An LGBTQ+ Link Roundup

Hello there, lovely readers! Today’s post is comprised of a bunch of different… thingies. I published a similar post earlier this month, and today’s post springs from the same idea. Here are some LGBTQ+ articles, blog post, lists, et cetera that I’ve enjoyed recently – a round-up of links, basically!

Here’s a list of thirty LGBTQ+ inclusive children’s books! OH MY GOD MY TBR LIST JUST EXPANDED. I’ve reviewed three of the books mentioned – Drama, I Am Jazz, and most recently This Day in June – as part of my regular feature Reading The Rainbow, and I’ve also read Rick Riordan’s The House of Hades. But there’s still plenty that I haven’t yet read!

Mexico just legalized same-gender marriage! Now stop slacking off, United States! Get your act together.

LGBTQ+ author Malinda Lo has a new short story about lesbian vampires and it is precisely what I needed to read during the the new season of Carmilla.

This isn’t specifically LGBTQ+, but I enjoyed this Book Riot article on tokenistic writing. Basically, don’t just throw in diverse characters in order to earn lots of money from readers who desperately want to read about minorities in fiction. Write about diverse characters who are complex and necessary to your story AND FOR GOD’S SAKE, DO YOUR RESEARCH.

The grammar nerd in me loves this handy-dandy list of LGBTQ+ terminology from Grammarly’s blog. If you follow their page on Facebook (as I do), don’t read the comment section, though – it’s full of people whining about how this list is “restricting their free speech” and other crap like that. Like… no? We’re just asking you to be polite? I rolled my eyes at the people complaining that this isn’t grammar-related, too. This is just my ASPIRING JOURNALIST NERD speaking, but I love trying to find typos in newspapers and magazines, and this habit extends to spotting articles that mention “homosexuals” (WTF?) or “the gays” (WTF?!) or my personal favorite – “a transgender.” Congratulations, you just turned an ADJECTIVE into a VERB and now you’re going to complain that your freedom of speech is somehow being restricted? Go, you. Well done.

Gay YA breaks down LGBTQ+ YA by gender – of the author, and the character – and genre. This was fascinating to read! And then Danika @ The Lesbrary summed it up so well in her link round-up: “I’m not surprised that most lesbian books are written by women: There seems to be a perception that gay men’s stories have appeal for all kinds of people, but that lesbian stories are only for lesbians.” PREACH.

And on that note, AfterEllen posted an article titled, “Lesbian/Bi Stories Can Absolutely Be Universal” and I AM IN LOVE WITH IT.

This list of ten trans icons who paved the way for Caitlyn Jenner is a really good antidote to all the posts/links I’ve been seeing in my Facebook feed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good that she came out and is finally being herself, but… it does bother me when people act like she single-handedly brought our attention to trans people? And I’ve seen way too many articles like that lately. I’m happy for her, but I also wish people would study even just a little bit of LGBTQ+ history, because once you do it becomes immediately obvious that trans people have long since been speaking out about trans issues. Hell, black trans women created the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. Can we please give them the credit they deserve?

A Mighty Girl – an awesome feminist website – posted a list of LGBTQ+ fiction about girls! ASLDKSFJAFKAJFSA I AM SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS. It even includes nonfiction!

Over at Everyday Feminism, there is a list of twenty-five ways one trans man was treated differently after he transitioned. (Basically, people respect him more, don’t interrupt as often, don’t tell him to “smile more,” et cetera. It was interesting to read!) There’s also a sequel post, with twenty-five more examples.

Panels tells us to stop worrying about “spoilers” concerning a character’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity because visibly queer characters are important: Readers searching for diverse characters don’t want to waste their money on stories with lackluster diversity / no diversity at all. We want to KNOW if there are queer characters, want to know what we’re getting involved in.

AfterEllen’s list of queer female characters from DC Comics has me itching for another trip to the library! (Speaking of that, DC finally confirmed that Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are girlfriends – duh – and polyamorous. YES YES YES.)

This fun quiz from MSNBC tests your knowledge of bisexual history/culture… I got seven out of seven correct! [Pushes up her nerd glasses]

Ruby Rose is new to season three of Orange is the New Black, and she’s absolutely gorgeous… and straight women keep saying they have a “crush” on her, which makes queer women understandably upset. A writer on Jezebel explains it perfectly: “Being attracted to Ruby Rose doesn’t make you open-minded or edgy. Being attracted to Ruby Rose makes you a person with functioning eyes… homosexuality and bisexuality aren’t identities that you get to try on for a day to show off how liberal and down you are.”

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Have you read any fun/cool/interesting LGBTQ+ news-thingies lately? Put the links in the comment section below, if you’d like! I’d love to read them.

P.S. At the beginning of this Pride-blogfest-thingy, I asked what topics YOU wanted me to blog about – and, well, I’m going to ask again. Because I’ve been wondering if I need to rethink what I’m posting about! I’ve noticed that although my average views per post have tripled or even quadrupled, I’m getting very few comments on each post – like, one to three total!

I received a lot of comments in early June, but am getting hardly any now and… basically, I’m just looking over my recent post topics and wondering if I need to rethink my approach. So. Is there anything you really, really, really want me to blog about during the rest of Pride month?! Please let me know.