In writing that explores the nature of memoir itself, her story traces the effect of extreme grief on a young womans developing sexuality that some define as untraditional because of her attraction to both men and women. Her...

"Foreword by Jonathan Van Ness From a celebrated activist on the forefront of fighting for intersex representation and rights—and a subject of the forthcoming documentary Every Body, from the filmmakers behind RBG—a funny, thought-provoking collection of essays about owning your identity and living your truth. Two percent of the world’s population—the same percentage of humans who have naturally red hair—is born intersex. Yet many people...

Krys Malcolm Belc's visual memoir-in-essays explores how the experience of gestational parenthood—conceiving, birthing, and breastfeeding his son Samson—eventually clarified his gender identity.
Krys Malcolm Belc has thought a lot about the interplay between parenthood and gender. As a nonbinary, transmasculine parent, giving birth to his son Samson clarified his gender identity. And yet, when his partner, Anna, adopted Samson,...

"A radical, beautiful, world-changing collection of writing that we all need to read." Scarlett Curtis, Feminists Don't Wear Pink
gal-dem, the award-winning online and print magazine, is created by women and non-binary people of colour. In this life-affirming, moving and joyous collection of fourteen essays, gal-dem's talented writers use raw material from their teenage years – diaries, poems and chat histories –

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An invaluable portrait and roadmap on how to thrive as an LGBT family
 
The overwhelming success of Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” YouTube project aimed at queer youth highlighted that despite the progress made in gay rights, LGBT people are still at high risk of being victimized. While the national focus remains on the mistreatment of gay people in schools, the reality is that LGBT families also face

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The renowned LGBTQ historian pens "both a fascinating account of the birth of gay liberation and a replay of the turbulent, society-changing 60s." (San Francisco Chronicle).
"We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths—that all of us are created equal—is the star that guides us still, just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall." —President Obama, 2013

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"Brandi Carlile was born into a musically gifted, impoverished family on the outskirts of Seattle and grew up in a constant state of change, moving from house to house, trailer to trailer, fourteen times in as many years. Though imperfect in every way, her dysfunctional childhood was as beautiful as it was strange, and as nurturing as it was difficult. At the age of five, Brandi contracted bacterial meningitis, which almost took her life, leaving...

"In his first book, broadcaster Ari Shapiro takes us around the globe to reveal the stories behind narratives that are sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking, but always poignant. He details his time traveling on Air Force One with President Obama, or following the path of Syrian refugees fleeing war, or learning from those fighting for social justice both at home and abroad. As the self-reinforcing bubbles we live in become more impenetrable,...