Welcome to Resources on LGBTQIA+ Wellness
This page features selected memoirs, advice, and other books by authors for the LQBTQIA + (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual) community which relate to mental health or wellness. Ebooks are at the top of the page followed by physical books at the bottom of the page. This list highlights selected recently acquired titles which relate to the topic of wellness and the LGBTQ+ community. These books are also useful resources for allies of the LGBTQIA community.
Photo by Mercedes Mehling on Unsplash
New as of August 2022: UConn Student Health and Wellness and the Rainbow Center are excited to announce a new intersectional clinical support group open to all LGBTQIA+ identified students. Group is scheduled to meet on Tuesday evenings from 5-6:30pm. Interested students should email Melanie Penalosa, MPH, at melanie.penalosa@uconn.edu to sign up. Sign up ASAP. Space is limited.
The Rainbow Center and UConn Student Health and Wellness are pleased to announce a new parternership:Lavender Resiliency Group. This group will meet on Tuesdays from 5-6:30pm. This is an educational support group is open to all LGBTQ+ identifying undergraduate students. Reach out to Melanie Penalosa for information about joining.
For more information, contact: Melanie Penalosa at Melanie.penalosa@uconn.edu
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Link to LGBTQIA Wellness Book collectionThis goes to the UConn catalog collection of books
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LGBTQIA Crisis and Support ResourcesList of hotlines and chat resources for LGBTQIA individuals
EBooks
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A Great Gay Book: Stories of Growth, Belonging, and Other Queer Possibilities
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ISBN: 1647009383Publication Date: 2024-05-21 AbramsThis book is collection of art, essays, short fiction, poetry, interviews, profiles, and photography from the archives of the beloved queer magazine Hello Mr., as well as new material from many of today's biggest LGBTQ+ creatives. -
The Queer Arab Glossary
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ISBN: 9780863568701Publication Date: 2024 London : Saqi BooksThe Queer Arab Glossary is the first published collection of Arabic LGBTQ+ slang. This bold guide captures the lexicon of the queer Arab community in all its differences, quirks and felicities. Featuring fascinating facts and anecdotes, it contains more than 300 terms in both English and Arabic, ranging from the humorous to the harrowing, serious to tongue-in-cheek, pejorative to endearing. Here, leading queer Arab artists, academics, activists and writers offer insightful essays situating this groundbreaking glossary in a modern social and political context. -
The Care We Dream Of: Liberatory and Transformative Approaches to LGBTQ+ Health
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ISBN: 9781551528618Publication Date: 2021 Arsenal Pulp PressWhat if you could trust in getting the health care you need in ways that felt good and helped you thrive? What if the health system honored and valued queer and trans people’s lives, bodies and expertise? What if LGBTQ+ communities led and organized our own health care as a form of mutual aid? What if every aspect of our health care was rooted in a commitment to our healing, pleasure and liberation? LGBTQ+ health care doesn’t look like this today, but it could. This is the care we dream of. Through a series of essays (by the author and others) and interviews, this book by the editor of the Lambda Literary Award-winning anthology The Remedy offers possibilities—grounded in historical examples, present-day experiments, and dreams of the future – for more liberatory and transformative approaches to LGBTQ+ health and healing. -
Holding Space: Life and Love Through a Queer Lens
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ISBN: 1648961991Publication Date: 2022-11-08Featuring 100 stunning color photographs of queer, interracial couples taken by a renowned photographer for the New York Times Magazine, Time, Rolling Stone, and more, this incredible photo and story collection depicts modern love and relationships in all their joy, vulnerability, and affection. -
The Queer Mental Health Workbook: A Creative Self-help Guide Using CBT, CDT and DBT
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ISBN: 9781839971082Publication Date: 2022-03-21To be queer is to feel different - a felt sense that you don't fit in. This can be alienating and difficult and lead to mental health challenges and lower wellbeing throughout life. Using a range of therapeutic approaches, this comprehensive, down-to-earth self-help workbook is designed to be your personal mental health resource. It is filled with techniques and activities you can read, tailor and 'pick and mix' to improve your wellbeing as a queer person, at your pace. The workbook is split into two sections - the first part focusses on laying the groundwork by exploring identity, psychological wellbeing, and mental health experiences in order to situate mental health challenges in context and improve overall mental health. The second half hones in on ideas and techniques applicable to specific challenges and situations. -
Queer Body Power: Finding Your Body Positivity
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Call Number: ebook on order; link available soonISBN: 9781787759053Publication Date: 2022-03-21As a young, queer, plus-size person, Essie Dennis has spent a lot of time feeling like they weren't enough - not queer enough, not feminine enough, not perfect enough. When they took to social media to share how they felt, they were overwhelmed by how many others felt the same. I look too masculine to be non-binary I look too feminine to be a lesbian Am I too fat for drag? Inviting you to challenge accepted beauty standards and the concept of 'the perfect body', Essie takes everything they have learned on their journey to self-acceptance and body satisfaction to help guide you towards loving your queer body. From gender, sexuality and reclaiming your body, through to food, politics, social media and fatphobia, this radical book starts a conversation about body image and mental health that queer people are so often left out of. -
High-Risk Homosexual: A Memoir
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ISBN: 9781593767068Publication Date: 2022 Catapult BooksA debut memoir about coming of age as a gay, Latinx man, High-Risk Homosexual opens in the ultimate anti-gay space: Edgar Gomez's uncle's cockfighting ring in Nicaragua, where he was sent at thirteen years old to become a man. Readers follow Gomez through the queer spaces where he learned to love being gay and Latinx, including Pulse nightclub in Orlando, a drag queen convention in Los Angeles, and the doctor's office where he was diagnosed a "high-risk homosexual." -
Hola Papi! How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons
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ISBN: 9781982141493Publication Date: 2021-06-08From popular LGBTQ advice columnist and writer John Paul Brammer comes a hilarious, heartwarming memoir-in-essays chronicling his journey growing up as a queer, mixed-race kid in America's heartland to becoming the "Chicano Carrie Bradshaw" of his generation. -
Trans* in College: transgender students' strategies for navigating campus life and the institutional politics of inclusion
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ISBN: 9781620364574Publication Date: 2016-11-29CHOICE 2017 Outstanding Academic Title This is both a personal book that offers an account of the author's own trans* identity and a deeply engaged study of trans* collegians that reveals the complexities of trans* identities, and how these students navigate the trans* oppression present throughout society and their institutions, create community and resilience, and establish meaning and control in a world that assumes binary genders. -
Coming Out: Insights and Tips for Teenagers.
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ISBN: 9781538135747Publication Date: 2020 Rowan & LittlefieldThis book addresses the hows and whys of coming out, as well as potential concerns teenagers may have-including how to know when you're ready to come out, who to tell first, and how to deal with unsupportive people. First-hand accounts from teenagers provide personal insight throughout. -
Burning My Roti: Breaking Barriers as a Queer Indian Woman
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ISBN: 9781784884505Publication Date: 2021With chapters covering sexual and cultural identity, body hair, colorism and mental health, and a particular focus on the suffocating beauty standards South Asian women are expected to adhere to, Sharan Dhaliwal speaks openly about her journey towards loving herself, offering advice, support and comfort to people that are encountering the same issues. -
A Queer Dharma: Yoga and Meditations for Liberation
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ISBN: 9781623176525Publication Date: 2021-11-23 North Atlantic BooksQueer critique, queer practice: embodied teachings for healing from trauma and social injustice. Jacoby Ballard provides an empowering and affirming guide to embodied healing through yoga and the dharma, grounded in the brilliance, resilience, and lived experiences of queer folks. -
Coming Out Stories
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ISBN: 9781787754966Publication Date: 2021-01-21Based on the hugely popular Coming Out Stories podcast, this empowering, humorous and deeply honest book invites you to share one of the most important moments in many LGBTQ+ people's lives. From JP coming out to his reflection in the mirror, to Jacob coming out to their Mum over email, from Christine knowing she was trans as a young child, to Kerry coming out as a lesbian in her late thirties, all of the real life stories in this book show you there is no right or wrong way to come out, whatever your age and whatever your background. Whether you're gay, pan, queer, bi, trans, non-binary, or an ally, this uplifting go-to resource is filled with helpful advice and tips on what to expect, and inspirational quotes from leading LGBTQ+ figures, to help you live your life as your most authentic self. Welcome to the family! -
The Ex-Girlfriend of My Ex-Girlfriend Is My Girlfriend
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ISBN: 9781797201825Publication Date: 2021-05-18This illustrated book of advice on love, dating, and friendship - written by and for queer women and people of marginalised genders-is the new go-to queer relationship handbook. Fix yourself a cup of non-caffeinated herbal tea and prepare to laugh, cry, reminisce, and feel your feelings as you read through these quintessentially queer dating dilemmas. In The Ex-Girlfriend of My Ex-Girlfriend Is My Girlfriend, advice columnist Maddy Court (a.k.a. Xena Worrier Princess) answers anonymous queries from lesbian, bisexual, and queer women and people of marginalised genders. Illustrated by comics artist Kelsey Wroten and based on Court's viral zine of the same name, this book features never-before-published letters and responses about first loves, heartbreak, coming out, and queer friendship - all answered with the warmth and honesty of the gay big sister you wish you had. -
Here and Queer: A Queer Girl's Guide to Life
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ISBN: 9780711264748Publication Date: 2022Here and Queer is a helpful, friendly guide full of support and advice about living your best queer life, written for girls. This vibrant, inclusive guide, designed for all kinds of girls, is designed to help you be the strongest, proudest, happiest version of yourself! -
The Queer and Transgender Resilience Workbook: skills for navigating sexual orientation & gender expression
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ISBN: 9781626259461Publication Date: 2018-02-02How can you build unshakable confidence and resilience in a world still filled with ignorance, inequality, and discrimination? The Queer and Transgender Resilience Workbook will teach you how to challenge internalized negative messages, handle stress, build a community of support, and embrace your true self. -
Coming Out, Again: Transition Stories
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ISBN: 9781787752412Publication Date: 2021-03-18'We don't just come out once. We have to come out continually throughout our lives. And as we grow and change and reach a newfound understanding of who we are, we come out once again in a whole new way.' Following the interconnected lives of a diverse queer community -this empowering graphic novel explores the multitude of ways a person's identity and relationships can be expressed and can change over time. From Lily coming out as a lesbian after coming out as a trans woman, to Leanne embracing their genderqueer identity in later life, to Ty navigating their queerness with their autistic identity, these stories illustrate how life lived at the intersection of gender, sexuality, race and class is often a journey with many chapters. Full of love and pride - as well as tips and advice - these witty, tender and inspiring narratives prove there is no wrong way to be who you are, so long as you are being true to yourself. -
Queer Blues
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ISBN: 9781572242449Publication Date: 2001-06-25The authors of "The Lavender Couch" and "The Chronic Pain Control Workbook" present a guide dealing with depression geared specifically to the queer and LGBTQ community. -
Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex
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ISBN: 9780807014110What exactly is sexual attraction, and what is it like to go through life not experiencing it? What does asexuality reveal about gender roles, about romance and consent, and the pressures of society? This accessible examination of asexuality shows that the issues that aces face - confusion around sexual activity, the intersection of sexuality and identity, navigating different needs in relationships - are the same conflicts that nearly all of us will experience. Through a blend of reporting, cultural criticism, and memoir, Ace addresses the misconceptions around the "A" of LGBTQIA and invites everyone to rethink pleasure and intimacy. -
Dirty River: a queer femme of color dreaming her way home
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ISBN: 9781551526010Publication Date: 2016-01-04Lambda Literary Award finalist In 1996, poet Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha ran away from America with two backpacks and ended up in Canada, where she discovered queer anarchopunk love and revolution, yet remained haunted by the reasons she left home in the first place. This passionate and riveting memoir is a mixtape of dreams and nightmares, of immigration court lineups and queer South Asian dance nights; it reveals how a disabled queer woman of color and abuse survivor navigates the dirty river of the past and, as the subtitle suggests, "dreams her way home." -
Trans Bodies, Trans Selves
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ISBN: 9780199325368Publication Date: 2014-01-01There is no one way to be transgender. Transgender and gender non-conforming people have many different ways of understanding their gender identities. Only recently have sex and gender been thought of as separate concepts, and we have learned that sex (traditionally thought of as physical or biological) is as variable as gender (traditionally thought of as social).While trans people share many common experiences, there is immense diversity within trans communities. There are an estimated 700,000 transgendered individuals in the US and 15 million worldwide. Even still, there's been a notable lack of organized information for this sizable group.Trans Bodies, Trans Selves is a revolutionary resource-a comprehensive, reader-friendly guide for transgender people, with each chapter written by transgender or genderqueer authors. -
The Pride Guide: A Guide to Sexual and Social Health for LGBTQ Youth
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ISBN: 1538110776Publication Date: 2018-07-01The Pride Guide is written explicitly for the almost ten percent of teenagers who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, or any of the unique identities that are not heterosexual/ cisgendered. It explores sex, dating, relationships, puberty, and both physical and online safety in one resource. -
A Tale of Two Omars : A Memoir of Family, Revolution, and Coming Out During the Arab Spring
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ISBN: 9781640094994Publication Date: 2021The grandson of Hollywood royalty on his father's side and Holocaust survivors on his mother's, Omar Sharif Jr. learned early on how to move between worlds, from the Montreal suburbs to the glamorous orbit of his grandparents' Cairo. His famous name always protected him wherever he went. When, in the wake of the Arab Spring, he made the difficult decision to come out in the pages of The Advocate, he knew his life would forever change. -
Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls
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ISBN: 9781635571868Publication Date: 2019-03-05"The book I wish I'd had growing up." -Chanel Miller, author of Know My Name Best Books of 2019: Acclaimed literary essayist T Kira Madden's raw and redemptive debut memoir is about coming of age and reckoning with desire as a queer, biracial teenager amidst the fierce contradictions of Boca Raton, Florida, a place where she found cult-like privilege, shocking racial disparities, rampant white-collar crime, and powerfully destructive standards of beauty hiding in plain sight. -
Crip Kinship: The Disability Justice & Art Activism of Sins Invalid
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Call Number: ebook on order; link available soonISBN: 9781551528649Publication Date: 2021-12-07The remarkable story of Sins Invalid, a performance project that centres queer disability justice. In recent years, disability activism has come into its own as a vital and necessary means to acknowledge the power and resilience of the disabled community, and to call out ableist culture wherever it appears. Crip Kinship explores the art activism of Sins Invalid, a San Francisco Bay Area-based performance project, and its radical imaginings of what disabled, queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming bodyminds of colour can do: how they can rewrite oppression, and how they can gift us with transformational lessons for our collective survival. -
How to Understand Your Sexuality A Practical Guide for Exploring Who You Are
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ISBN: 9781787756182Publication Date: 2021Gay, straight, queer, pansexual, demisexual, ace...? Sexuality is complex and diverse, but it doesn't have to be confusing. This down-to-earth guide is the ultimate companion for understanding, accepting and celebrating your sexuality. Written by two internationally renowned authors and therapists, the book explains how sexuality works in terms of our identities, attractions, desires and practices, and explores how it intersects with our personal experiences and the world around us. -
And the Category Is... : Inside New York's Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community
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ISBN: 0807003492Publication Date: 2022 Beacon PressWhat is Ballroom? Not a song, a documentary, a catchphrase, a TV show, or an individual pop star. It is an underground subculture founded over a century ago by LGBTQ African American and Latino men and women of Harlem. Arts-based and intersectional, it transcends identity, acting as a fearless response to the systemic marginalization of minority populations.
Bibliotherapy and Comics
The titles below are available as ebooks.
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The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For
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ISBN: 9780547523538Publication Date: 2008-11-12From the author of Fun Home--the lives, loves, and politics of cult fav characters Mo, Lois, Sydney, Sparrow, Ginger, Stuart, Clarice, and others -
Bingo Love: Vol 1, Jackpot Edition
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ISBN: 9781534307506Publication Date: 2018-02-20When Hazel Johnson and Mari McCray met at church bingo in 1963, it was love at firstsight. Forced apart by their families and society, Hazel and Mari both married young men and had families. Decades later, now in their mid-'60s, Hazel and Mari unite again at a church bingo hall. Realizing their love for each other isstill alive, what these grandmothers do next takes absolute strength and courage.
LGBT History Databases at UConn Library
Do you want to know more about LGBT history? These databases are a great place to learn more!
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Archives of Sexuality & Gender
Includes articles, manuscripts, images, and correspondence on social, political, health, and legal issues impacting LGBTQ communities globally; sex and sexuality; and related issues. Library has access to all five collections: LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940 part I-II, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century, and International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture.
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LGBTQ+ Source
Covers gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues including civil liberties, culture, employment, family, history, psychology, and religion.
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Alternative Press Index
Includes article abstracts covering cultural, economic, political & social change.
Physical Library Books
The books in this list are either shelved in the library stacks or in the Leisure Reading Collection on the B Level of Babbidge Library. You may also request these titles for pickup at the information desk by clicking on "Request It" in the book's record.
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High School
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Call Number: Leisure Reading Collection: B LevelISBN: 0374169942Publication Date: 2019-09-24From the iconic musicians Tegan and Sara comes a memoir about high school, detailing their first loves and first songs in a compelling look back at their humble beginnings High School is the revelatory and unique coming-of-age story of Sara and Tegan Quin, identical twins from Calgary, Alberta, who grew up at the height of grunge and rave culture in the nineties, well before they became the celebrated musicians and global LGBTQ icons we know today. While grappling with their identity and sexuality, often alone, they also faced academic meltdown, their parents' divorce, and the looming pressure of what might come after high school. -
Wolfpack: How to Come Together, Unleash our Power, and Change the Game
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Call Number: Leisure Reading Collection: B LevelISBN: 1250217709Publication Date: 2019-04-09Based on her inspiring, viral 2018 commencement speech to Barnard College's graduates in New York City,New York Times bestselling author, two-time Olympic gold medalist and FIFA World Cup champion Abby Wambach delivers her empowering rally cry for women to unleash their individual power, unite with their pack, and emerge victorious together. -
The Queer Advantage: conversations with LGBTQ+ leaders on the power of identity
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Call Number: Leisure Reading Collection: B LevelISBN: 9780306874628Publication Date: 2020-10-13Meet the LGBTQ+ dealmakers, trailblazers, and glass-ceiling breakers in business, politics, and beyond. Andrew Gelwicks interviews the leaders who have forged their own paths and changed the world. From Troye Sivan to Margaret Cho, George Takei to Billie Jean King, Shangela to Adam Rippon, each person credits their queer identity with giving them an edge in their paths to success. Their stories brim with the hard-won lessons gained over their careers. -
We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir
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Call Number: HQ75.4.H38 A3 2019ISBN: 9780735235007Publication Date: 2019-06-04A queer Muslim searches for the language to express her truest self, making peace with her sexuality, her family, and Islam. Growing up in Pakistan, Samra Habib lacks a blueprint for the life she wants. She has a mother who gave up everything to be a pious, dutiful wife and an overprotective father who seems to conspire against a life of any adventure. Plus, she has to hide the fact that she's Ahmadi to avoid persecution from religious extremists. As the threats against her family increase, they seek refuge in Canada, where new financial and cultural obstacles await them. -
How We Fight for Our Lives
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ISBN: 9781501132735Publication Date: 2019-10-08From award-winning poet Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives--winner of the Kirkus Prize and the Stonewall Book Award--is a "moving, bracingly honest memoir" (The New York Times Book Review) written at the crossroads of sex, race, and power. Haunted and haunting, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir about a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. -
Everybody (Else) Is Perfect: how I survived hypocrisy, beauty, clicks, and likes
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ISBN: 9781982127763Publication Date: 2021-01-26From the former editor-in-chief of Nylon comes a provocative and intimate collection of personal and cultural essays featuring eye-opening explorations of hot button topics for modern women, including internet feminism, impossible beauty standards in social media, shifting ideals about sexuality, and much more. -
The Times I Knew I Was Gay
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Call Number: Leisure Reading Collection: B LevelISBN: 9781982147105Publication Date: 2020-10-06A charming, highly relatable graphic memoir that follows one young woman's adventures in coming out and coming of age. Ellie always had questions about who she was and how she fit in. As a girl, she wore black, obsessed over Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and found dating boys much more confusing than many of her friends did. As she grew older, so did her fears and a deep sense of unbelonging. From her first communion to her first girlfriend via a swathe of self-denial, awkward encounters, and everyday courage, Ellie tells her story through gorgeous illustrations. -
Trans+ : Love, Sex, Romance, and Being You
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Call Number: on orderISBN: 9781433829833Publication Date: 2019-08-01Trans+: Love, Sex, Romance, and Being You by Karen Rayne, PhD, and Katherine Gonzales, MBA, is an all-inclusive, uncensored guide for teens who are transgender, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, or gender-fluid. TRANS+ answers all your questions, easy and hard, about gender and covers mental health, physical health and reproduction, transitioning, relationships, sex, and life as a trans or nonbinary individual. It's full of essential information you need -- and want -- to know and includes real-life stories from teens like you
