Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden

Annie On My Mind tells the story of two young women, each with loving families but outsiders at their respective schools, who meet at a museum in New York, quickly becoming friends and, later, lovers. The book is told from the perspective of Liza, a student at a private high school governed by an authoritarian principal. When Liza and Annie get caught making love in the house of two lesbian teachers, not just their lives but others’ are irrevocably changed.

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Levithan's groundbreaking novel—set in an idealized high school where kids are free to express themselves without repercussions or embarrassment—whisks readers into a unique teen scene via the work of this cast of young actors. As Paul explores his feelings for new crush Noah, readers meet a crew of memorable characters both gay and straight, wild and wallflower that include the football team's drag queen quarterback. Suffused with humor and heart, this book is bound to get readers thinking about what it means to just be yourself and truly embrace tolerance.

Deliver Us from Evie by M.E. Kerr

Sixteen-year-old Parr Burrman and his family face some difficult times when word spreads through their rural Missouri town that his older sister is a lesbian, and she leaves the family farm to live with the daughter of the town's banker.

Geography Club by Brent Hartinger

Russel Middlebrook is convinced he's the only gay kid at Goodkind High School.

Then his online gay chat buddy turns out to be none other than Kevin, the popular but closeted star of the school's baseball team. Soon Russel meets other gay students, too. There's his best friend Min, who reveals that she is bisexual, and her soccer-playing girlfriend Terese. Then there's Terese's politically active friend, Ike.
But how can kids this diverse get together without drawing attention to themselves?

"We just choose a club that's so boring, nobody in their right mind would ever in a million years join it. We could call it Geography Club!"

Brent Hartinger's debut novel is a fast-paced, funny, and trenchant portrait of contemporary teenagers who may not learn any actual geography in their latest club, but who learn plenty about the treacherous social terrain of high school and the even more dangerous landscape of the human heart.

Kissing Kate by Lauren Myracle

Kate was lissa’s best friend. they’ve shared everything for four years. then one night at a drunken party, Kate leaned in to kiss lissa, and lissa kissed her back. And now Kate is pretending lissa doesn’t exist. Confused and alone, lissa’s left questioning everything she thought she knew about herself, and about life. but with the help of a free-spirit new friend, lissa’s beginning to find the strength to realize that sometimes falling in love with the wrong person is the only way to find your footing.

Luna by Julie Anne Peters

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 Gender Workbook by Kate Bornstein

Gender isn't just about "male" or "female" anymore - if you have any doubts, just turn on your television. RuPaul is as familiar as tomato ketchup with national radio and television shows, and transgendered folk are as common to talk-shows as screaming and yelling. But if the popularization of gender bending is revealing that "male" and "female" aren't enough, where are we supposed to go from here? Cultural theorists have written loads of smart but difficult-to-fathom texts on gender, but none provide a hands-on, accessible guide to having your own unique gender. With My Gender Workbook, Kate Bornstein brings theory down to Earth and provides a practical approach to living with or without a gender.

Bornstein starts from the premise that there are not just two genders performed in today's world, but countless genders lumped under the two-gender framework. Using a unique, deceptively simple and always entertaining workbook format, Bornstein gently but firmly guidesyou to discover your own unique gender identity. Whether she's using the USFDA's food group triangle to explain gender, or quoting one-liners from real "gender transgressors", Bornstein's first and foremost concern is making information on gender bending truly accessible. With quizzes and exercises that determine how much of a man or woman you are, My Gender Workbook gives you the tools to reach whatever point you desire on the gender continuum.

Bornstein also takes aim at the recent flurry of books that attempt to naturalize gender difference, and puts books like Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus squarely where they belong: on Uranus. If you don't think you are transgendered when you sit down to read this book, you will be by the time you finish it!

Nobody Passes by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

Nobody Passes is a collection of essays that confronts and challenges the very notion of belonging. By examining the perilous intersections of identity, categorization, and community, contributors challenge societal mores and countercultural norms. Nobody Passes explores and critiques the various systems of power seen (or not seen) in the act of “passing.” In a pass-fail situation, standards for acceptance may vary, but somebody always gets trampled on. This anthology seeks to eliminate the pressure to pass and thereby unearth the delicious and devastating opportunities for transformation that might create.

Mattilda, aka Matt Bernstein Sycamore, has a history of editing anthologies based on brazen nonconformity and gender defiance. Mattilda sets out to ask the question, “What lies are people forced to tell in order to gain acceptance as 'real'.” The answers are as varied as the life experiences of the writers who tackle this urgent and essential topic.

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

Published in 1993, this brave, original novel is considered to be the finest account ever written of the complexities of a transgendered existence.

Woman or man? That's the question that rages like a storm around Jess Goldberg, clouding her life and her identity. Growing up differently gendered in a blue--collar town in the 1950's, coming out as a butch in the bars and factories of the prefeminist '60s, deciding to pass as a man in order to survive when she is left without work or a community in the early '70s. This powerful, provocative and deeply moving novel sees Jess coming full circle, she learns to accept the complexities of being a transgendered person in a world demanding simple explanations: a he-she emerging whole, weathering the turbulence.

Leslie Feinberg is also the author of Trans Liberation, Trans Gender Warriors and Transgender Liberation, and is a noted activist and speaker on transgender issues.

The Last Time I Wore A Dress by Daphne Scholinski

This terrifying memoir recounts author Daphne Scholinski's three years spent in mental institutions for, among other things, Gender Identity Disorder. Daphne came from a busted home: Mom left to go to college and become a feminist and an artist; Dad stayed home with two daughters, the elder of whom, Daphne, he often beat. When Daphne started acting up at school, her shrinks decided to put her away. Her family, not knowing how to handle her, agreed. Because she was a tomboy who wore jeans and T-shirts and didn't act enough like a girl, her treatment, in addition to talk therapy, isolation, and drugs, required her to wear makeup, walk with a swing in her hips, and pretend to be obsessed with boys. This sounds awful enough, but when you realize that the confinement and treatment took place from 1981 to 1984, it's absolutely chilling. This book is both a powerful indictment of Gender Identity Disorder treatment and an inspiring testament of one person's survival.

This Bridge Called My Back by Cherrie Moraga, Gloria Anzaldua

From the forewords by Cherrie Moraga, Gloria Anzaldua through the poems, essays, and pieces Toni Cade Bambara calls "cables, esoesses, conjurations and fusile missles, this is a work of bringing-togetherness that gives the reader a clear-eyed view of life in the United States. From "I Paid Very Hard for My Immigrant Ignorance" by Mirtha Quintanales to "who told you anybody wants to hear from you? you ain't nothing but a black woman!" by hattie gossett to "I Don't Understand Those Who Have Turned Away From Me" by Chrystos, This Bridge Called My Back is a showing-and-telling, a volume of reflections of stunning color: raging, gentle, powerful. First published in 1983 and winner of the 1986 Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award, this collection was an important addition to the steadily growing voice of the world's silenced people, especially women of color. This Bridge Called My Back is a gift of wisdom, of strength, of womanhood. As Gloria Anzaldua puts it in her foreword: "Haven't we always borne jugs of water, children, poverty? Why not learn to bear baskets of hope, love, self-nourishment and to step lightly?"

Zami by Audre Lorde

In "Zami: A New Spelling of My Name," poet Audre Lorde has written a text she calls a "biomythography." I think of "biomythography" as a literary form that blends elements of autobiography, the novel, and personal mythology. But however you define the word, "Zami" is a powerful and beautiful text which illuminates the life of an African-American lesbian in the mid-20th century.

"Zami" begins with the young Audre and her parents, a Black immigrant couple who had settled in New York City. Lorde writes in detail of her cultural heritage from the Caribbean island of Grenada. From her childhood in Harlem to her young adulthood, the book is full of fascinating episodes and poetic language. Lorde's description of using her mother's traditional mortar and pestle to grind spices in the Caribbean style is a particular tour-de-force of sensuous language.

Lorde describes the roots of her life as a poet. She also vividly recalls what it was like to be a young Black lesbian in the 1950s. This particular aspect of "Zami" gives the book a special historical value. Lorde's narrative captures many of the cultural and political particulars of that era.

Audre Lorde attained a distinguished literary reputation as both a poet and essayist. But serious readers of Lorde must not miss her extraordinary "biomythography." This is an essential American life story which ranks up there with those of Benjamin Franklin, Harriet Jacobs, Malcolm X, and other important figures. Whether you're interested in the Caribbean-American experience, African-American literature, lesbian studies, or mid-20th century United States history, you will want to explore "Zami."

In this book Audre Lorde writes, "Every woman I have ever loved has left her print upon me." If you read "Zami," Lorde just might leave a lasting print upon you.