If I Lie by Corrine Jackson

Read by: Anna/Copley Teen Room

Before he leaves for Afghanistan, Carey comes out to his girlfriend of two years, asking her to keep the secret he’s told her from everyone in their small military town. Including his parents and his best friend, Blake. But when an accidental picture of Sophie and Blake kissing gets posted on Facebook, the entire town errupts into accusations that Sophie is cheating on her Marine boyfriend. Just like her mother did to her father six years ago. Sophie’s tough military dad orders her to work at the VA hospital three days a week until she graduates to keep her from getting suspended from school over the picture. While at the VA hospital, she comes to befriend George, the grumpy old guy interviewing and photographing veterans for the Veteran’s History Project. He recognizes a professional photographer in her and begins teaching her all he knows. Then Carey goes MIA and the other students begin tormenting Sophie even more than ever before. Friends ask her to explain what happened the night she kissed Blake, but she vowed she wouldn’t, and their tormenting continues, calling her every horrible name in the book from Slut to Traitor. Her life is a living hell, and she doesn’t even know if Carey, the boy she still loves despite everything, will ever return to set the town “straight”. His secret is not hers to tell, and she knows that well.

This novel is extremely gripping. And Kleenex is required toward the end. It’s also realistic in everything that happens to the un-Disney-like ending. George is such an awesome character. The humor he shares with Sophie and their good times are little rays of sunshine in her thunder cloud world. The characters are 3-D, the setting is 3-D, and the author leaves you wondering how the book will end. Will Carey make it home? Will he tell the truth? This book keeps you reading to find out. If you’re wondering what the effects of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell are on the civillians left behind, this is a great, heartfelt example.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the military and what it’s like keeping secrets that could easily destroy or save a life.

 October is LGBTQ history month, and today, Friday October 19, is Spirit Day! Show your LGBTQ spirit by wearing violet or purple or by changing your profile pictures to show something that is violet or by giving your picture a purple hue.

A brief History of the Rainbow Flag and those who created it:

“A true flag cannot be designed – it has to be torn from the soul of the people.” – Gilbert Baker

Who is Gilbert Baker? He’s the man who originally created the rainbow flag we now accociate with LGBTQ Pride.

In 1977 Harvey Milk was elected to the San Fransisco Board of Supervisors. He was the first openly gay man elected to a high public office in a major United States city. Once elected, he asked his friend, Gilbert Baker, to make a symbol of pride for the gay community as Baker had become very proficient with a sewing machine after his honorable discharge from the Army. Milk wanted a positive alternative to the pink triangle, which had been originally used in Nazi Germany to label gay men and was then “taken back” in the early 1970′s by gay men themselves.

Baker dyed the fabrics of the new flag himself and, with the help of volunteers, stitched together eight strips of brilliant color into a huge banner that spoke volumes: hot pink stood for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, turquoise blue for art, indigo for harmony and violet for spirit.

A few of his handmade Rainbow Flags were flown in the 1978 “Gay Freedom Day” Parade in San Francisco. Baker then sought out the Paramount Flag Company to see about mass producing the flag. However, the hot pink color was not readily available commercially so the company produced a seven striped flag instead.

On November 27, 1978 tragedy occured when Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Mascone were assassinated at the San Fransisco City Hall.

Filled with grief and rage, the Gay Freedom Day Committee (now called San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee) quickly decided that the Rainbow Flag should be flown from the light poles along both sides of Market Street for the 1979 Gay Freedom Day Parade. To make it look right, they split the colors onto two flags, flying each of the three-striped flags on alternate sides of the street. They had to eliminate the indigo stripe to make an even six colors, and since then, we’ve stuck with those six colors: red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, and violet.

This is a campaign button for Harvey Milk from the 1970′s before he cut his hair and shaved his mustache.

They always say behind every man is a woman. It’s an age old phrase, even if a bit sexist. But for Harvey Milk, that woman was actually a man named Scott Smith who was his business partner in the camera shop they owned together, his partner in life, and the man who helped to run his political campaigns behind-the-scenes. Here, Scott is on the left with Harvey embracing him from behind.

And last, but certainly not least, here is a picture of Gilbert Baker and his famed rainbow flag.

*The flag shown in the picture at the top of this blog post was sewn by Gilbert Baker for the 2003 Key West PrideFest in celebration of the 25th aniversary of the original flag. It is the world’s largest pride flag sitting at 1.25 miles long! Since 2003, sections of the Key West Pride flag have appeared at Pride events all over the world.

Teens are welcome to join Boston Public Library staff, The Teen Council of the Central Library, and Mayor Thomas M. Menino to walk in the Pride Parade this Saturday, June 9! The Teen Council will be making t-shirts to wear for the event. Anyone who wishes to join can make their own shirt, too.

The Pride Parade starts at noon on Boylston Street and Clarendon St. and ends at Government Center. Anyone interested in joining should email teen librarian Anna Draves at adraves@bpl.org.

Day of Silence is a youth movement protesting the silence caused by harassment, prejudice, and discrimination faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies. 

 By keeping silent for the day, you are fighting these injustices.

 What are YOU doing to end the silence?

 Come to the Teen Room at the Central Library to sign our banner with messages of hope, love, and encouragement. Show your support by wearing a DOS sticker as well. The two teen librarians, Mary and Anna will be participating in the day by staying silent on and off all day. While one is silent, the other will be available to answer questions and help patrons find the books and information they need. Then they will switch. Consider joining them in their effort to stand with the silent.

The following poem was written today for our Catharsis Through Poetry workshop while thinking about Day of Silence. It was written by an LGBTQ ally who wishes to remain anonymous.

“Love Who You Love”

Injustice.

It happens everyday.

Must I wear this

Rainbow shirt

To show I care?

Can’t we all

Just get along?

You can’t tell me

Who I am

Who to love.

Am I man?

Am I woman?

Or something

In-between?

Do I love her?

Him?

Hän?

Does it matter?

No.

Love who you love.

Be who you are.

*Hän is a gender neutral pronoun in Finnish.

Don’t Let Me Go by J.H. Trumble   

Read by: Anna/Copley Teen Room

 This is the story of a gay teen, Nate, who forces himself to say goodbye to the love of his life when his boyfriend, Adam, takes on a position at an off-Broadway theater far away from the town they grew up in. Adam moves in with roommates, and suddenly doesn’t have the time to talk to Nate as much as he used to. Nate gets jealous when Adam’s naked roommate keeps walking into their Skype conversation and touching Adam, making references to things that might or might not have happened.

 Lots of emotion is flung around in this novel. Nate makes new friends, and attempts to gain a new boyfriend, even though he can’t get Adam out of his head. I truly enjoyed this story for the real raw emotions it portrayed. There were a lot of tears, a lot of anger, but it was all worth it for the happy ending. If you like reading gay romance novels, I would highly recommend this well written novel! Plus, there’s a playlist at the very end if you’re interested in that kind of thing.

 “What we’re trying to do is reach out to the hip-hop community because they have power — power with their voice, power with that mic in their hand and power with the lyrics that they sing. I have a lot of friends in that industry and so what we’re trying to do is rally them to get behind the cause, deliver the message to these young people that HIV and AIDS is big and it’s not going anywhere. They can make a difference right away by speaking out, because they have a big fan base.

So we’re finding out that a lot of them want to be involved; they’re just looking for a group like ours to latch onto and be a part of it. We haven’t really had any push-back from the hip-hop community.”

There will be a press conference later this year when Johnson plans to reveal who all will be joining him in this venture.

Seriously, guys, how cool is that? I’d say that’s very cool. Let’s hope he can get a LOT of star power to back him up.

To read the article as posted on GLAAD’s website, here’s the link: http://www.glaad.org/blog/magic-johnson-teams-rappers-address-homophobia-hip-hop

For those of you who don’t know www.goodreads.com is a social networking site geared toward book lovers. There, you can keep track of the books you’ve read, liked, hated, or books you want to read. You can write reviews, talk to others who felt the same way about a book you read, and join in group discussions.

There are groups for fans of a specific author, or fans of a specific genre, even fans of other things like knitting, or football. Whatever group you’re dreaming of, it’s probably there. And if it’s not, feel free to create it!

Why do I mention this? I’ve heard from many teens who visit the Copley Teen Room that there aren’t enough LGBTQ books in our collection. I’m working furiously to change that, but I wanted to give you guys a heads up that there IS a Goodreads group specifically for YA LGBTQ books and those people who read them. How fricken cool is that?!?! Yeah, that’s what I said when I found out!

The group is called “YA LGBT Books”. All you need to do is join Goodreads for free, and then join the group within the website. They have a monthly book group that nominates a different book to read each month and then they discuss it once it’s read. You can join in! Feel free to nominate your favorite books, and read the book of the month. It is here you can find more LGBTQ books than you ever thought were possible to exist. So check them out, and start reviewing them today!

And if you should find something you think we should have in our teen collection, be it LGBTQ or not, let us know! We want to order what you want to read. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Now, I know I mentioned Lady Gaga in the title of this post. Why? Because I found an awesome fan video done to one of her songs, featuring a gay wedding twist I thought you might like. Check it out below:

Do I hear birds chirping outside? Does anyone have an answer?

That’s because there is nothing in common between the LGBTQ community and professional team sports.

It’s a rather sad fact that most people who consider themselves LGBTQ don’t think they can play professional sports, whether it’s hockey, baseball, football, basketball, or anything else out there because men’s sports tend to be a very homophobic area to work in.

But today, one very important man took the initial step to change all that. The Phoenix Suns’ president, Rick Welts, came out to the world as a gay man.

For decades, Rick Welts has kept one of the most important parts of his life secret from the rest of the world, having to deal with the death of a longtime partner, Arnie, alone in 1994, as well as other things.

“In these meetings and in interviews with The New York Times, Mr. Welts explained that he wants to pierce the silence that envelops the subject of homosexuality in men’s team sports. He wants to be a mentor to gay people who harbor doubts about a sports career, whether on the court or in the front office. Most of all, he wants to feel whole, authentic.” -NYT 

But, as Eric Freeman, writer of the Yahoo! Sports Blog, said, “… the boardroom isn’t the locker room, and progress in one doesn’t always lead to broadened horizons in another. David Stern accepting a gay friend does not mean that a group of 15 players would be totally cool with one openly gay teammate. That time will come, but it’s not necessarily right around the corner.

Nevertheless, instances of improved social equality should be celebrated no matter how minor the advances may be. Welts has made history, and we should applaud him for it.”

Rick Welts’ actions may be minor in the scope of the planet, but for him and the NBA specifically, his words are a major deal. Congratulations are in order as he had the courage to say something even after all his decades alone. With hope, more people will have the courage to come out of the proverbial closet as well, and others will stand beside them and give them full support.

The initial article that ran in the New York Times can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/16/sports/basketball/nba-executive-says-he-is-gay.html?_r=1&src=tptw&pagewanted=all

The Yahoo! sports blog can be found here: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Suns-president-Rick-Welts-tells-The-New-York-Tim?urn=nba-wp3254

LGBTQ support groups:

www.glsen.org

www.bagly.org

www.thetrevorproject.org

I think everyone who was there can attest that he’s a wonderful person to talk to, as well as a great author!

Thanks to everyone who attended for making it such a great event! And the greatest thanks to Alex Sanchez for coming to the BPL!

If you’re wondering what books he’s written, here’s a list to date:

Rainbow Trilogy (Rainbow Boys, Rainbow High, Rainbow Road)

Bait

Getting It

The God Box

So Hard To Say