One of the hottest growing segments of the romance genre is male-on-male (M/M) romance--gay romantic fiction mostly written and read by straight women. Featuring traditional romance conventions, including mistaken identities, star-crossed lovers, and happy endings, these stories show both physical and emotional intimacy between men. M/M builds on…

Adolescence is chaotic for all individuals, but LGBTQ adolescents with intellectual and/or physical disabilities struggle with what it means to be furthest from the majority. These teens experience varying exclusions and harassments from peers, educators, and family members. Contemporary young adult literature can assist these adolescents through…

Since the publication of the first young adult novel to deal with issues of sexual identity, John Donovan's ("1969") "I'll Get There, It Better Be Worth the Trip", over 200 novels have been published centered around gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) characters and conflicts (Cart and Jenkins, "2006", "The Heart has…

This author's reading selection for his class provoked an unexpected response: when one of the main characters in the reading "came out of the closet," the students divided themselves into those who were willing to discuss the issues, and those who weren't.

The young adult novels of Alex Sanchez belong in every high school English classroom and media center. With compelling plots and significant themes, Sanchez's six novels create numerous rich learning opportunities for students. In this article, the author describes how Sanchez's novels on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender themes can be…

While LGBTQ people may no longer need be considered the "invisible minority," LGBTQ books are often taken to be positive or affirmative based on their mere inclusion of gay people as characters. The authors believe the catalog of LGBTQ texts must continue to increase in both quantity and quality and that teachers must explicitly engage students in…

If we read to discover new worlds, we also read to find ourselves. For gays and lesbians, this act of discovery can be problematic: literature has so often excluded them. In the last decades, as gays and lesbians have grown increasingly vocal in the effort to secure their rightful place in society, a broad range of fiction has emerged that…

In this article, three authors collaborate in a powerful defense of teaching LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) literature for the good of all students. Curwood, one of three authors, discusses how one of the key ways that schools condone homophobia is by failing to include LGBTQ literature in the curriculum. Schliesman…

Authors of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) adolescent novels have recently moved away from addressing the "problem" of sexual identity and have instead focused on personal and societal "acceptance" of non-normative sexualities. Within the increasing number of "acceptance" titles published depicting gay males,…

Few pieces of GLBTQ fiction have received the popular and scholarly acclaim awarded to Alex Sanchez's "Rainbow Boys" series. Although "problem novels" are rarely taken seriously as literature, the books--the first novel in particular--have joined the few pieces of GLBTQ literature incorporated into educational discourse and curriculum. In this…

Sarah Arnold was in a bind. On the surface, the students in her 11th-grade English courses seemed to have their act together. Like so many people their age, Arnold's students saw open homophobia as uncool. On the other hand, when Arnold listened to her students talking before the bell, she often heard an anti-gay undertone that disturbed her.…

A lesbian teacher, recently returned from four years in Japan and teaching an intermediate ESL class in a public community college in New York City, struggles with addressing the issue of her own sexual orientation while using a novel with a protagonist who is questioning his sexual identity. The evolution of gay/lesbian and/or queer theory…

A chronological examination of the portrayals of gay/lesbian characters and their contexts in 60 young adult novels published from 1969 to 1992 focuses on information about gay/lesbian people, both as individuals and in relationships; gender representation; and narrative distance. A chronological bibliography is appended. (Contains 13 references.)…

Alex Sanchez writes about the importance of having literature with gay-straight themes available to students to help overcome homophobia and provide safer schools for everyone. Letters received from middle school, junior high school, and high school boys and girls across America in response to Sanchez's gay-straight themed novels are narrated.

This paper describes an elective course in twentieth century lesbian novels, designed for women, that explored the cultural dimensions of lesbianism. It traces the development of the course from the time of its proposal to the departmental curriculum committee to its conclusion at the end of the spring sememster, discusses the publicity and…