Members of the LGBTQ community continue to face threats of violence as well as discrimination within the U.S. legal system. Making matters worse, suicide rates are “disproportionately high” among LGBTQ adolescents and young adults, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Religion and spirituality publishers are taking notice, and five books coming out this year explore issues faced by those with diverse gender identities and the role faith practices can play.
Emerging Gender Identities: Understanding the Diverse Experiences of Today’s Youth
Mark Yarhouse and Julia Sadusky (Brazos, Aug.)
Geared toward those who care about or work with gender-diverse youth—such as parents, pastors, and counselors—this book by psychologists Yarhouse and Sadusky draws on clinical and ministry experience to explore numerous gender identities while also engaging the Christian view of sex and gender in a critical way.
Queering Your Craft: Witchcraft from the Margins
Cassandra Snow (Weiser, Nov.)
Snow, whose writings on sexuality and witchcraft have appeared in Allure, GQ, and Vice, explores why witchcraft has always attracted queer people as well as others marginalized in society, and how readers can use the occult for empowerment when faced with patriarchal, gender normative, and noninclusive traditions and institutions.
Spiritually Sassy: 8 Radical Steps to Activate Your Innate Superpowers
Sah D’Simone (Sounds True, Sept.)
Meditation teacher D’Simone blends Buddhist philosophy with tips for finding personal freedom that are accessible for readers who are “brown, black, queer, straight, femme, flamboyant, masculine, white, or transgender,” according to the publisher.
Tabernacles of Clay: Sexuality and Gender in Modern Mormonism
Taylor G. Petrey (Univ. of North Carolina, June.)
Petrey, a religion scholar and the editor of the Mormon studies journal Dialogue, offers an explanation of Mormonism’s strictly defined gender roles and stances against gay marriage while also examining its teachings that acknowledge gender fluidity, which Petrey says reveals a tension that traces back to the 1940s.
Welcoming and Affirming: A Guide to Supporting and Working with LGBTQ+ Christian Youth
Edited by Leigh Finke (Broadleaf, Aug.)
This handbook written by a team of LGBTQ adults provides ways for pastors, youth workers, church leaders, educators, and other adults in Christian settings to talk about sexuality, gender, mental health, safe sex, and more with LGBTQ teenagers. The book is being published simultaneously with Queerfully and Wonderfully Made (Beaming Books), which directly addresses questions LGBTQ Christian teens have, such as when they should come out to their families as well as their churches.