This June, the American Library Association is sponsoring GLBT Book Month, a way of bringing attention to writers and literature written by, for, and about the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community and experience. This celebration coincides with the national LGBT Pride Month, which is held in June to memorialize the Stonewall riots of 1969, the beginning of the modern gay liberation movement.

The ALA’s focus is on very recent books, highlighting works published in the popular press in the last year. These include fiction and nonfiction, and works written for adults and for children of all ages. If you’re interested, we can obtain these books or others like them for you through interlibrary loan. As a college library our focus is on academic books. And we have plenty of those – peruse titles like Transnational LGBT Activism: Working for Sexual Rights Worldwide by Ryan Thoreson, LGBT Youth in America’s Schools by Jason Cianciotto, Gay Rights at the Ballot Box by Amy Stone, Right to Be Out by Stuart Biegel, Homosexuality and the Church by Howard Snyder, The A to Z of Homosexuality by Brent Pickett, An American Obsession: Science, Medicine, and Homosexuality in Modern Society by Jennifer Terry, Gay and Lesbian Communities the World Over by Rita Simon, Transgender Rights and Politics: Groups, Issue Framing, and Policy Adoption by Jami Taylor, and Debates in Transgender, Queer, and Feminist Theory by Patricia Elliot. Plenty of hard-hitting scholarship guaranteed to improve any paper, project, or debate!

We also have LGBT-positive books for youth, including Kissing Kate by Lauren Myracle, A Tale of Two Mommies by Vanita Oelschlager, I am Jazz by Jessica Herthel, 10,000 Dresses by Marcus Ewert, Donovan’s Big Day and Daddy, Papa, and Me, by Lesléa Newman, and Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite. Additionally, we have scholarly material in databases like LGBT Studies and GenderWatch, covering journals, documentaries, interviews, and more.

If you need any help, ask us at iueref@iue.edu!