Growing Up Gay/Growing Up Lesbian: A Literary Anthology

by Bennett L. Singer (Editor), Kevin Jennings (Contributor), Linda Heal (Contributor)

The first literary anthology geared specifically to lesbian and gay youth, Growing Up Gay is a much-needed resource for young people who are often isolated, shunned by their peers, and treated by schools and the media as though they do not exist. This ambitious collection of more than fifty coming of age stories pairs selections by teenagers with older writers' reflections on growing up gay or lesbian. Fiction by James Baldwin, Rita Mae Brown, and Jeanette Winterson counterpoints autobiographical pieces by Quentin Crisp, Audre Lorde, and Paul Monette; diary accounts of growing up gay in the 1980s and 1990s complement poems, stories, and oral histories that tell what it was like to come of age as a gay man or lesbian in the 1940s and 1950s, when the notion of gay liberation was a distant prospect indeed. Topics include discovering one's sexual identity, entering into friendships and relationships, and finding a place within the sometimes hostile, sometimes welcoming worlds of school, family, work, faith, and community. Central to the book are the voices of young people struggling with how it feels to be part of a largely invisible and often misunderstood minority. The anthology also contains a comprehensive resource guide, with suggestions for further reading, listings of gay and lesbian youth organizations, and phone numbers for national and local hot lines.

Other contributors:
- Rita Mae Brown
- Aaron Fricke

Genres: LGBT, Nonfiction, Queer, Short Stories, Anthologies, Sexuality

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Matt Sautman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic anthology, this volume combines selections of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction that pertain to gay/lesbian identity in America. Noteworthy prominent authors in this collection include Baldwin, Whitman, Anzaldúa, and Lorde. While this collection certainly has a YA slant, making it ideal for high school teachers who are wanting to include a more diverse selection of readings in their classroom, some of the pieces, like Kevin Jennings's "American Dreams," could be useful in a first year writing class at the college level. Overall the collection is decently diverse and enjoyable to read.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed a lot of this book. It contains essays, fictional short stories, and poems by many different authors including Audre Lord, Martina Navratilova, David Kopay, Walt Whitman, James Baldwin, Malcolm Boyd, and Dorothy Allison. The accounts take place anytime from the 1910s through the 1990s, in urban and rural locations and among individuals of many different races. The common theme is the courage of these individuals as they grapple with their sexuality in an incredibly homophobic society.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book AFTER I decided to dive right into the unknown. Hindsight is.....d'oh! I wish I had read it first. Many teachers that I have been friends with have appreciated this book.

[lithomancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This kind of anthology is always hit or miss from one story to another. You will find in that book wonderful and powerful writing, but you'll also find some pretty shitty stuff. Some of the authors also defend vehemently the necessity of coming out, which is fair but also they disregard the fact that not everyone can actually come out. Some of those authors really lack empathy in my opinion, which disturbed me a lot when i was reading this.
On the other hand, I've read this when i just started to get into LGBT literature and it made me discover a few authors that I now love a lot.
Overall, I'd say that you shouldn't get your expectation too high with that book, but you might still find some enjoyable content in it.

[Katriena Knights · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much interesting and important stuff, but the little snippets and excerpts didn't hold my attention. I blame my attention span more than the book.