Extent of Identity: LGBTQ Youth and YA SciFi

Hey everyone! I know links and links and more links are annoying, but I was featured as a guest blogger on YAWednesday, a blog dedicated to young adult literature and run by Dr. Bickmore, a professor of English Lit at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas!

As part of a project, I'd done some research on various YA Science Fiction novels to assess the way they portray LGBTQ youth. A large component had been on the effect on classrooms. This was an extremely important topic to me from both media and educational standpoints, so take a look at the excerpt below!

One of the comic anthologies I reviewed as part of my study! Click the photo to read the whole post!

"Searching for LGBTQ YA science fiction is like trying to find shells, whole and intact, on the edge of a frothing, chaotic ocean—certainly possible, but maddening. I (Marilena) was 18 the first time I tried to find YA fantasy or science fiction with an LGBTQ protagonist. Early into my bookstore trek, I realized finding literature would be harder than I’d thought. Three hours later, I left the bookstore empty-handed and disheartened. Fast forward four years and here I am putting together a short list of LGBTQ YA science fiction that completely exceeded my expectations. I’d originally wanted to explore this theme to finally complete what my 18-year-old self had set out to find; however, the more research read, the more I realized such a great need for narratively diverse LGBTQ media.

In “Reading LGBT-Themed Literature with Young People: What’s Possible?” authors Blackburn and Clark (2009) noted the strange assumption by which teachers framed classroom conversations about sexuality and gender-identity. All too often, educators, school institutions, and even the text selected “invariably presumed student readers to be straight and…aggressively homophobic” (p. 27). Such beliefs led teachers to hand-hold their students, allowing them to opt-out of uncomfortable readings and normalizing homophobia as opposed to challenging heteronormativity...."