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Analyzes selected Canadian public libraries' holdings of young adult fiction with gay, lesbian, bisexual and/or transgender content published between 1998 and 2002 in order to measure access to such fiction and to determine whether any evidence of bias on the part of selectors exists. Identifies 35 titles published between 1998 and 2002, a slight decrease from the previous five‐year period. These titles attracted 34 percent fewer reviews per title as compared to a randomly selected control group of non‐lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender fiction for teens (LGBT) titles. On average, in the nine Canadian public libraries studied, significantly fewer copies of each LGBT title were held, as compared to the list of control titles. Without further investigation, the paper could not conclude whether this difference constitutes evidence of significant bias on the part of selectors. However, the data do show that certain libraries are significantly more likely to purchase the control titles that the LGBT titles, and that access to these titles varies according to one's location in Canada.

This paper discusses how professionally qualified cisgender lesbian, gay, bisexual or queer (LGBQ) women youth workers present their self. The research examined how youth workers consciously or unconsciously shared their sexual identity with young people with whom they worked. Whilst this research focussed on youth workers, issues discussed are relevant for practitioners from a range of professional backgrounds such as therapists, social workers, teachers and health care practitioners. The research focused only on the experiences of cisgender LGBQ women as the experiences of men and trans women are different and so requires separate research.

This research taking a qualitative approach, used in-depth interviews to discuss how respondents shared information about their identity.

Some of fifteen youth workers interviewed reported not having choices about being out with the young people as their sexuality had been leaked. Others were able to pass and so choose when, or if, to be out with young people. Their different strategies to sharing information regarding their sexuality used by these participants reflected different approaches to being out.

Although there is evidence in the literature of how being out or closeted impacts on teachers there is little written about the effect on youth workers or other professionals. The little research that has been undertaken in this area focusses on the impact of identity on the clients rather than on the professionals. This article contributes to filling this gap in the literature.

Drawn from a case study of a public library in a large urban area, this chapter offers insights into the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) youth experiencing homelessness and the potential intersection of public libraries and their lives. To gain insight, the author conducted one focus group with five youth, as well as 22 one-on-one interviews with public librarians, service providers who work with the youth, and the young people themselves. The chapter offers specific examples of the challenges the youth face on the streets, as well as concrete steps libraries can take to address these challenges. These findings and strategies will help public librarians and those who support public libraries to understand and take action to address the ongoing needs of a group that falls outside what libraries may consider typical service expectations.

The sexual minority groups in India seem to be suffering from continued social exclusion affecting their mental health. This study aims to investigate the effect of the hostile attitude of society and lack of social support on the mental health of the Indian LGBT+ members.

Hypotheses were developed by drawing theories and concepts from the literature and were tested using the partial least square–structural equation model with a sample size of 151 of the Indian LGBT+ community.

The findings showed a strong negative effect of the hostile attitude of society on the mental health of the Indian LGBT+ community. The findings further showed that weak problem-focused and emotion-focused coping self-efficacy negatively mediated the relationship between the hostile attitude of society and mental health, while lack of social support negatively moderated the relationship between the hostile attitude of society and both problem-focused and emotion-focused coping self-efficacy of the Indian LGBT+ community.

This study makes a novel and significant theoretical contribution by investigating the effect of the hostile attitude of society and the lack of social support on the mental health of the Indian LGBT+ community members. This study also makes a significant practical contribution in underpinning the urgent need for social inclusion and support to improve the mental health of Indian LGBT+ community members, which is currently in dire condition.

Possibilities for self-representation for transgender (trans) and gender non-conforming (GNC) youth must be conceptualized in relation to youths’ placement within frames of power. Powerful institutional forces in youths’ lives include schools and policing and, as is evidenced by youths’ statements, extend to mass media portrayals. Library approaches that reify the inclusion of representative texts do not adequately meet the needs of trans and GNC youth. As a profession, librarianship must reflect on ideological approaches to gendered embodiment to push against an ongoing repetition of institutional harms done to trans and GNC youth.

This chapter offers examinations of information needs, complex online worlds, and incorporation of histories made invisible by power alongside critical literacy skills as crucial aspects of providing services to all possibly or actually trans and GNC youth. It critically situates the circumstances of trans youths’ lives in relation to the effect that adult perceptions have on trans and GNC youths’ ability to access resources. It provides a framework for reflection on how young adult librarians often unconsciously limit library access by enacting gendered expectations that do not always match the possibility or actuality of youths’ experiences or self-conceptions. The chapter outlines modes of communication – through library materials, programs, community resources and partnerships – that convey deeper understandings of trans and GNC experiences to possibly or actually trans and GNC youth.

LGBT educators have historically experienced various challenges in their schools, while school leaders have needed to balance the rights and needs of LGBT educators with sometimes unwelcoming community norms. The three iterations of this study that spanned across a decade aimed to gain an understanding of the ongoing climate for LGBT educators so that administrators utilize best practices related to policy enactment, advocacy, and enforcement – and in this chapter, relating specifically to creating an LGBT-inclusive climate in schools. Overall, the school climate for many LGBT educators continues to vary. In some respects, it has not changed dramatically from 2007 to 2017. Many participants over the three studies easily described positive and negative consequences of being out. Additionally, LGBT educators working with younger students consistently feel most unsafe being out to students to any degree, and they are experiencing an intense dichotomy of more policy and administrative support with more vehement opposition to being out as teachers. While there are still places for principals and other administrators to demonstrate stronger support for LGBT educators, these results show that their level of support is moving in the right direction.

This paper aims to assess the state of reference publishing between 2003 and 2013 in print, online databases (free access and fee-based) and Internet sites for the field of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) studies. Background data on trends in non-reference monographic publishing and the growth of topical websites covering LGBT-related subjects are provided.

The WorldCat bibliographical database was scanned for titles published during the decade 2003-2013 to ascertain trends in subject monographs within LGBT studies. The status of the pool of LGBT websites reviewed by the author in 2005 for Choice was checked to evaluate the stability of this expanding format of LGBT information. Those reference works and online resources identified were annotated and placed in the context of general LGBT reference publishing.

Results of the study showed that the genres of encyclopaedias and handbooks continued to be produced for LGBT studies during the first decade of the twenty-first century. The creation of a database of full-text primary materials (ranging from newspapers and academic periodicals to research monographs) marks the recognition by the research community of the value of this body of formerly marginalized literature. The stability of the group of subject websites produced on LGBT topics delineated by the author in 2005 indicates that these resources can be effectively used in the reference process.

The data in this article will assist librarians engaged in collection development and reference work by providing a contemporary analysis and bibliographic overview of the sources and types of reference tools in a new interdisciplinary field.

To explore the relationship between LGBTQIA+ ¹

LGBTQIA+  =  Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual/Ally, and others not defined within these terms.

Framed around the Williams Institute report Public Attitudes toward Homosexuality and Gay Rights across Time and Countries (2014), and incorporating aspects of queer theory, this chapter will explore some of the literature discussing libraries and the LGBTQIA+  community. It will then detail some specific examples of activities libraries are engaging in to support LGBTQIA+  rights.

Many libraries around the globe appear to be offering special programs and services for LGBTQIA+  persons.

This is not a systematic review of library services to the LGBTQIA+  community. The author relied on freely available information sources.

Highlights some of the excellent work libraries are doing in support of LGBTQIA+  human rights. The role of libraries are constantly changing, this chapter points to the potential for libraries to take a stronger role to enact social justice and support human rights.

Current legislative, policy and cultural efforts to censor and illegalize classroom discussions and curricular representations of LGBTQ+ people reflect longstanding challenges in English education. In an effort to explore what curricular inclusion can (not) accomplish – especially what and how current struggles over inclusion, censorship, illegalization and ultimately representation in English education might (not) contribute to queer and trans liberation – the purpose of this article is to feature the experiences of queer and trans youth as knowers in classroom lessons with LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum.

Drawing from a yearlong literacy ethnography at a Midwestern high school in which the author explored youth and adults reading, writing and talking about sexual and gender diversity, in this article the author focuses on one literacy learning context at the high school, a co-taught sophomore humanities that combined English language arts and social studies.

Engaging theories of epistemic (in) justice, the findings of this article highlight the experiences of queer and trans youth – especially two queer youth of Color, Camden and Imani – as knowers in the context of an LGBTQ+-inclusive classroom curriculum. The author describes epistemic harms with respect to distortions of credibility and homonormative assimilationist requirements and reflects on alternative possibilities that youth gestured toward through their small resistances.

By centering the experiences of LGBTQ+ youth, this article contributes to research about LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum in English teaching. Previous research, when empirical rather than conceptual, has tended to focus on the perspectives of teachers.

Anti-bullying legislation has been adopted in every state to prevent the victimization of youth, but the focus on deterring and criminalizing individual behavior can obscure the contextual factors that contribute to aggression. This theoretical paper engages sociological literature to understand the impact of recent anti-bullying legislation on students’ experiences.

We discuss stigma and account-making theory to theorize the ways students become particularly vulnerable to victimization and may or may not be sufficiently protected under the law. We also engage criminological theories to understand how punishment may not be sufficient for preventing aggressive behavior but may instead lead students to employ strategies to avoid being caught or punished for their behaviors.

We argue that the majority of current anti-bullying definitions and protocols in use are ambiguous and insufficient in protecting vulnerable groups of students, particularly students with disabilities, overweight students, and LGBT +  students.

Our findings suggest that schools should seek to understand and alter the school-wide cultures and norms that permit aggressive behavior in the first place, in turn creating more inclusive school environments.