Official News Outlet for the Rainbow Round Table of the American Library Association
The AFL-CIO, the country’s largest labor federation, amended its constitution in September, banning discrimination based on gender identity or gender expression. The constitution now states: “To encourage all workers without regard to race, creed, color, sex, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to share equally in the full benefits of […]
Since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized federal same-sex marriage, several agencies have ruled that all same-sex married couples have federal rights even if the states where they live do not recognize these couples as married. Here are some of the agency changes that have already gone into effect: IRS: all same-sex marriages will be recognized […]
A book to watch out for. A new picture book, God Made Dad & Mom, teaches children that a straight family is the only good family as Michael is taught both at home and in school that all families have one mother and one father. Michael’s friend Jimmy has two dads, which worries Michael. Visiting […]
An antidote to Michael is Misha in Misha & His Moms Go to the Olympics. FCKH8.com, a for-profit T-shirt company based in Michigan, will send 10,000 copies of this coloring book featuring LGBT people and their families to children in Sochi and Moscow in response to Russia’s law imposing fines and perhaps jail time for […]
ALA/ALSC’s Winter 2013 edition of Children & Libraries has three articles of note: “Sticks, Stones, and Sneering Tones” by Kim Becnel, pp. 10-15: excellent use of research on bullying to evaluate children’s books that include bullies as characters, explaining which propose workable solutions and which perpetuate platitudes or simply demonize the bully and indulge revenge […]
Organization announcements follow developments of interest in the LGBT world from established organizations. If you know of something we’ve missed, please contact the editor so we can add it in! Oak Park Public Library (IL) has a recommendation for the core collection of a “$200 Transgender Bookshelf. Other sources are the annual GLBTRT Over the Rainbow […]
Bill Cohen of Harrington Park Press asks for assistance from GLBTRT members to identify missing titles on the publishing company’s “Guide” to LGBTQ peer review scholarly journals. Only journals identifying themselves as having a central LGBTQ focus in main titles or the body of their advertising are included. Popular magazines are excluded from the guide. […]
The GLBTRT is nothing without our volunteers, and there are four new committees that are looking for interested members. These committees are the Ad Hoc Planning Committee for GLBTRT Pre-Conference the 2015 Annual Conference (San Francisco), the Ad Hoc Advocacy Committee to Produce GLBTRT Toolkit, the Resources Committee, and the Reviews Committee. ALA/GLBTRT members who wish to […]
The Out in the Silence organization has made its first Award for Youth Activism to OUT NOW for its efforts to end bullying, harassment, and discrimination and to promote safe schools and inclusive communities for all. Founded nearly twenty years ago as a weekly support group for LGBT youth in a Springfield (MA) church basement, the […]
The New York Public Library site has the first of a series of blog entries by author/activist Perry Brass in conjunction with the NYPL’s show “Why We Fight: Remembering AIDS Activism.” The blog, “A Prophesy Before Our Time: The Gay Men’s Health Project Clinic Opens in 1972,” describes an activist grass-roots clinic Brass helped start […]