Let's Get Better Together

On May 31, for the third year in a row, President Obama declared June to be Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. This celebration month was created to recognize the LGBT community, to educate and spread acceptance, and to fight prejudice and discrimination.While I think this is an issue that should be addressed every day, I am glad our nation's leader has designated an entire month to raise awareness for such an important cause.

In honor of LGBT Month, I'm running a two-week special feature here at bookmarked, called Let's Get Better Together. The name is inspired by the It Gets Better Project, a web project created by Dan Savage in response to the suicides of several gay teenagers who were bullied. What started as a single YouTube video a mere nine months ago has since exploded: there are now more than 10,000 videos uploaded by people from around the world of all sexual orientations, including many celebrities. The project works with The Trevor Project and GLSEN to provide support for young people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or questioning along with their straight allies.

What this means is for the next two weeks there will be reviews, guest posts, and discussions featuring LGBT characters, authors, and issues within the world of YA literature. I hope these posts will encourage you to pick up some of these books (if you haven't already) and see how important they are to today's teens. In a world where people read to relate or escape, there must be books available for everyone to relate to. And for those of us who are straight allies, LGBT books can be a surprisingly great escape.

Please feel free to interact in the comments! I'd love to know what people think, what they're reading, and any personal stories or experiences you'd like to share.