LGBT YA

[eyeblink]

I'm not asking if it exists, as I know it does. Recommendations, comments etc please.

Lesbian:

Julie Burchill, Sugar Rush. (I have read this and was underwhelmed. JB is a well-known and rather confrontational print journalist in the UK and this apparently was her attempt to write a YA novel that crossed over to adults. I was never really convinced by the central character who sounded more like JB than anyone else. However, it was the basis of a TV serial which ran to two series and is, just for once, much better than the book. There is a book sequel, Sweet, but I haven't read it.)

Gay (Male):
Paul Magrs, Strange Boy. Another adult novelist goes YA. Set in the 80s. Not read it.

(sort of) Meg Rosoff, What I Was. Recommended but only marginally gay, for reasons you'll have to read the novel to find out.


Bisexual:

Can't think of any. Anyone?

Transgender/Transsexual:
Julie Anne Peters, Luna. Not read it.

There's also David Walliams's The Boy in the Dress. I've not read it, and I tend to be suspicious of celebrities who've suddenly always wanted to write a children's book. I'm not sure quite who it's aimed at - it looks like a MG book (complete with Quentin Blake illustrations, not that there's anything wrong with that) but the content is by all accounts YA. (Not just the cross-dressing theme, but there's apparently a scene where the protagonist finds his Dad's porn collection.) Most of the reviews on Amazon are favourable, but I notice they're all by adults, not teens. Has anyone here read it?


No doubt there's lots more, and I'd be interested in any recommendations.

[Shady Lane]

Lesbian:

Keeping You a Secret and Between Mom and Jo and I think there a few others...by Julie Ann Peters (she does a lot of GLBT stuff). I haven't read these, but my sister's a big fan. (She loves Luna as well.)

Gay male:

Boy Meets Boy and The Realm of Possibility and others by David Levithan. I adore him.

Rainbow Boys, Rainbow High, and Rainbow Road and others by Alex Sanchez. He does a lot of interracial gay relationships, which are interesting, but I find his writing to be lacking.

My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr--this is one of my favorite books EVER. It's so subtle and so beautiful, told from the POV of the sister watching her brother and his best friend (?) boyfriend (?) and subsequently falling in love with this best friend/boyfriend. It's unbelievably smart, never underestimates the reader's powers of perception, and doesn't offer any straight answers, but God it's fantastic.

[veinglory]

While not gay per se 'The Brazen Mirror' has some material about gender and sexual orientation.

[wandergirl]

The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson features a bisexual (and a lesbian) main character.

[Cassidy]

Hello...
Lee Wind's website (leewind.org) is called I'm Here, I'm Queer, Now What do I Read? and lists, categorizes and reviews GLBT YA novels. Elisabeth Hegerat is a Canadidan librarian who keeps a list of Canadian GLBT fiction-- here's the link:

http://elisabethreads.wordpress.com/category/all_sorts_of_books/glbt_books/

I loved My Heartbeat. Beautifully written book.

A brand new book by a Canadian writer is Gravity by Leanne Lieberman-- the main character is a teenage girl trying to reconcile her sexuality with her religious beliefs (she is Jewish).

Another book about a trangendered main character is Ellen Wittlinger's novel Parrotfish. Does anyone know of others?

Some of my own books have queer characters. My first novel, Out of Order, has a main character who is trying to figure out her sexuality, among other things, and also a secondary character who is a lesbian. My forthcoming YA novel, Inferno , has a queer main character though this is not the focus of the book.

I have heard that the Bermudez Triangle is good... look forward to following up on some of the recomendations here.

[nayner]

and doesn't offer any straight answers,

tee hee, PUN!

[nayner]

I second the rec for Boy Meets Boy. I loved it!

there's also Geography Club, by Brent Hartinger which was OK. It has a sequel, Order of the Poison Oak, which I have not read.
EDIT: Geography Club's protag is gay male, but there are also lesbians involved in the story.

For lesbian, there's always the classic Annie on my Mind.

[eyeblink]

One I forgot about - Aidan Chambers's Dance on My Grave from 1982 (gay male).

The same author's Postcards from No Man's Land is recommended but not really a LGBT novel - though it does have a gay man and a bi man as major characters.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. As I'm on the other side of the Atlantic to most of you, it's good to get US titles on this list. And thanks for keeping this thread at a civilised level - not the case with the last gay-themed thread in this forum!

[Stunted]

Nick and Norah has some gay guys.

[Ken]

lesbian YA:

Recently wrote one, myself. Will let you know if it makes it to print ;-)
Came out okay, and also felt good to be promoting open-mindedness :-)

[Cassidy]

Oh, I just remembered another that I absolutely loved: Peter Cameron's Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You.

[Shady Lane]

Oh, I just remembered another that I absolutely loved: Peter Cameron's Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You.

My sister got me this for Christmas! I'm so excited to read it.

[Dichroic]

I think even if I were an actual young adult (as opposed to just a reader of YA) I've have little interest in reading something whose plot was "I think I'm gay, now what?" What I would like to read is "Oh no, I have to save the world - oh, and being L, G, B or T happens to be part of who I am". In other words, the same books I read anyway (my YA faves tend to be SF or fantasy) but with a more realistic* distribution of sexuality. That is, certainly some of these MCs should be gay, or bi-curious, or feeling like they're in the wrong body or whatever. One that comes to mind is one of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar trilogies - it's been long enough that I forget the titles. What others are like that?


*Over the years I've noticed I knew a *lot* more LGBT folks online than in the flesh, enough to make me suspect that the truth was that a lot of people still aren't comfortable coming out in public. Given that in the last year I've had a close relative and a close friend come out about their sexuality and a coworker announce that he is transitioning M to F, I'm pretty sure that hypothesis is correct.

[Shady Lane]

I agree, Dichroic--though I don't read SFF, it's always refreshing to read a GLBT book with plot and character motivations that aren't--or at least not only--coming out related angst. There's so much more to the GLBT teenage experience.

[Nakhlasmoke]

I think even if I were an actual young adult (as opposed to just a reader of YA) I've have little interest in reading something whose plot was "I think I'm gay, now what?" What I would like to read is "Oh no, I have to save the world - oh, and being L, G, B or T happens to be part of who I am". In other words, the same books I read anyway (my YA faves tend to be SF or fantasy) but with a more realistic* distribution of sexuality. That is, certainly some of these MCs should be gay, or bi-curious, or feeling like they're in the wrong body or whatever. One that comes to mind is one of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar trilogies - it's been long enough that I forget the titles. What others are like that?


*Over the years I've noticed I knew a *lot* more LGBT folks online than in the flesh, enough to make me suspect that the truth was that a lot of people still aren't comfortable coming out in public. Given that in the last year I've had a close relative and a close friend come out about their sexuality and a coworker announce that he is transitioning M to F, I'm pretty sure that hypothesis is correct.

If mine ever gets published... *grins*

Although it's YA urban fantasy, so might not be up your alley.


er

so to speak.

[eyeblink]

There are two stages to this process, generally defined by relaxation of censorship and social acceptability or otherwise.

The first stage is that you have stories which say "I'm gay, now what?" as Dichroic puts it. In short, stories about LGBT people where the story is all about their being LGBT people and if the story was about something else they would be straight. There are a lot of 60s and 70s films that fall into this category. Similarly there are stories about other minorities that are all about being in a minority - the disabled, interracial marriages etc etc - and the story is all about the experience of being in a minority and nothing else. Take the 1971 film Sunday, Bloody Sunday for example (starring Peter Finch, Murray Head and Glenda Jackson). It's the story of what would now be called a poly arrangement, or a bisexual triangle - Murray Head plays a man who shares his sexual favours with a gay man and a straight woman. It's a good film, very well acted by Finch and Jackson and considered somewhat shocking in its day. But my point is that just exploring that kind of set-up would be enough to power an entire feature film nearly forty years ago. Now it wouldn't really be sufficient - and indeed less shocking.

A second stage story is one where you have a LGBT character or character(s) and they're integrated into the lives of the other characters and the social settings - friendships, loves, hatreds, family bonds - etc that are in your story. That does acknowledge that almost all of us know some LGBT people, even if we don't know we do - we go to school with them, work with them, know them socially, are brothers/sisters/sons/daughters of them, or we are them. And a story, YA or otherwise, that portrays all that is far more interesting than a simple coming-out narrative.

[Shady Lane]

I've written three books that deal with GLBT characters (by the way, is LGBT the standard in the UK and GLBT here? that's weird). The first two, one of which is a sequel to the other, is about a group of five boys. Of the five, 1, 2, or 3 is/are gay, depending on your definition of the word and predilection for labeling. There's no "oh my God he's gay" drama--the drama comes, actually, when boy A, who we assumed would be hung up on boy B forever (and is boy B gay?? oh, the wondering) suddenly goes for boy C (who we knew basically nothing about.) And then boy B wants him back...but none of this is the main plot, just things that go on within the 5 boys's main conflict.

My third is about two boys in a relationship, switching viewpoints between them and the people around them. But the fact that they're both boys is (and I did this intentionally) basically the only thing they don't angst about. They have trouble getting and staying together because they're in completely different places socially--one's captain of the soccer team, the other's a high school pariah--and because they have a complicated past.

I like writing about GLBT relationships, probably because, although I'm straight, due to my lesbian sister and the fact that I followed her everywhere for seventeen years, the large majority of the people I know consider themselves queer. I usually have a hint of sexual ambiguity in anything I write.

Plus, I hate writing girls, and man it's fun to write a kissing scene that doesn't include any.

[eyeblink]

I didn't know there was a standard order of the letters, except that BLGT sounds like the contents of a sandwich. :)

I'm glad I can write lengthy opinionated AW posts at 7 in the morning and have them come out coherent, and thanks for your reply. Your three novels sound like exactly what I meant by "second stage" works.

I hate writing girls

I'm the opposite, and do it a lot. On the other hand I don't hate writing about boys/men - I have been known to do it from time to time...

[Dichroic]

There are two stages to this process, generally defined by relaxation of censorship and social acceptability or otherwise.



Makes sense to me. Given your definitions I'd say that we as a society are transitioning from Stage 1 to Stage 2 and so there are both sorts of books coming out just now (still more of 1 than 2, I think).

Thing is, I suspect that Stage 1 books are critically important at a particular point in time (to a teenager just figuring herself out, for instance) it's the Stage 2 books that have the staying power and can be read for decades, just because they're not single-issue stories. This is assuming good writing in both cases, obviously.

[Shady Lane]

Completely agree, Dichroic. To pull my sister back into it, I remember there was a time when she was fourteen or fifteen that she read nothing but coming-out books. I couldn't understand how she didn't get bored. Now, she reads a lot more of the Stage 2 type books. As do I--I never really got into the Stage 1s.

[Bonnie Shimko]

Here's a shameless plug:

My first novel, Letters in the Attic, won a Lambda Literary Award and has been published in Chinese and Italian.

[reenkam]

For those of you looking for LGBT that isn't just a coming out story...

Perry Moore's Hero

gay superhero. i think it did well. stan lee wants to make a movie.

[Nakhlasmoke]

ooh i've heard of it Reen, and I'm dying to read.

[AyJay]

Hey Joe by Ben Neihart is a great male coming of age novel that deals with a young man's homosexuality in a very matter of fact way.

[eyeblink]

Thread resurrection...

I'm currently writing a LGBT YA novel (see sig) - the L and the B part, in a love triangle - so thanks again for the recommendations. I'll be looking to get hold of copies of some of these, partly to get some idea of how other writers have dealt with the subject. What I'm particularly aiming at is a "second-stage" novel as I define it above, with the reactions to friends, family etc to the central triangle being vital. In some ways, these other people have an investment in one or more of the central three characters, and I'd like to show how some of these investments come under threat.

As most of the books mentioned are US-published only, Amazon will have to be my friend. :) Accordingly to Wikipedia, about ten or a dozen YA novels on LGBT themes are published in the USA every year, but in the UK it's been a handful at best. (And Aidan Chambers was clearly way ahead of his time in 1982.) Further evidence that YA as a publishing category seems to be a lot more developed in the USA than it is the UK.

[Blind Writer]

ASH by Malinda Lo deals with lesbians, and it is AMAZING!!

[elissa]

In TDBB, girl MC is on a road trip with best friend, and part of the story is that they are experimenting with their sexuality. MC is conflicted 'cause she also likes a boy they meet...it causes drama. Anna and Kat decide to avoid labeling themselves, but yeah. It's not really a coming-out story (though Anna's dad does accidentally find out about the whole situation, which causes a small amount of other drama...), but their relationship and Anna's reaction to her attraction for a girl is part of the plot and character arcs.

[Cassidy]

A friend of mine has a great one that was a Lambda finalist this year: the book is called Mousetraps and the author is Pat Schmatz. She's awesome and so is her book.

And my novel Inferno came out this year-- queer MC, but not primarily a coming out story. It's about other stuff... because although there are some great queer YA novels about coming out, I really wanted to write one that wasn't.

[eyeblink]

The thing that worries me just a little about my WIP is that I'm in the UK, and while I can point to several US GLBT-themed YA novels as I say above there are very few UK examples so marketing types may say there's no market for my novel. (And of the examples I mention in my first post in this thread Burchill and Magrs had published adult novels before they turned to YA, and Burchill in particular was famous as a journalist. Chambers's was his second novel and was published in 1982. And Rosoff's was her third and she was already established and prizewinning - and What I Was is a borderline case anyway. Oh, and I suppose I could mention Sarra Manning's Guitar Girl, since one of the protag's female friends makes a pass at her in that.)

They might also think that if the Daily Mail (right-wing UK newspaper) could get hold of it and run one of their "Won't someone think of the children?" scare stories - I think they did one when Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels was published, likewise with certain of Melvin Burgess's novels. They also did one last year when the Guardian Award longlist had two novels with the word "Knife" in their titles. I despise the Daily Mail and all it stands for, but then again I'm not a marketing person - though you could argue that no publicity is bad publicity.

On the other hand, there are as many gay and bisexual teenagers (relative to population size) in the UK as there are anywhere else, so why shouldn't they read about other gay and bisexual teenagers?

I guess it wouldn't be too difficult in principle to set Partings and Greetings in the USA with a high school junior/senior setting, though in practice I would need a US writer on board as I'm sure there are all kinds of details I would never think of would need to be changed and that's a lot to ask someone to do as a favour. That would make the novel pretty close to a full-scale collaboration.

Anyway, I'm not planning to worry too much at the moment, as my priority is to get the book written as best I can, then throw it at the mercy of beta-readers. :)

[Ugawa]

Don't know if these are already down but:

The Geography Club - I didn't enjoy it. It's not that well written and the story isn't great, but it has a good lesson to learn.

My side of the story - It's not great and does drag a bit with not much happening, but it made me laugh in a lot of places.

[Ugawa]

The thing that worries me just a little about my WIP is that I'm in the UK, and while I can point to several US GLBT-themed YA novels as I say above there are very few UK examples so marketing types may say there's no market for my novel. (And of the examples I mention in my first post in this thread Burchill and Magrs had published adult novels before they turned to YA, and Burchill in particular was famous as a journalist. Chambers's was his second novel and was published in 1982. And Rosoff's was her third and she was already established and prizewinning - and What I Was is a borderline case anyway. Oh, and I suppose I could mention Sarra Manning's Guitar Girl, since one of the protag's female friends makes a pass at her in that.)

They might also think that if the Daily Mail (right-wing UK newspaper) could get hold of it and run one of their "Won't someone think of the children?" scare stories - I think they did one when Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels was published, likewise with certain of Melvin Burgess's novels. They also did one last year when the Guardian Award longlist had two novels with the word "Knife" in their titles. I despise the Daily Mail and all it stands for, but then again I'm not a marketing person - though you could argue that no publicity is bad publicity.

On the other hand, there are as many gay and bisexual teenagers (relative to population size) in the UK as there are anywhere else, so why shouldn't they read about other gay and bisexual teenagers?

I guess it wouldn't be too difficult in principle to set Partings and Greetings in the USA with a high school junior/senior setting, though in practice I would need a US writer on board as I'm sure there are all kinds of details I would never think of would need to be changed and that's a lot to ask someone to do as a favour. That would make the novel pretty close to a full-scale collaboration.

Anyway, I'm not planning to worry too much at the moment, as my priority is to get the book written as best I can, then throw it at the mercy of beta-readers. :)


Don't worry too much about it. After realizing that American agents were probably the best way to go, I Americanized my LGBT novel with the help of 2 American betas, so you could always do that if you feel an English styled one wouldn't work. And don't worry too much about the 'no market' thing. If it's written well it will get a place. My LGBT novel has 6 agents looking at it at the moment (some who haven't represented LGBT before), so there is a place for it.

[eyeblink]

Thanks, Ugawa. I need to concentrate on writing the thing now, and worry about other issues later. As I always say, bridges are to be crossed when you get to them. :)

[eyeblink]

Moving off-topic a little, there are films and TV series dealing with teenage LGBT themes which would have been called YA if they were books.

I'm thinking of Rickie in My So-Called Life, way back in 1994/95. There must be quite a few other examples, though I can't think of one. (I don't know if the British series Grange Hill, a drama series set in a secondary school that ran for 30 years, ever dealt with a LGBT teen, though it was a pretty groundbreaking show in the issues it did deal with.)

On the big screen, there are a couple of British movies, Beautiful Thing from 1996 and Get Real from 1998, both based on stage plays and both about teenage boys coming out.

There's also the Swedish movie Fucking Åmål (1998), which is about two teenage girls' affair in the local equivalent of high/secondary school. (Åmål is the name of the small town where the story is set, and where most of the characters want to get away from. The film is called Show Me Love in English-speaking countries for some reason. :))

[Ugawa]

Moving off-topic a little, there are films and TV series dealing with teenage LGBT themes which would have been called YA if they were books.

I'm thinking of Rickie in My So-Called Life, way back in 1994/95. There must be quite a few other examples, though I can't think of one. (I don't know if the British series Grange Hill, a drama series set in a secondary school that ran for 30 years, ever dealt with a LGBT teen, though it was a pretty groundbreaking show in the issues it did deal with.)

On the big screen, there are a couple of British movies, Beautiful Thing from 1996 and Get Real from 1998, both based on stage plays and both about teenage boys coming out.

There's also the Swedish movie Fucking Åmål (1998), which is about two teenage girls' affair in the local equivalent of high/secondary school. (Åmål is the name of the small town where the story is set, and where most of the characters want to get away from. The film is called Show Me Love in English-speaking countries for some reason. :))

*nods*

I watched Show Me Love the other night. I didn't think it was great, but it was okay for a boring sunday night in. I liked Beautiful Thing, though. It had Shirley from Eastenders in (she was pretty when she was younger). I've never watched Get real. One of my betas said that my MS reminded her of it. (I'm too scared that I'll watch it and find out my MS is a rip of it. lol)

Have you watched:

Billy's Hollywood Scene Kiss
Curiosity of Chance
But I'm a cheerLeader

And there's two I can't remember the names for.

(The one where the boy realizes he's gay after falling for the boy at his summer job)

(The one where the boy has a coloured lesbian friend who gets with their crazy estate agent)

[eyeblink]

I've seen Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss and thought it was okay. I've not seen the others you mention and I don't know the titles of the last two.

I saw Get Real at the time of its cinema release. It was set and filmed in a town not very far away from me and which I've visited (Basingstoke). There's one scene where some of the characters go to the cinema, and it was filmed in Basingstoke's actual multiplex. It must have been a weird experience watching the film in that cinema - and it did play there, I checked!

Apart from that, I did like it when I saw it, though that was over ten years ago now and I haven't seen it since. It's the story of a gay teenage boy who's in love with the school football captain. The latter is also gay but is very closeted, with a girlfriend. He'll have sex with our protagonist but won't come out, which causes much of the film's conflict. There's a big upbeat finale where the protagonist comes out in front of the whole school. (Up to then, apart from the school captain, the only person who knew was his girl best friend and confidante.) Does that sound like your MS?

[Ugawa]

I've seen Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss and thought it was okay. I've not seen the others you mention and I don't know the titles of the last two.

I saw Get Real at the time of its cinema release. It was set and filmed in a town not very far away from me and which I've visited (Basingstoke). There's one scene where some of the characters go to the cinema, and it was filmed in Basingstoke's actual multiplex. It must have been a weird experience watching the film in that cinema - and it did play there, I checked!

Apart from that, I did like it when I saw it, though that was over ten years ago now and I haven't seen it since. It's the story of a gay teenage boy who's in love with the school football captain. The latter is also gay but is very closeted, with a girlfriend. He'll have sex with our protagonist but won't come out, which causes much of the film's conflict. There's a big upbeat finale where the protagonist comes out in front of the whole school. (Up to then, apart from the school captain, the only person who knew was his girl best friend and confidante.) Does that sound like your MS?

Not really. I don't think.

My MC (Rick) is the advice Columnist at his high school. (It’s set in America) He gets an email from a Mr. In-The-Closet and it turns out to be his math tutor(Callum). They end up going out after a whole lot of drama and Rick can’t stand being second best to Callum's cover-up girlfriend, so he quits the advice column and writes one last article coming out to the rest of the school. The two end up breaking up, then they get back together at the end.

End’s long-story-short:

Callum had given Rick a ring (names engraved). Rick gives it back when they break up. Callum’s friend finds it (he already got the feeling they were going out, and he’s homophobic) and thinks Rick had given it to Callum so ‘beats the message’ into Rick that Callum isn’t interested. Callum ends up saving Rick. Blah. Blah. Blah. Back together.

Does it sound like Get Real’s ending?

[Kitty Pryde]

Some more LGBT YA movies:

But I'm a Cheerleader! this one is pure brilliance-girl realizes she is a lesbian, all hell breaks loose
Were the World Mine - I also looooove this one. Gay boy in love with the captain of the rugby team acts in 'a midsummer night's dream' and uses a magic potion to turn his whole town gay, wacky antics ensue. This one's probably my favorite movie I've seen in the last couple years.
Saved! - another great one, girl's boyfriend realizes he's gay, everyone is Christian and they go nuts
Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls In Love - loooooove this one too, one of very few movies about an interracial lesbian couple
Bam Bam & Celeste - gay boy and his bff are hated by everyone in their small town, go to the big city to make good. Also it has margaret cho in it!
Chutney Popcorn - another interracial lesbian couple (white girl and indian-american girl), they are out of high school but extremely young and naive, like maybe age 19.

wow, that was a lot. Those are all really good ones. There are some lousy ones out there too (like D.E.B.S.) but all of these are big fun.

[Geek_Pride]

The ending of Get Real.

The two guys are about to kiss in the locker room, when the bullies unexpectedly return. John (The football player) then feels he really must be seen to be beating Steven. He throws him onto the floor and kicks him. So Steven is bruised in both body and soul when he comes to the ceremony at which he is to receive the prize for a newspaper competition. At the microphone, before a large audience of school and parents, instead of a word of thanks for his prize he emotionally comes out as gay. He looks to John for support, but John refuses it. Steven leaves to a standing ovation and is greeted by his mother and by Jessica and Linda.
John is shattered. Steven finds him on a bench outside the school. John apologises, and says he has never loved anyone so much. But Steven insists that his coming out must force them now to be open. John being still unable to come to terms, Steven wishes him happiness in his life, and walks away to his own.

That probably makes no sense if you have not watched the film lol. I think you should watch it. It would ease your concerns!

[Ugawa]

Some more LGBT YA movies:

But I'm a Cheerleader! this one is pure brilliance-girl realizes she is a lesbian, all hell breaks loose
Were the World Mine - I also looooove this one. Gay boy in love with the captain of the rugby team acts in 'a midsummer night's dream' and uses a magic potion to turn his whole town gay, wacky antics ensue. This one's probably my favorite movie I've seen in the last couple years.
Saved! - another great one, girl's boyfriend realizes he's gay, everyone is Christian and they go nuts
Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls In Love - loooooove this one too, one of very few movies about an interracial lesbian couple
Bam Bam & Celeste - gay boy and his bff are hated by everyone in their small town, go to the big city to make good. Also it has margaret cho in it!
Chutney Popcorn - another interracial lesbian couple (white girl and indian-american girl), they are out of high school but extremely young and naive, like maybe age 19.

wow, that was a lot. Those are all really good ones. There are some lousy ones out there too (like D.E.B.S.) but all of these are big fun.

Thanks for the suggestions. *writes down*

I can't remember the name for it, but isn't there a movie where this boy fights to be able to bring his bf to his school dance?

[Ugawa]

The ending of Get Real.

The two guys are about to kiss in the locker room, when the bullies unexpectedly return. John (The football player) then feels he really must be seen to be beating Steven. He throws him onto the floor and kicks him. So Steven is bruised in both body and soul when he comes to the ceremony at which he is to receive the prize for a newspaper competition. At the microphone, before a large audience of school and parents, instead of a word of thanks for his prize he emotionally comes out as gay. He looks to John for support, but John refuses it. Steven leaves to a standing ovation and is greeted by his mother and by Jessica and Linda.
John is shattered. Steven finds him on a bench outside the school. John apologises, and says he has never loved anyone so much. But Steven insists that his coming out must force them now to be open. John being still unable to come to terms, Steven wishes him happiness in his life, and walks away to his own.

That probably makes no sense if you have not watched the film lol. I think you should watch it. It would ease your concerns!

Thanks. Lol. I might watch it tonight.

[eyeblink]

Does it sound like Get Real’s ending?


No, not really. The ending is the protagonist coming out. The football captain remains closeted at the end, and won't speak to the protagonist. So a bittersweet ending, really. There's a sense that protagonist (whose name is Steven, by the way - just checked the IMDB) is moving on to a future while the football captain (John) is hobbled by his deception.

ETA: Geek Pride got there before me, and with more detail. She's obviously seen it much more recently than me!

Talking of TV shows, there's Sugar Rush which made it to two series and is I think better than the novel it's based on. Also, Skins has had some gay characters - two girls in the third series. Both of these are for very much older teenagers - the DVDs of both are rated 18.

[Ugawa]

No, not really. The ending is the protagonist coming out. The football captain remains closeted at the end, and won't speak to the protagonist. So a bittersweet ending, really. There's a sense that protagonist (whose name is Steven, by the way - just checked the IMDB) is moving on to a future while the football captain (John) is hobbled by his deception.

ETA: Geek Pride got there before me, and with more detail. She's obviously seen it much more recently than me!

Talking of TV shows, there's Sugar Rush which made it to two series and is I think better than the novel it's based on. Also, Skins has had some gay characters - two girls in the third series. Both of these are for very much older teenagers - the DVDs of both are rated 18.

Thanks.

The L Word seems like a good series too. I've only watched a few episodes, so I wouldn't know.

[Geek_Pride]

No, not really. The ending is the protagonist coming out. The football captain remains closeted at the end, and won't speak to the protagonist. So a bittersweet ending, really. There's a sense that protagonist (whose name is Steven, by the way - just checked the IMDB) is moving on to a future while the football captain (John) is hobbled by his deception.

ETA: Geek Pride got there before me, and with more detail. She's obviously seen it much more recently than me!

Talking of TV shows, there's Sugar Rush which made it to two series and is I think better than the novel it's based on. Also, Skins has had some gay characters - two girls in the third series. Both of these are for very much older teenagers - the DVDs of both are rated 18.

Yeah, I watched it last year :)

[Juneluv12]

I read Deliver Us From Evie(Lesbian) in an Education Grad school class along with Rainbow Boys.

I need to check with my Media Specialist to see if we actually carry any in our library...you know...being from the Bible Belt.

[AyJay]

Ugawa - there is a movie about a boy who fights to bring his b/f to his prom. It's on the tip of my tongue. Prom Queen? (probably not). The movie is set in Quebec, and the MC goes to a Catholic HS. It's an interesting update on the "same-sex couples at proms" phenomenon, which always gets a little newspaper coverage each year. The MC's boyfriend is a little older, which makes it interesting and in some ways more realistic. Not every gay boy falls in love with the high school football star.

Now there's another great French Canadian movie. Has a real strange title I can't quite place. But it was absolutely fantastic. It's set in the early 80's. MC is a gay boy growing up in a French Catholic family. His older brother has drug problems and is the "black sheep" of the family. I remember the moment when the father accepts the MC as being really moving. Who can think of the title??

[eyeblink]

I'm pretty sure I've not seen either of those. The French-Canadian films I can think of that I've seen are mostly some of Denys Arcand's, and they aren't any of his.

[Kitty Pryde]

Thanks for the suggestions. *writes down*

I can't remember the name for it, but isn't there a movie where this boy fights to be able to bring his bf to his school dance?

Prom Queen? I haven't seen it, though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prom_Queen:_The_Marc_Hall_Story

[Kats]

There's also the movie My Summer of Love which was based on the book by Helen Cross. I haven't read the book but quite enjoyed the movie.

[eyeblink]

I have read the book and it's quite interesting. It wasn't published as a YA, though, at least not in the UK. (I've seen the film as well.)

[eyeblink]

At the Worldcon (Melbourne) this afternoon is a panel on "trans characters in YA spec fic". I'll be interested to see what examples they come up with as the only YAs I can think of with trans characters aren't SF or fantasy. My ignorance, no doubt...

[Kitty Pryde]

Trans people in SF and fantasy: http://www.cheryl-morgan.com/?page_id=9294

For YA spec-fic, I dunno. Eon is one. Cycler maybe, though that's kind of a dubious example. Let us know!

[eyeblink]

Thanks - I haven't read either of those examples. Cheryl Morgan is moderating the panel, and Alison Goodman is one of the panellists.

[Kitty Pryde]

Ha! Small world :D

[eyeblink]

Hazel Edwards was the other panellist - she's just cowritten a semi-autobiographical novel called F2M with a F2M trans whose name I'm blanking on right now. As Edwards normally writes picture books she had a problem when publicising this book, as she'd had a new picture book out at the same time...but couldn't talk about both on the same radio and TV programmes.

The titles mentioned above were about all the examples people could come up with, though Cheryl Morgan mentioned a MG book called Questors by Joan Lennon, which features an alien which can choose its sex (if I remember that rightly). Luna got a mention, though it's not SF/F.