Youth
SAGA invites LGBTQ youth to our meetings. We are a hate-free place to come and
talk. We help educate youth in anti-bullying, health, HIV and AIDS prevention, safe sex, coming out, living with LGBT parents and friends, and any other issue that deals directly with them. We can also refer you to counseling services that are LGBTQ friendly and to other local services and support groups.
If you have suggestions to be included in the sections below, please send them to SAGA via [email protected]
talk. We help educate youth in anti-bullying, health, HIV and AIDS prevention, safe sex, coming out, living with LGBT parents and friends, and any other issue that deals directly with them. We can also refer you to counseling services that are LGBTQ friendly and to other local services and support groups.
If you have suggestions to be included in the sections below, please send them to SAGA via [email protected]
Non-Fiction Books
Non-Fiction
Being a Teen: Everything Teen Girls & Boys Should Know About Relationships, Sex, Love, Health, Identity & More by Jane Fonda - An all-encompassing guide for students that covers everything from the body and sex to friendship, family, and more. The book also includes questions of self-concept, gender identity, what goes into a healthy relationship, how to know if you're in a real one, and how to say "no."
What If Someone I Know Is Gay?: Answers to Questions About What It Means to Be Gay and Lesbian by Eric Marcus - No question goes unanswered in this important book about being gay. All the basics -- and not-so-basics -- are covered in more than one hundred questions asked by real teens just like you. So the answers contain all the info you want to know. And just in case you feel like sharing, there's a new "parents only" chapter to clue them in too.
GLBTQ: The Survival Guide for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Teens (2014) by Kelly Huegel - The teen years are full of challenges. For gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning teens, these challenges can include prejudice, discrimination, rejection, reprisals, insensitive remarks (even among friends and families) and, sometimes, violence. But being a GLBTQ teen can also be fun and enlightening—when you are comfortable with who you are. Author Kelly Huegel understands what GLBT teens want and need to know. As a teen, she struggled to realize and accept her own identity. Her frank, sensitive book is written for teens who are beginning to question their sexual or gender identity, those who interested in GLBT issues and rights, and those who need guidance, reassurance, or reminders that they aren’t alone. Kelly offers practical advice, knowing encouragement, accessible resources, and real-life testimonials from teens who’ve "been there." Topics include coming out (the pluses and minuses), facing prejudice and pressure, getting support, navigating relationships, staying safe, making healthy choices, surviving and thriving in high school, and more. The message throughout is strong and clear: By accepting yourself, you take charge of your own future.
The Shared Heart: Portraits and Stories Celebrating Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Young People by Adam Mastoon
In this stirring collection of photographs and personal narratives, forty esbian, gay, and bisexual young people share their thoughts and experiences about family, friends, culture, and coming out.Their writings reflect the soulsearching, pain, and transformation they have undergone. The photographs show the faces of dynamic, thoughtful, hopeful members of our communities and world.
Revolutionary Voices by Amy Sonny
Invisible. Unheard. Alone. Chilling words but apt to describe the isolation and alienation of queer youth. In silence and fear they move from childhood memories of repression or violence to the unknown, unmentored, landscape of queer adulthood, their voices stilled or ignored. No longer. Revolutionary Voices celebrates the hues and harmonies of the future of gay and lesbian society, presenting not a collection of stories but a collection of experiences, ideas, dreams, and fantasies expressed through prose, poetry, artwork, letters, diaries, and performance pieces.
Children of Horizons: How Gay and Lesbian Teens Are Leading a New Way Out of the Closet by Andrew Boxer
With a new epilogue on teens and AIDS, Children of Horizons provides the first in-depth examination of the trials faced by gay and lesbian teens.
Free Your Mind: The Book for Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Youth and Their Allies by Ellen Bass and Kate Kaufman
Free Your Mind is the definitive practical guide for gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth -- and their families, teachers, counselors and friends. For too long, gay youth have wanted to be themselves and to feel good about it, but
most have been isolated, afraid, harassed, or worse. Their very existence has been ignored, whispered about, or swept under the rug. But each day more and more lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are standing up, speaking out, breaking down stereotypes, demanding rights and recognition -- shining. In this book, young people share their joy and their pain, their hopes and fears, the formidable obstacles they have faced and overcome, and the exciting opportunities they have discovered. Free Your Mind speaks to the basic aspects of the lives of gay, lesbian and bisexual youth: Self-Discovery; Friends and Lovers; Family; School; Spirituality; Community. Alive with the voices of more than fifty young people, rich in accurate information and positive practical advice, Free Your Mind talks about how to come out, deal with problems, make healthy choices about relationships and sex, connect with other gay youth and supportive adults, and take pride and participate in the gay and lesbian community. Free Your Mind
also presents detailed guidance for adults who want to make the world safer for lesbian, gay and bisexual youth.
Fiction Books
Into This River I Drown by T. J. Klune. At once an exploration of grief and faith, Into This River I Drown is one man's journey into the secrets of his father and discovering the strength to believe in the impossible.
Five years ago, Benji Green lost his beloved father, Big Eddie, who drowned when his truck crashed into a river. All called it an accident, but Benji thought it more. However, even years later, he is buried deep in his grief, throwing himself into taking over Big Eddie's convenience store in the small town of Roseland, Oregon. Surrounded by his mother and three aunts, he lives day by day, struggling to keep his head above water. But Roseland is no ordinary place. With ever-increasing dreams of his father's death and waking visions of feathers on the surface of a river, Benji's definition of reality is starting to bend. He thinks himself haunted, but whether by ghosts or memories, he can no longer tell. It's not until the impossible happens and a man falls from the sky and leaves the burning imprint of wings on the ground that he begins to understand that the world around him is more mysterious than he could have possibly imagined. It's also more dangerous, as forces beyond anyone's control are descending on Roseland, revealing long hidden truths about friends, family, and the man named Calliel who Benji is finding he can no longer live without.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky (MTV/Pocket Books) 15-year-old Charlie talks about his life in a series of letters to an unnamed recipient. An outcast, Charlie finds refuge in a group of older teens who take him under their wing. Included in the group is a boy who is gay and having his first love relationship with a closeted fellow student. Charlie’s story is wonderfully told and incredibly compelling. This book is a “crossover” book for the adult and young adult market.
Rainbow Boys, by Alex Sanchez (Simon and Schuster)
A love triangle between three teenage boys, each at a different stage of coming out. 17-year-old basketball player Jason Carillo has a girlfriend, but he dreams about guys. When he finally musters enough courage to attend a local meeting for gay teens, he is shocked to find two of his classmates there – the flamboyant Nelson “Nelly” Glassman (who everyone at school knows is gay) and quiet, shy Kyle Meeks, who looks too “normal” to be gay. This novel is very contemporary with its references to GSAs, safe sex, and teen support groups. Dealing frankly with the sex lives (or lack thereof) of its characters, this book will appeal to kids who want an honest look at what it is to be a gay teen today. Rainbow High and Rainbow Road completes the trilogy.
Five years ago, Benji Green lost his beloved father, Big Eddie, who drowned when his truck crashed into a river. All called it an accident, but Benji thought it more. However, even years later, he is buried deep in his grief, throwing himself into taking over Big Eddie's convenience store in the small town of Roseland, Oregon. Surrounded by his mother and three aunts, he lives day by day, struggling to keep his head above water. But Roseland is no ordinary place. With ever-increasing dreams of his father's death and waking visions of feathers on the surface of a river, Benji's definition of reality is starting to bend. He thinks himself haunted, but whether by ghosts or memories, he can no longer tell. It's not until the impossible happens and a man falls from the sky and leaves the burning imprint of wings on the ground that he begins to understand that the world around him is more mysterious than he could have possibly imagined. It's also more dangerous, as forces beyond anyone's control are descending on Roseland, revealing long hidden truths about friends, family, and the man named Calliel who Benji is finding he can no longer live without.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky (MTV/Pocket Books) 15-year-old Charlie talks about his life in a series of letters to an unnamed recipient. An outcast, Charlie finds refuge in a group of older teens who take him under their wing. Included in the group is a boy who is gay and having his first love relationship with a closeted fellow student. Charlie’s story is wonderfully told and incredibly compelling. This book is a “crossover” book for the adult and young adult market.
Rainbow Boys, by Alex Sanchez (Simon and Schuster)
A love triangle between three teenage boys, each at a different stage of coming out. 17-year-old basketball player Jason Carillo has a girlfriend, but he dreams about guys. When he finally musters enough courage to attend a local meeting for gay teens, he is shocked to find two of his classmates there – the flamboyant Nelson “Nelly” Glassman (who everyone at school knows is gay) and quiet, shy Kyle Meeks, who looks too “normal” to be gay. This novel is very contemporary with its references to GSAs, safe sex, and teen support groups. Dealing frankly with the sex lives (or lack thereof) of its characters, this book will appeal to kids who want an honest look at what it is to be a gay teen today. Rainbow High and Rainbow Road completes the trilogy.
Film
BEAUTIFUL THING, Hettie MacDonald, dir. (1996) R – A pair of teenage boys in a working-class neighborhood, both vaguely aware they might be gay, become aware of their homosexuality, but once they realize that they're attracted to each other, neither is sure just what to do.
BIG EDEN, Thomas Bezucha, dir. (2000) PG-13 – A New York artist returns to his home town in Montana to care for his ailing grandfather, and is also given the chance to confront his feelings about being gay in a small town and his passion for his high school best friend.
BOYS DON’T CRY, Kimberly Peirce, dir. (1999) R – Based on the life of Brandon Teena.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, Ang Lee, dir. (2005) R – Love story of two cowboys who fall for each other one summer and form a life-long bond that they struggle to maintain as they marry and go about their separate lives.
CLOUD ATLAS, Tom Tykwer, dir. (2012) R - An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.
THE CRYING GAME, Neil Jordan, dir. (1992) R – Story about a transgender woman and her relationship with a person who doesn’t have any knowledge of transpeople.
THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN, David Moreton, dir. (1998) R – The story of a young man coming out in Ohio in the early 80s.
GET REAL, Simon Shore, dir. (1998) R - A tenderly romantic coming-of-age story as two boys in a British school fall in love.
THE LARAMIE PROJECT, Moises Kaufman, dir. (2002) Not Rated – Based off the play of the same name and compiled from interviews gathered from citizens of Laramie, WY, after the murder of Matthew Shepard.
LATTER DAYS, C. Jay Cox, dir. (2003) R – A gay party boy falls for a young Mormon missionary.
RENT, Chris Columbus, dir. (2005) PG-13 – Musical about a group of bohemian artists in New York dealing with love, life, and AIDS during the height of the AIDS crisis in America.
BIG EDEN, Thomas Bezucha, dir. (2000) PG-13 – A New York artist returns to his home town in Montana to care for his ailing grandfather, and is also given the chance to confront his feelings about being gay in a small town and his passion for his high school best friend.
BOYS DON’T CRY, Kimberly Peirce, dir. (1999) R – Based on the life of Brandon Teena.
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, Ang Lee, dir. (2005) R – Love story of two cowboys who fall for each other one summer and form a life-long bond that they struggle to maintain as they marry and go about their separate lives.
CLOUD ATLAS, Tom Tykwer, dir. (2012) R - An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.
THE CRYING GAME, Neil Jordan, dir. (1992) R – Story about a transgender woman and her relationship with a person who doesn’t have any knowledge of transpeople.
THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN, David Moreton, dir. (1998) R – The story of a young man coming out in Ohio in the early 80s.
GET REAL, Simon Shore, dir. (1998) R - A tenderly romantic coming-of-age story as two boys in a British school fall in love.
THE LARAMIE PROJECT, Moises Kaufman, dir. (2002) Not Rated – Based off the play of the same name and compiled from interviews gathered from citizens of Laramie, WY, after the murder of Matthew Shepard.
LATTER DAYS, C. Jay Cox, dir. (2003) R – A gay party boy falls for a young Mormon missionary.
RENT, Chris Columbus, dir. (2005) PG-13 – Musical about a group of bohemian artists in New York dealing with love, life, and AIDS during the height of the AIDS crisis in America.