The Black gay experience can be understood through fiction

This blog was written as part of Charlotte Mecklenburg Library's Black Lives Matter program initiative. Learn  more about the program and corresponding events here.

To recognize and understand the LGBTQ+ community, it takes the honesty of admitting societal prejudices against gay people while permitting that community to be itself without judgment. As former NBA player Jason Collins put it, the first professional male athlete to announce he is gay, “Openness may not completely disarm prejudice, but it’s a good place to start.” 

Public libraries across the country have been doing just that in recent weeks with the celebration of Pride Month.  Gay themed books are spotlighted in displays and often include representations of the multi-colored Pride symbol, resembling a rainbow. Charlotte Mecklenburg Library borrowed the color scheme for its Pride t-shirts, in its support of Pride, on sale to interested staff.   

Within the growing self-identified LGBTQ+ population, which according to the Gallup Poll is 7.1 percent of U.S. adults, is a sizable minority population. People of color make up 40% of that number with another 12% of those identifying as Black according to the Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law in a demographic study.  

Collins falls in that 12% and to borrow from his quote about openness, books can help to do that in the imagination and storytelling nature of a novel. Reading the stories can stir empathy and help one to understand the present. Charlotte Mecklenburg Library has several titles about those individuals in stories about coping with family, life, identity—living the human experience. Read about these stories with booklists for adult and teen readers.

Check out our Adult BLACK LGBTQ+ Booklist

Check out our Teen Black LGBTQ+ Booklist

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The blog was written by Lawrence Turner, an adult services librarian at South County Regional Library.