Pride and Thoughts on "Month" Displays

I am all for celebrating Pride in June and Women in March and Black Authors in February and on and on. These  official celebrations are an excellent chance for the library to use current events to their advantage to draw readers in and encourage them to peruse our collections. They show people who identify with whatever the month is that we have books for them while also allowing those who want to explore something different than their own identity a chance to easily locate a book of interest.

BUT....and this is a HUGE BUT... these month displays are just about the worst thing you can do if the only time you put up LGBTQ titles, for example, is during June.

All of your displays-- in the library, on social media, lists on your homepage--- need to represent all voices all of the time. So your Pride display should have books from all genres and include books by people from all races and ethnicities. And when you do other months, those displays sold include LGBTQ options as well.

But also, when you have displays that are not focused around identity, you should also make sure they are diverse. In other words, books by all types of people should be on every display. Every time.

Someone's identity is NOT a genre. Nor is it often even an appeal factor. How the story is told, its pacing its characterization, its writing style, that is why someone would like a book or not. This is why when people give me a full list of their appeal preferences but then say, but not "gay books,"I give them 3 books. 2 that are not LGBTQ and fit their preference and one that most definitely is Queer but also, a perfect match for every other appeal. And you know what, about 40% of the time, they come back loving the "gay" book. Why? Because it had everything they wanted in a book besides queer characters and when they encountered LBGTQ characters and or themes in a book they love for every other reason, they realize that they didn't actually care that much about it being "gay."

So, let's embrace the celebratory months AND embrace always making every display as diverse as possible. Let's think about appeal as broadly as possible. Our libraries, our collections, and our displays should be representing the entire world, every possibility, every option. 

Before you go, there are many LGBTQ book lists out there to help you craft displays. You can use the regular resources to find them, but one I really liked and wanted to point out was this one from Book Riot listing the 100 most influential queer books of all time.