Acting Out!  Combating Homophobia Through Teacher Activism. Mollie Blackburn, Caroline Clark, Lauren Kenney & Jill Smith, $29.95

In this volume, teachers from urban, suburban, and rural districts join together in a teacher inquiry group to challenge homophobia and heterosexism in schools and classrooms. To create safe learning environments for all students they address key topics, including seizing teachable moments, organizing faculty, deciding whether to come out in the classroom, using LGBTQ-inclusive texts, running a Gay-Straight Alliance, changing district policy to protect LGBTQ teachers and students, dealing with resistant students, and preparing preservice teachers to do anti-homophobia work.

Almost Perfect. Brian Katcher, $10.99

Logan Witherspoon recently discovered that his girlfriend of three years cheated on him. But things start to look up when a new student breezes through the halls of his small-town high school.

Sage Hendricks befriends Logan at a time when he no longer trusts or believes in people. Sage has been homeschooled for a number of years and her parents have forbidden her to date anyone, but she won't tell Logan why. One day, Logan acts on his growing feelings for Sage. Moments later, he wishes he never had. Sage finally discloses her big secret: she's actually a boy. Enraged, frightened, and feeling betrayed, Logan lashes out at Sage and disowns her. But once Logan comes to terms with what happened, he reaches out to Sage in an attempt to understand her situation. But Logan has no idea how rocky the road back to friendship will be.

Becoming: a Gender Flipbook. Yishay Garbasz, $26.95

With Becoming, artist Yishay Garbasz courageously explores one of society’s most taboo subjects – the unmaking of a gendered body and the creation of another. Garbasz courageously documents two years of the physical changes she underwent to change from male to female. With unprecedented honesty and directness, the artist photographed her body every week, chronicling its gradual transformation. Becoming’s flip book format makes visible and immediate time and its integral role throughout this process.

Born This Way: Real Stories of Growing Up Gay. Paul Vitagliano, $16.95

Based on the hugely popular blog of the same name, BORN THIS WAY shares more than 100 different memories of growing up LGBTQ. Childhood photographs are accompanied by sweet, funny, and at times heartbreaking personal stories. This intimate little hardcover is a wonderful gift for all members of the LGBTQ community as well as their friends and families.

Boyfriends with Girlfriends. Alex Sanchez, $19.99 (novel, ages 14 & up)

Lance has always known he was gay, but he's never had a real boyfriend. Sergio is bisexual, but his only real relationship was with a girl. When the two of them meet, they have an instant connection — but will it be enough to overcome their differences? Allie's been in a relationship with a guy for the last two years — but when she meets Kimiko, she can't get her out of her mind. Does this mean she's gay? Does it mean she's bi? Kimiko, falling hard for Allie, and finding it impossible to believe that a gorgeous girl like Allie would be into her, is willing to stick around and help Allie figure it out.

Boyfriends with Girlfriends is Alex Sanchez at his best, writing with a sensitive hand to portray four very real teens striving to find their places in the world — and with each other.

Coming Around: Parenting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Kids. Anne Dohrenwend, $17.50

COMING AROUND is an insightful and uplifting resource for understanding and coming to terms with a child’s sexual orientation and maintaining a dialogue between parent and child. With compassion and wisdom, Dohrenwend addresses parents' fears regarding what to say and what not to say, bigotry and social and religious prejudice, the legal issues facing LGBT individuals and how to understand homophobia. Most important, she shares how to communicate that, whatever happens with a child's sexual or gender orientation, parents will never withdraw their love.

Coming out is a vulnerable time. Its announcement requires the re-exploration of a parent's personal feelings on homosexuality. Respecting your teen or adult child’s decisions isn’t always easy, particularly if you fear his or her decisions will cost friends, ambitions, acceptance and respect. 

Dead Boys Can't Dance: Sexual Orientation, Masculinity and Suicide. Michel Dorais & Simon Lajeunesse, $19.95

This provocative, groundbreaking study looks at the tragic consequences of homophobia. Recognizing the link between the stigmatization of homosexuality and the high level of suicide attempts by youths who are homosexual or are perceived as such by their peers, authors Dorais and Lajeunesse prove that homophobia is a serious social problem. Their call for preventative measures, social education and recognition of the prevalence of the problem is urgent and clear.

Family Pride: What LGBT Families Should Know about Navigating Home, School, and Safety in Their Neighborhoods. Michael Shelton, $19.00

FAMILY PRIDE is the first book for queer parents, their families, and allies that emphasizes community safety. While the national focus remains on the mistreatment of LGBT people in schools, the reality is that LGBT families also face hostility in various settings-professional, recreational, and social. Drawing on his years as a dedicated community activist and on the experiences of LGBT parents, Michael Shelton offers concrete strategies that LGBT families can use to intervene in and resolve difficult community issues, teach their children resiliency skills, and find safe and respectful programs for them. 

The Full Spectrum: a New Generation of Writing about Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Other Identities. David Levithan & Billy Merrell, editors, $12.95

Teens are more aware of sexuality and identity than ever, and they’re looking for answers and insights, as well as a community of others. In order to help create that community, David Levithan and Billy Merrell have collected original poems, essays, and stories by young adults in their teens and early 20s. The Full Spectrum includes a variety of writers — gay, lesbian, bisexual, straight, transitioning, and questioning—on a variety of subjects: coming out, family, friendship, religion/faith, first kisses, break-ups, and many others. This one of a kind collection will, perhaps, help all readers see themselves and the world around them in ways they might never have imagined.

Gay Marriage, Real Life: Ten Stories of Love and Family. Michelle Bates Deakin, $18.95

This intimate account of ten same-sex couples brings to life how the decision to marry has affected them and their extended families. These personal journeys present a range of experiences, from a mother who became a gay rights activist when her youngest child came out as a lesbian, to a girl whose realization that her fathers were not married spurred the men to join the gay marriage lawsuit in Massachusetts, to a lesbian couple and devoted mothers of twins who fight for same-sex adoption rights in Oklahoma. Deakin chronicles both their private strides toward acceptance and their public struggles to advance gay rights.

Gender Born, Gender Made: Raising Healthy Gender-Nonconforming Children. Diane Ehrensaft, $19.95

GENDER BORN, GENDER MADE is a comprehensive guidebook for the parents and therapists of children who do not identify with or behave according to their biological gender. Drawing on the case histories of several children, each "gender creative" in his or her own way, Dr. Diane Ehrensaft offers concrete strategies for understanding and supporting children who experience confusion about their gender identities. She also discusses the latest therapeutic advancements available to gender-variant children.

Traditionally, psychologists have sought to "cure" gender variance by pressuring children to conform to typical gender behavior. From her perspective as both clinician and parent of a gender creative child, Dr. Ehrensaft advocates a new approach, encouraging caregivers to support gender-variant children as they explore their gender identities. Rather than offering a "cure" for gender variance, GENDER BORN, GENDER MADE facilitates improved understanding and communication about gender identity.

Get That Freak: Homophobia and Transphobia in High Schools.  Rebecca Haskell & Brian Burtch, $18.95

Bullying in schools has garnered significant attention recently, but despite this, little has been said about the occurrence of homophobic and transphobic bullying in Canadian high schools. GET THAT FREAK fills that gap by exploring the experiences of bullying among youth who identify or are identified as queer. Through interviews with recent high school graduates in British Columbia, Haskell and Burtch share stories of physical, verbal and emotional harassment, and offer important insights into the negative outcomes that result from the experience of being bullied. Challenging the familiar image of these youth as helpless victims, this book also recognizes positive outcomes: moments of resistance, friendship and inner strength. Finally, the authors make recommendations for challenging homophobic and transphobic bullying in high schools and supporting students who experience this form of harassment.

Helping Your Transgender Teen: a Guide for Parents. Irwin Krieger, $14.50

HELPING YOUR TRANSGENDER TEEN begins with the basic information you and your family need. The central chapters of the book address the fears and concerns most parents of transgender teens share. The final chapters guide you through the steps you can take to discover what is best for your child. Although written for parents, this book is also useful for pediatricians, therapists, educators and others who work with teenagers and young adults. HELPING YOUR TRANSGENDER TEEN provides answers to many of your questions about adolescent gender identity.

It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living. Edited by Dan Savage and Terry Miller, $16.00

After a number of tragic suicides by LGBT students who were bullied in school, syndicated columnist and author Dan Savage uploaded a video to YouTube with his partner Terry Miller to inspire hope for LGBT youth facing harassment. Speaking openly about the bullying they suffered as teenagers, and how they both went on to lead rewarding adult lives, their video launched the It Gets Better Project YouTube channel and initiated a worldwide phenomenon. With over 6,000 videos posted and over 20 million views in the first three months alone, the world has embraced the opportunity to provide personal, honest and heartfelt support for LGBT youth everywhere.

It Gets Better is a collection of expanded essays and new material from celebrities, everyday people and teens who have posted videos of encouragement, as well as new contributors who have yet to post videos to the site. While many of these teens couldn't see a positive future for themselves, we can. We can show LGBT youth the levels of happiness, potential and positivity their lives will reach if they can just get through their teen years. By sharing these stories, It Gets Better reminds teenagers in the LGBT community that they are not alone — and it WILL get better.

King & King. Linda de Haan & Stern Nijland, $17.95

The queen decrees that it's time for the prince to marry and the search is on! Princesses come from far and wide hoping to catch his eye. Will the prince be charmed … or will he simply follow his heart?

Let’s Get This Straight: the Ultimate Handbook for Youth with LGBTQ Parents. Tina Fakhrid-Deen, $18.50

Let’s Get This Straight reaches out to young people with one or more gay, lesbian, bi, or trans parents to provide them with the tools to combat homophobia, take pride in their alternative family structures, and speak out against injustice. This short but thorough book profiles forty-five diverse youth and young adults, all of whom voice their opinions and provide advice for other youth living in LGBTQ households.

Love, Ellen: a Mother/Daughter Journey. Betty DeGeneres, $18.99

In LOVE, ELLEN, Betty DeGeneres tells about the complicated path to acceptance and the deepening of her friendship with her daughter; the media's scrutiny of their family life; the painful and often inspiring stories she's heard on the road as the first non-gay spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign’s National Coming Out Project.

With a mother's love, clear minded common sense, and hard won wisdom, Betty DeGeneres offers up her own very personal memoir to help parents understand their gay children, and to help sons and daughters who have been rejected by their families feel less alone.

Luna. Julie Anne Peters, $8.99

Regan's brother Liam can't stand the person he is during the day. Like the moon from whom Liam has chosen his female namesake, his true self, Luna, only reveals herself at night. In the secrecy of his basement bedroom Liam transforms himself into the beautiful girl he longs to be, with help from his sister's clothes and makeup. Now, everything is about to change — Luna is preparing to emerge from her cocoon. But are Liam's family and friends ready to welcome Luna into their lives? Compelling and provocative, this is an unforgettable novel about a transgender teen's struggle for self-identity and acceptance.

My Child Is Gay: How Parents React When They Hear the News. Bryce McDougall, $19.00

A collection of parents' honest and revealing responses to the news their child is gay, My Child is Gay is a compilation of letters written by parents. The letters have been written to be shared — both to help parents come to term with their feelings, and for gay men and women who are contemplating sharing the truth. Together these letters reaffirm the regenerative power of love and allow those with first hand experience to outline the important steps on the road to understanding.

Oddly Normal: One Family’s Struggle to Help Their Teenage Son Come to Terms with His Sexuality. John Schwartz, $27.50

A heartfelt memoir by the father of a gay teen, and an eye-opening story for families who hope to bring up well-adjusted gay adults.

Three years ago, John Schwartz, a national correspondent at The New York Times, got the call that every parent hopes never to receive: his thirteen-year-old son, Joe, was in the hospital following a failed suicide attempt. After mustering the courage to come out to his classmates, Joe’s disclosure — delivered in a tirade about homophobic attitudes—was greeted with dismay and confusion by his fellow students. Hours later, he took an overdose of pills. ODDLY NORMAL is Schwartz’s very personal attempt to address his family’s struggles within a culture that is changing fast, but not fast enough to help gay kids like Joe.

The Other Side of the Closet: the Coming-Out Crisis for Straight Spouses and Families. Amity Pierce Buxton, $21.99

This candid, compassionate book is a unique source of information, insight, and moving personal narratives. Amity Pierce Buxton looks at homophobia, deception, family breakdown and the practical coping strategies which can help the family journey from initial trauma to eventual transformation.

Parrotfish. Ellen Wittlinger, $19.99 (novel, ages 14 and up)

Angela Katz-McNair has never felt quite right as a girl. Her whole life is leading up to the day she decides to become Grady, a guy. While coming out as trans-gendered feels right to Grady, he isn't prepared for the reaction he gets from everyone else … Grady's life is miserable until he finds friends in some unexpected places like the school geek, Sebastian, who explains that there is precedent in the natural world (parrotfish change gender when they need to), and Kita, a senior who might just be Grady's first love.

Partnered Grief: When Gay and Lesbian Partners Grieve. Harold Ivan Smith & Joy Johnson, $4.50

Insightful and compassionate, this is a unique guide for partners, family, friends and professionals.

QUEER: the Ultimate LGBT Guide for Teens.  Kathy Belge & Marke Bieschke, $17.99

Written especially for LGBT teens, QUEER takes you on an awesome and enlightening journey through the sometimes scary, sometimes silly, and always fabulous world that is queer life. QUEER includes advice on:

• coming out to friends and family
• navigating your social and dating life
• dealing with queerphobia
• standing up for your rights
• learning about safe sex
• and more!

QUEER also includes personal stories from the authors, as well as facts about landmark events in queer history. Sassy, engaging, and honest, Queer is a must-have for all teens who think they might be queer—or know someone who is.

Queer Questions Straight Talk: 108 frank & provocative questions it’s OK to ask your lesbian, gay or bisexual loved one. Abby Dees, $18.95

Queer Questions Straight Talk is a permission slip to go ahead and ask those questions that seldom get asked and help you get beyond awkward silence and into real communication. The book includes questions about identity, coming out, stereotypes, marriage & relationships, homophobia & politics, religion & spirituality, sex and more. Queer Questions Straight Talk is fun, cheeky, deep and wise. It’s not about getting everyone to agree, but simply understand each other a little more.

10,000 Dresses. Marcus Ewert, $14.95   

Every night, Bailey dreams about magical dresses: dresses made of crystals and rainbows, dresses made of flowers, dresses made of windows...

Unfortunately, when Bailey's awake, no one wants to hear about these beautiful dreams. Quite the contrary. "You're a BOY!" Mother and Father tell Bailey. "You shouldn't be thinking about dresses at all." Then Bailey meets Laurel, an older girl who is touched and inspired by Bailey’s imagination and courage. In friendship, the two of them begin making dresses together and Bailey’s dreams come true!

This gorgeous picture book—a modern fairy tale about becoming the person you feel you are inside—will delight people of all ages.

This High School Has Closets. Robert Joseph Greene, $9.95 (novel, ages 14 +)

High school is a challenge for all teens. For Mark Thomas, falling in love, and dealing with becoming an adult, made his senior year of high school both difficult and exhilarating. THIS HIGH SCHOOL HAS CLOSETS is a story of two young teenagers falling in love during a difficult senior year.

The Transgender Child: a Handbook for Families and Professionals. Stephanie Brill & Rachel Pepper, $18.95

Covering developmental, medical, social, school and legal issues, The Transgender Child is a comprehensive, first-of-its-kind guidebook for the unique challenges that families face when raising a child who steps outside of the “pink or blue box”.

Transitions of the Heart: Stories of Love, Struggle and Acceptance by Mothers of Transgender and Gender Variant Children.  Edited by Rachel Pepper, $19.50

TRANSITIONS OF THE HEART is the first collection to invite mothers of transgender and gender variant children to tell their own stories. Often "transitioning" socially and emotionally alongside their children, parents have their own parallel process to work through, and few resources to depend on. Editor Rachel Pepper has gathered voices of women from all walks of life, with children ranging in age from six to sixty, to share their experiences. These mothers have learned how to advocate for their children and themselves. By speaking out here, they are blazing a brave trail for others to follow.

Transparent: Love, Family and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers. Cris Beam, $15.95

When Cris Beam first moved to Los Angeles, she thought she might put in just a few hours volunteering at a school for gay and transgender kids while she got settled. Instead, she found herself drawn, more deeply than she could ever have imagined, into the pained and powerful group of transgirls she discovered.

In Transparent she introduces four of them and as she earns their trust she shows us their world, a dizzying mix of familiar teenage cliques and crushes with far less familiar challenges like how to morph your body on a few dollars a day. Funny, heartbreaking, defiant, and sometimes defeated, the girls form a singular community. But they struggle valiantly to resolve the gap between the way they feel inside and the way the world sees them. Beam's astute reporting, sensitive writing, and passionate engagement with her characters place this book in the ranks of the very best narrative nonfiction.

Uncle Bobby’s Wedding. Sarah Brannen, $17.50

Chloe loves her Uncle Bobby, and he loves her. When she finds out that he is getting married, Chloe worries that Uncle Bobby won’t love her anymore. Instead, she discovers that she now has two uncles who love her very much.

Undoing Homophobia in Primary Schools. The No Outsiders Project Team, $29.95

This book is a celebration of recognition, affirmation and inclusion. Primary teachers tell the story of how they have challenged the taken-for-granted norms and silences in primary schools around sexual orientation and gender expression. These norms and silences have left lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their families marginalized, unrepresented and subject to multiple discrimination, and have allowed embedded homophobia and transphobia to go largely unchallenged. Through their accounts of practice, reflections and interpretations, vignettes and images, the teachers describe how they have challenged this unaddressed area of inclusion across sites across England ranging from a tiny village church school to urban and suburban settings. Working within and beyond the curriculum, teachers have broken boundaries in primary practice for sexualities and gender equality.

This book shows it is not only through planned innovations and policy developments that change happens but also, and crucially, in the day-to-day moments where new thinking leads to new action for equality and social justice.

What If Someone I Know is Gay? Answers to Questions about What It Means to Be Gay and Lesbian. Eric Marcus, $12.99

Eric Marcus candidly and clearly pushes aside the myths and misinformation about being gay and lesbian, answering more than one hundred questions asked by teens. No questions go unanswered and the answers contain all the information you — and perhaps your parents — want to know.