Vermont may pride itself as being the first in the nation to adopt same-sex civil unions in 2000 and full marriage rights by a legislative vote in 2009, but that doesn’t mean homophobia is the stuff of history.
The state’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, for example, continues to find students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning facing higher rates of bullying, alcohol and drug use, and suicidal thoughts.
“LGBTQ youth still are having a lot of problems, especially in rural communities,” said Christopher Kaufman Ilstrup, executive director of the Vermont Humanities Council. “Lots of adults are seeing kids they care about struggling to manage issues around sexual orientation and gender identity.”
That’s why the council plans to spotlight the situation through its Vermont Reads program, which aims to figuratively and literally put the state on the same page by encouraging community, school and library groups to study the same book.
The two-decade-old program originally featured titles about past challenges, be it Montpelier author Katherine Paterson’s “Bread and Roses, Too” about turn-of-the-century labor strikes, Brattleboro writer Karen Hesse’s “Witness” about the Ku Klux Klan of the1920s or Saint Michael’s College graduate Loung Ung’s “First They Killed My Father” about her 1970s escape from war-torn Cambodia.
But recent picks have tackled the present. Last year’s Black Lives Matter-inspired “The Hate U Give” by Mississippi writer Angie Thomas will give way to the latest selection, “We Contain Multitudes,” a tale of two teenage boys by Canadian author Sarah Henstra.
“The novel contains many strands relevant to current community conversations, including economic disparities, how veterans return from war, domestic violence, opioid addiction, bullying and coming out,” the council wrote about the latter book. “But lest it sound too heavy, it is also a beautiful story of friendship, poetry, coming of age and aspiring to move beyond social expectations.”
The program is offering 4,000 free copies to eligible groups, as well as support from partners including Outright Vermont, Recovery Vermont, the Howard Center and the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence’s Youth Advocacy Task Force.
“It’s a book that is pretty relatable to large segments of the population,” Kaufman Ilstrup said. “A lot of teachers and community organizers see it as a way to start having conversations about many issues, but perhaps most importantly, about how to support LGBTQ youth.”
Vermont Reads has a track record of sparking change. Take its 2019 title, “March,” which told the story of the late civil rights leader John Lewis. Students at one school used its lessons to successfully lobby to save a health program and then wrote Lewis to say they were inspired by his life.
The council hopes its latest book will be equally transformative.
“It felt important to acknowledge that queer kids exist and in fairly large numbers in Vermont, and that mainstream organizations should support these young people,” Kaufman Ilstrup said. “It shouldn’t always have to be just the LGBTQ groups who are addressing LGBTQ issues. We can all talk about diversity in our communities.”
