Homosexuality in Literature for Young People

The Story and Access to the Story

Abstract

This paper reports on an ongoing project, Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom: Homosexuality in Literature for Young People, which commenced in 1989.  The project is to record the books that are available for young people in which there are gay, lebian, or bisexual characters, or in which issues related to homosexuality are discussed.  A secondary aim is to investigate the access that young people actually have to these books through their school or public libraries. The majority of the books are novels for teens or sub-teens, but there are also picture books for young children, the latter aimed particularly (though not exclusively) at chidlren growing up in gay or lesbian families. In general it seems that, for a variety of reasons, young people may not have ready access to many of these books.