Hear Us Out!: Lesbian and Gay Stories of Struggle, Progress, and Hope, 1950 to the Present (review)

Veteran author Garden here chronicles lesbian and gay history in the United States through twelve short stories (two previously published). The stories are arranged chronologically, a pair to a decade's (beginning with the 1950s), each decade section introduced by a historical essay highlighting issues, successes, and setbacks the GLBTQ community faced. Stories cover everything from coming out to finding love to (in disturbing contrast to the collection subtitle) a double suicide by a gay couple who feel they have no other options. There are no stories featuring bisexual, transgender, or self-identified queer characters, and between the emphasis on lesbian characters (only two are exclusively about gay male characters), the fact that they're almost invariably middle-class white girls, and the repetitiveness of the voices and goals, the collection is disappointingly predictable and homogeneous, two undesirable attributes in a collection designed to reach teens across the sexuality spectrum. The historical essays are more successful, but they're a small part of the book, and their strongly adult focus dulls the overall immediacy and accessibility for a teen audience. Although there are no source notes for each essay, Garden makes note of specifically helpful titles in her introduction; these resources are part of the further reading list, which includes several excellent YA and adult books, websites, and magazines, though a handful of out of print or extremely dense titles are questionable choices. Whether gay, straight, questioning, or curious, teens will be much better served by such excellent anthologies as Jane Summer's Not the Only One or Levithan and Merrell's The Full Spectrum (BCCB 7/06).