LGBTQ Books

On Friday, June 26, 2015, the United States of America legalized gay marriage in all fifty states. Let's take a moment to celebrate because this has been a long battle. I am a straight allay and I know so many LGBTQ people that deserve to be just as happy as the rest of us so this is a huge step in the right direction. Now, obviously, this isn't the end of the line in terms of struggles for the community but I think it will only get better from here. So, in honor of this amazing event, I have decided to make a list of some books that have, on some level, LGBTQ topics or references. Let's start.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

So this series in general doesn't really focus on romance at all but Rowling has admitted that there are LGBTQ students at Hogwarts. I wanted to include this on the list because in many cases you don't know for sure who was gay and who wasn't. I think that's an important thing to remember because Rowling didn't treat those characters any different from characters who were straight, just like the way real life should be. 

The Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan

Another series that isn't focused that much on romance but has this same element. I won't reveal who it is or when you find out since I do see it as a spoiler but I think it was handled very well. The thing I find most interesting about this character is that Riordan himself didn't really realize this character was gay when he first created them. It makes me think that his characters are even more real if the author is still discovering things about them. While it doesn't play a major role in the story, I do think it will make the reader stop and thing a little.

The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

This series has several characters who are LGBTQ and I kind of love that. It reflects the real world in that it isn't just one person in the main character's life that is gay or bisexual, often times, it's a lot more people. I think that this series does a really great job at portraying the amount of people who are in the community and none of them are "bad people" they are all just characters in this huge and crazy series that just so happen to be gay or bisexual.

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

This book is especially unique, or, it is to me at least, because the main character, Lola, is raised by gay parents. Yes, this means two fathers, no mother. It is definitely a unique situation that I feel should be addressed more often because I think this will be the next major battle for the community. I actually had a conversation about this topic with a co-worker who opposed the idea of being gay but, thankfully, doesn't actively try to stop it or even judges people just based on their sexual orientation. She expressed concerns about same sex couples raising a child and then the child getting confused later in life. I think this book subtly addresses this topic and is an example of a best case scenario. I think that was one of my favorite points of this book, was just the fathers-daughter dynamic.

So those were all of the ones that I could think of right off the bat and that I felt were impactful enough to mention in this post. I have read many other books that mention LGBTQ topics but they were typically extremely brief so I didn't want to include them in this post. Oddly enough, I have not read a book in which the main love story is one of a gay or lesbian couple, but, you know, one day I will. That's it for this post and I hope you all support the community or at least don't try to stop people from being happy. We are truly all equal and should be treated that way. See you guys next week.