Queer Reads creates library space for LGBTQ youth
May 8, 2023 | By Buffy Boroughs | Community News Service 
Some titles the Queer Reads book group has and will be reading and discussing. Photo courtesy Waterbury Public Library
Last year at the Waterbury Public Library, Youth Services Librarian Cynthia Ryle started noticing more and more young people coming in and asking for books with queer characters.
In an art club the library hosted, teen participants would show up with rainbow pins, Ryle recalled. So in February 2022, she offered a “book tasting,” picking a few titles with LGBTQ characters and plotlines that the young readers selected. From there, seeing the interest, Ryle grew the tasting into a full-course monthly book club called Queer Reads.
Since the first events, the number of attendees has grown from three to 12 each month. “These kids clearly have a need to connect,” Ryle said in a recent interview.
The Queer Reads group meets at 6 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month, offering a chance for youth aged 12 to 18 to talk about books related to an LGBTQ experience. The idea is about more than books – it’s to create a safe space for self-expression and exploration, Ryle said, at a time when other states are banning books and discussion of LGBTQ content in schools and libraries.
Vermont Cartoonist Laureate Tillie Walden (left) with Waterbury Public Library Youth Services Librarian Cynthia Ryle last week. Courtesy photo
Last week’s Queer Reads had a special guest speaker: Vermont’s new cartoonist laureate, Tillie Walden, a 26-year-old graphic novelist whose work embraces queer teenage themes. “Junior High,” her newest book, is scheduled for release this month and follows the twin sisters of pop music duo Tegan and Sara — who wrote the text — as they undergo the trials and tribulations of school, explore their own queerness and use music to figure it out.
A Norwich resident, Walden last month was appointed as Vermont’s fifth Cartoonist Laureate. At the age of 22, Walden was the youngest recipient of the Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work for her graphic novel memoir “Spinning” in 2018. Her work includes a number of graphic novels. Walden is a graduate of and a professor at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction.
Walden’s visit was intended as a small-group event for the youth book group. The library hopes to schedule a return for Walden at a larger event in the near future.
Finding community within a community
According to a statewide risk survey conducted by the Trevor Project, 34% of LGBTQ youth in Vermont “seriously considered” attempting suicide in the past year. Those numbers can drop dramatically when young people have accepting spaces, according to the Trevor Project, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing suicide in the young LGBTQ population.
“It's critically important that LGBTQ [youth] see themselves reflected in the community and in the programming around them,” said Amanda Rohdenburg, associate director of Outright Vermont, an LGBTQ youth advocacy group based in Burlington.
“Being able to offer young people that reprieve, even for just an hour or two, helps remind them that whatever else they’re facing, there are people in their corner,” Rohdenburg said. “There are spaces in places where you can be safe and free.”
Ryle makes suggestions for Queer Reads book options for discussion each month with the help of Max Titus, former co-chair of the board of directors of the Pride Center of Vermont. The participants, though, lead the gatherings.
“It's important to me that the kids help pick the books,” Ryle said. “The kids lead, develop some leadership skills but also their voices.”
Connection is the focus of Queer Reads — not the reading. “The book discussion is really, really fun,” Ryle added. “And the kids don't have to have read the book. If they just want to come and be here, then that’s fine.”
Ryle, who grew up in Florida and lived in Texas for several years, was worried about community backlash to Queer Reads, but she said she’s only had negative feedback once. Ryle has received letters from parents expressing gratitude for the creation of a community that gives their children support. One parent, whose child was too young to join, offered her homemade cupcakes, Ryle said.
Not all the participants have the same support of family and friends, Ryle said, so the library takes steps to protect them. Attendance is taken digitally, so only staff see the list of names. Attendees also generally agree to keep private the discussions and information their peers share within the Queer Reads group.
As popularity for the group has grown, so has demand. The Queer Readers wanted more frequent meetings, Ryle said. Time and resource restrictions made this difficult, so Ryle designated a room for young people to congregate twice a month. Now, she said, students get off the school bus at the library in the afternoon and use the room as a hangout until the Queer Reads program starts, Ryle said.
“I wanted them to have a community,” she explained.
Sharing with national peers
The program’s popularity has received national attention. In March, Ryle spoke at a library youth leadership summit in Florida and shared tips for starting similar Queer Reads events with peers from across the country. Given that some states are considering LGBTQ book bans, Ryle had to navigate tricky terrain by focusing on a selection of titles that she believed would fall within such restrictions.
Ryle said she learned about and was horrified by experiences that librarians from elsewhere in the country are facing. “They have protests outside their libraries. They have people coming in and shouting at them,” she said.
Meanwhile in Waterbury, the program has taken root in a largely supportive environment, she reflected. “I’ve been working hard to create a collection of books where every kid and every family – they can see themselves.”
Community News Service is a collaboration with the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.