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    We Make It Better: The LGBTQ Community and Their Positive Contributions to Society (Gender Identity Book for Teens, Gay Rights, Transgender, for Readers of Nonbinary)
    We Make It Better: The LGBTQ Community and Their Positive Contributions to Society (Gender Identity Book for Teens, Gay Rights, Transgender, for Readers of Nonbinary)
    We Make It Better: The LGBTQ Community and Their Positive Contributions to Society (Gender Identity Book for Teens, Gay Rights, Transgender, for Readers of Nonbinary)
    Ebook196 pages1 hour

    We Make It Better: The LGBTQ Community and Their Positive Contributions to Society (Gender Identity Book for Teens, Gay Rights, Transgender, for Readers of Nonbinary)

    By Eric Rosswood and Kathleen Archambeau

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    About this ebook

    Celebrate the LGBT Community

    “For all LGBTQ teens and young adults, this book will help inspire and empower you to become your best selves.”―Dustin Lance Black, Academy Award-winning Screenwriter, “Milk

    #1 Bestseller in LGBT Studies, Lesbian Studies

    LGBT history is as old as history itself. In that time, LGBT people have positively impacted their communities, made advancements for society, and changed the world! We Make It Better profiles all the people, places, and events that show just how awesome and inspiring the LGBT community is.

    A stirring look at LGBT history. LGBT people have always played important roles in society. They have served their country, served in office, pushed for the protection of human rights, and have impacted all fields of study, sport, art, and industry. Meet some of the most famous thinkers and changers in history from Bayard Rustin, Alan Turing, Dr. Sally Ride, and Oscar Wilde to present day innovators and world changers such as Billie Jean King, Jason Collins, Ellen DeGeneres, Tim Cook, the Wachowski sisters, Sir Ian McKellen and more.

    Positivity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth and adults. More than a “who’s who” of LGBT history, We Make It Better is a vibrant chronicle of the events in history where the LGBT community came together to fight for equality and save lives. Learn how the community came together during the HIV/AIDs crisis, fought for marriage equality, protested discrimination, and pushed for progressive change throughout the years. Learn about the events, places, people, and beliefs that are all causes for pride and celebration.

    Read this book and:

    • Discover important LGBT people who have changed the world
    • Be moved by the accomplishments of the LGBT community
    • Be inspired by a mix of biographies, history, and quotes

    Readers of The ABCs of LGBT by Ashley Mardell or Queer: A Graphic History by Dr. Meg-John Barker will love We Make It Better, a quintessential LGBT book.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMango
    Release dateJan 15, 2019
    ISBN9781633538214
    We Make It Better: The LGBTQ Community and Their Positive Contributions to Society (Gender Identity Book for Teens, Gay Rights, Transgender, for Readers of Nonbinary)

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      Book preview

      We Make It Better - Eric Rosswood

      Copyright © 2019 Eric Rosswood and Kathleen Archambeau.

      Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.

      Cover Design: Morgane Leoni

      Layout & Design: Roberto Núñez

      Mango is an active supporter of authors’ rights to free speech and artistic expression in their books. The purpose of copyright is to encourage authors to produce exceptional works that enrich our culture and our open society.

      Uploading or distributing photos, scans or any content from this book without prior permission is theft of the author’s intellectual property. Please honor the author’s work as you would your own. Thank you in advance for respecting our author’s rights.

      For permission requests, please contact the publisher at:

      Mango Publishing Group

      2850 Douglas Road, 2nd Floor

      Coral Gables, FL 33134 USA

      info@mango.bz

      For special orders, quantity sales, course adoptions and corporate sales, please email the publisher at sales@mango.bz. For trade and wholesale sales, please contact Ingram Publisher Services at customer.service@ingramcontent.com or +1.800.509.4887.

      We Make It Better: The LGBTQ Community and Their Positive Contributions to Society

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication has been applied for.

      ISBN: (print) 978-1-63353-820-7, (ebook) 978-1-63353-821-4

      BISAC category code ########

      Printed in the United States of America

      Dedicated to all LGBTQ youth with big dreams. May this book help you reach your potential and find your place in the world. You are valid, you are loved, and you are part of something bigger. Together #WeMakeItBetter.

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Part 1

      Activism

      Bayard Rustin

      Emma González

      Nyle DiMarco

      Cecelia Maria Zarbo Wambach, PhD

      Part 2

      Business

      Beth Ford

      Rick Welts

      Suze Orman

      Tim Cook

      Part 3

      Dance

      Bill T. Jones

      Jin Xing

      Part 4

      Film & Television

      Daniela Vega

      Ellen DeGeneres

      Robin Roberts

      Chris Nee

      Sir Ian McKellen

      Margaret Cho

      The Wachowskis

      Part 5

      Government & Military

      Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir

      Leo Varadkar

      Eric Fanning

      Technical Sergeant Leonard P. Matlovich

      Part 6

      Music

      Sir Elton John

      k.d. lang

      Leonard Bernstein

      Michael Tilson Thomas

      Ricky Martin

      Rob Halford

      Part 7

      Religion

      Archbishop Carl Bean

      Bishop Gene Robinson

      Part 8

      Science

      Alan Turing

      Dr. Marci Bowers

      Sally Ride, PhD

      Part 9

      Sports

      Abby Wambach

      Billie Jean King

      Esera Tuaolo

      Jason Collins

      Stephen Alexander

      Part 10

      Literature

      Mary Oliver

      Oscar Wilde

      Tony Kushner

      Acknowledgments

      About the Authors

      Resources

      Photo Credits

      Introduction

      How LGBTQ People Make the World a Better Place

      You probably learned about Martin Luther King Jr. in school. History books teach us that he was one of the most visible leaders in the civil rights movement, but did you know that Bayard Rustin, one of King’s most trusted mentors and advisors, was an openly gay man? Rustin was instrumental in organizing the March on Washington, where King gave his famous I Have a Dream speech. Rustin also played an important role in the civil rights movement, but much of what he did was behind the scenes.

      We’ve all learned about World War II in school as well, but did you know Alan Turing, another openly gay man, deciphered German codes that were significant in helping us win the war? LGBTQ people like Bayard Rustin and Alan Turing have played important roles in history. People in our community have made, and continue to make, significant contributions to the world. For example, Sally Ride was the first American woman in space, and was also the first known LGBTQ astronaut. Apple, the largest tech company in the world, is run by Tim Cook, an openly gay man. Under his leadership, Apple became the first publicly traded US company to hit a market value of one trillion dollars. When it comes to sports, Abby Wambach is an Olympic gold medalist who also holds the world record for international goals for both female and male soccer players. The Wachowskis are transgender siblings who directed The Matrix, which became one of the biggest blockbuster sci-fi movie franchises ever created, and Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was the world’s first openly gay head of government and Iceland’s first female prime minister. That’s right, we even run countries.

      Did they teach you about any of these accomplishments in your school textbooks? Probably not. For some reason, there are people who have gone to great lengths to minimize or hide the accomplishments of LGBTQ people. Many of them have even taken it a step further.

      Have you ever heard the phrase No Promo Homo before? It’s a phrase used to describe laws that prohibit the promotion of homosexuality in schools. Some of these laws ban teachers from discussing LGBTQ people in a positive light, and some of them even require teachers to portray LGBTQ people in a negative way.

      The UK had its own version of this type of law in Section 28 (or Clause 28) of the Local Government Act of 1988. The amendment stated that a local authority shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality and a local authority shall not promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship. Section 28 was repealed in Scotland in 2000 and the rest of the UK in 2003, but these types of laws still exist in various countries around the world.

      Russia has implemented a variety of provisions restricting expression, assembly, and funding, and support groups for LGBTQ youth are illegal because they are thought to promote Non-Traditional Sexual Relations Among Minors. In the United States, where same-sex marriage is legal, there are still seven states (as of 2018) that have No Promo Homo laws: Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas. Alabama State Code § 16-40A-2(c)(8) states that classes should emphasize in a factual manner and from a public health perspective, that homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public and that homosexual conduct is a criminal offense under the laws of the state. In South Carolina, Stat. § 59-32-30(5) mandates that health education in the state cannot include a discussion about homosexual relationships except in the context of instruction concerning sexually transmitted diseases.

      In addition to all of this, over half of the United States still allows conversion therapy, the harmful pseudoscience quackery that falsely claims to be able to change the sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression of LGBTQ people. The Williams Institute published a study in 2018 that revealed an "estimated twenty thousand LGBT youth in the US ages thirteen to seventeen will receive conversion therapy from a licensed health care

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