LGBT teens from all over the U.S., in search of hope, inspiration and acceptance are turning to their public libraries and bookstores more and more these days. The reason? They are slowly discovering plenty of gay themed fiction and non-fiction to lean back on, AP is reporting.
Thankfully, there has been a recent explosion in the publishing world, they are now turning out more and more text that is reaching the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning teens. There is a market building for these works and with acceptance becoming more widespread, more and more teens are gaining the confidence to seek out the stories.
"I see the characters trickling into the mainstream genres. I really like that," one student told the AP. "It makes being gay feel natural, which it is, of course. Books give you hope."
Among their favorites are Martin Wilson's 2008 debut, What They Always Tell Us, David Levithan and John Green’s Will Grayson, Will Grayson and Nancy Garden’s Annie on My Mind. Will Grayson, the most successful to date, debuted on the NY Times children’s best-seller list and stayed there for three weeks.
Green, one of the co-writer’s of Grayson was proud of his achievement and proud of the book’s success. "Landing as high on the New York Times list as we did made a big statement to the children's publishing world that gay characters are not a commercial liability," he said. "This is an important statement to make."
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