Transgender Day of Remembrance

A friend of mine just posted this on Facebook for the Transgender Day of Remembrance so I thought I’d share it with you. I think the “Show Your Support” section is particularly important. It’s not enough that we label ourselves allies and treat our trans* friends with respect, we need to challenge prejudiced views when we hear them.

Trans* rights are often seen as “the next frontier” and we at Out on the Shelves are actively working to support these groups by building our trans* collection. Come check out our books, or go to a Transgender Day event near you and show your support!

(I’d just like to add, as a nerdy librarian, that I love this term: trans*. That truncation asterisk is some proper Boolean logic! Right on!)

Coming Out

The New York Times recently put up a fantastic multimedia post on its website focusing on youth coming out. Check it out and come look in our library for books on coming out!

Amazonia by Sky Croft

Qmunity was contacted by author Sky Croft, who asked us to spread the word about her new lesbian romance novel, Amazonia.

Here’s the synopsis:

What happens when you finally find the woman of your dreams, but your twin sister despises her?

Amazonian twin sisters Shale and Kale are as different as night from day, but they have an unbreakable bond–a bond that is tested to its limit when their tribe is brutally slaughtered by an unknown assailant. Seeking revenge, redemption, and a new place to call home, the twin warriors travel to another tribe, where they find an ally in Blake, an Amazon princess. Shale and Blake form an instant connection, much to Kale’s obvious unease.

As Shale strives to make friends and fit into their new tribe, a matter made all the more difficult by jealous rivals, power struggles, and her forthright twin, she must also let down her guard to Blake and surrender her heart, a most unnatural task for a warrior.When the deadly assailant suddenly reappears, not only is the blossoming love between Shale and Blake threatened, but the lives of the entire tribe. Will these warring Amazons find common ground and ultimately unite? Or will the entire Amazon nation fall?

LGBT History Month

October is wrapping up! Where does the time go?

Each day this month, Huffington Post highlighted one LGBT History Month Icon. Among the many recognized were several authors and artists.

Reading is sexy!

Find works by featured icons Tom of Finland, RuPaul, Kate Bornstein and Ellen Degeneres in our library and check out articles about the rest of the Icons here!

Don’t like to read? Well then how about some movie suggestions from HuffPo?

Emily Dickinson and Her Lover?

A photo (estimated to have been taken in 1859) has recently surfaced of two women who look an awful lot like Emily Dickinson and Kate Scott Turner, who is rumoured to have been Dickinson’s lover.  Some researchers believe the rumour, and don’t these two look crazy in love? No? Well, maybe people just had fewer facial expressions back then.

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

As you may have already guessed, we’re pretty big Jeanette Winterson fans around here, so when her biography came out recently, we had to snag it. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is such an engrossing read; I could barely put it down!

I was  a woman. I was a working-class woman. I was a woman who wanted to love women without guilt or ridicule. Those three things formed the basis of my politics, not the unions, or class war as understood by the male Left.

I loved this book because her writing is so conversational and engaging; she really wears her heart on her sleeve. There are so many moments of poignant, relatable insights that I simply had to bookmark passages to share with you. It was difficult only choosing a few.

Growing up is difficult. Strangely, even when we have stopped growing physically, we seem to have to keep on growing emotionally, which involves both expansion and shrinkage, as some parts of us develop and others must be allowed to disappear… Rigidity never works; we end up being the wrong size for our world.

Be warned though, this isn’t exactly a light, fun romp through an idyllic British childhood. Her story begins with adoption, rejection and homophobia.

And all my life I have repeated patterns of rejection. My success with books felt like gatecrashing. When critics and the press turned on me, I roared back in rage, and no, I didn’t believe the things they said about me or my work…. but I did know that I wasn’t wanted.

But there are lighter notes, too. This biography is Winterson’s winding journey towards self-discovery and self-acceptance, with a healthy dose of bibliophilia to help her on her way. (No wonder she resonates with us lesbrarians.)

There is always a wildcard. And what I had were books. What I had, most of all, was the language that books allowed. A way to talk about complexity. A way to “keep the heart awake to love and beauty” (Coleridge).

Ultimately, this is a work about learning how to love others and oneself in a society that does not always make it an easy task.

I taught myself how to stand on my own two feet, but I could not teach myself how to love. We have a capacity for language. We have a capacity for love. We need other people to release those capacities.

Intrigued yet? You should be; this memoir is well worth your time. So run out to your nearest library (could that be us?) and pick up a copy!

Record Number of Gay Characters on TV!

 

The Globe and Mail just reported on a study by GLAAD that found “said there are 31 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender roles, accounting for 4.4 per cent of the 701 characters in scripted dramas and sitcoms on the five US broadcast networks. The number of LGBT roles on cable television also increased this season to 61, the group added.”

Well, 4.4 is better than zero, right?

 

Photo credit: Alex Rose/Fox

Gay Young Adult Fiction

We just got a book donated by its author (a local!), Micheal Harris! Homo features a gay teen struggling with the consequences of being outed on Facebook. Come check it out!

Want more young adult fiction? Thanks to a very generous donation from a  member on the American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award committee, we now have recent gay young adult fiction on the shelves, including several by the popular author Alex Sanchez. Come check them out!

Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro—25 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Tanka                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Edited and with an Introduction by Janick Belleau

Qmunity just received a press release for Chiaroscuro—25 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Tanka, composed of poems called “tanka” (a Japanese form consisting of five lines of set beats: 5-7-5-7-7) from international LGBT poets. The editor, Janick Belleau, writes:

All of the tanka in this collection stray from the birds and the bees. Since I wanted to favour an intimate content, I selected poems conveying a strong emotion or evoking inner thoughts, profound aspirations, heartfelt concerns. The ultimate intent of this project is to give voice to LGBT and androgyne persons, friends and supporters. I hope the selection reflects the various colours of the rainbow . . . sometimes tinted chiaroscuro. In the end, the personal becomes universal even in the small community called Tanka.

Here are two of our favorites from the sampling:

my son’s boyfriend
three words i practice saying
alone in my room
while fireflies in love
beckon at my window

-Roberta Beary (USA/Ireland)

approaching the light
he tells her to go straight
she turns
to her Dad with a smile
I tried, but it didn’t work       

-Susan Constable (Canada)      

Trans Webcomics

Image by Morgan Boecher from http://whatsnormalanyway.net/

While there are an increasing number of awesome books written by Trans authors (Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation and Wanting in Arabic being my current favorites), it is often hard to access these books without shelling out the money to buy them online. Even here at the Out on the Shelves Library, our trans section is often too small to provide patrons with the information they seek.

Fortunately, there is a strong online community of trans authors producing some amazing art.  My current personal favourites are the trans webcomics:

What’s Normal Anyway
http://whatsnormalanyway.net/

What’s Normal Anyway is a touching and hilarious look at the life of the fictional trans-male character Mel. I find Mel really compelling because he is continually grappling with what it means to be a man who does not fit macho male stereotypes.  The author of the comic, Morgan Boecher, artfully raises profound questions about gender through the medium of short and extremely accessible comics.  While I recommend this webcomic to everyone no matter their gender identity, it may be particularly useful for FTMs who are transitioning.  This is in part because the comic does not shy away from the difficulties some trans-men face such as the pain involved in breast-binding, being a man who gets a period, and the complexities of online dating as someone who does not fit neatly into categories.  Another interesting aspect of this comic is that the author takes suggestion from fans.  Thus, the the main character Mel combines the experiences of a community of trans-men.

Rooster Tails
http://www.roostertailscomic.com/

Rooster Tails is an autobiographical webcomic following the lives of a trans couple from New Zealand.  Much like What’s Normal Anyway, this comic grapples with what it means to be a white man who is also a feminist and anti-oppression activist.  While both characters use male pronouns, they play a lot with gender and genderqueerness.  They show that transition can mean many different things and that there isn’t one “right” way to be trans-man. Perhaps my favourite aspect of the comic is the way it portrays the bodies of trans-men in a really positive, sweet, and loving way. The writers are also fat-positive and celebrate fat-queerness through some very cute/sexy images. I really love the intimacy portrayed throughout the comic.  In fact, I think it is one of the best expressions of the pleasures of a long term relationship I have ever read (queer or straight).

Trans Girl Diaries
http://transgirldiaries.com/

If you are looking for something darker and more angesty, then you may like the trans girl diaries.  I find this comic continually challenging as its often violent images portray a darker look at being trans and facing hate from society, the trans community, and oneself.  I think this comic is important because the author is putting a lot of really raw emotions into her work that may resonate with many trans-people facing external and internal forms of oppression.  However, this comic may trigger some readers and is definitely not for everyone.

The Princess
http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Princess/5406659/

This comic is the only trans web-comic I’ve read so far that is specifically written for kids!  It is really awesome to see portrayals of kids who are trans,  trans-activists and willing to stand up to bullies.  I definitely recommend it for youth interested in challenging gender binaries.

Further Resources:
For an interview with trans web artists, you can listen to this interview at The Webcast Beacon at:
http://www.webcastbeacon.com/webcomic-170-gender-identity-trans-issue-webcomics/