YA LGBT Books discussion

So I was looking for some audiobooks to spend my audible credits on and so ducked over to the "Gay & Lesbian" section (we'll leave aside I'm pretty sure there are books on trans people in that section too) and there was literally no way to sort the books by topic, so erotica, and YA, and sci fi, and historical fiction and everything all mixed together and this is a problem I've run into basically every where I've looked for books, I've gone into book stores and had biographies on feminist lesbianism next to "best gay erotica short stories" its happened on Amazon, its happened on here (can't tell you how many clearly not YA books end up in my recommendations) I don't really have a point just venting annoyance at all things queer always being lumped together in a corner when it comes to reading and we have to dig through to find what we're looking for in a way that straight people would never dream of doing when it comes to books with straight characters, no straight teenager would have to dig past erotica to find a YA book, oh and i just looked audible's "teen" category is broken into 15 subcategories (none of which are LGBT btw) but Gay & Lesbian (which isn't on the main drop down menu, but a different page) isn't broken down into anything but is just a subcategory of fiction..... arg.

Yes. And Audible miscategorizes books as well. Is there an "adult" filter for Audible like there is for Amazon? (You might have to be signed in to see it?) If so, activating that might remove the erotica at least.

I share your frustrations. It is very annoying.

Kaje wrote: "Yes. And Audible miscategorizes books as well. Is there an "adult" filter for Audible like there is for Amazon? (You might have to be signed in to see it?) If so, activating that might remove the e..."

if there is I don't see it any where and I am signed in

I asked on chat on Audible - they said no filter but they would forward the suggestion. I emailed suggestions for both - an adult filter (generally, I'm surprised they don't have this) and an LGBTQ category under "teens"

so I went through all 1,415 books that audible listed as gay & lesbian and found something interesting a number of book I know audible has, that are Queer lit, aren't listed in their gay & lesbian area, for example Grasshopper Jungle, none of Alex Sanchez's books, Every Day, Two Boys Kissing, One Man Guy, Half Wild or Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, and before any one tries to say that maybe those are listed only under teens, Boy Meets Boy and More Happy Than Not were listed in the Gay & Lesbian section, this is a problem I run into a lot where books that are queer but more popular or main stream don't get listed as such, huge pain.

Yes, they are quite erratic with categories. The LGBT stuff often gets lost among the rest.

The issue of those titles not appearing under the LGBT headings may be an issue with the Library of Congress cataloging data. Or it may be an issue with the way the various systems automate their import. When the LoC data is used, the majority of times, only the top three subject headings get used. The rest of the subject headings can be imported, but you have to know to look for them. So if a book does not list 'Gays and Lesbians' in the top three subjects, that info is likely to fall the the wayside when an automated system does its thing.

And in some respect, I think that LGBT lit not being pigeonholed is a good thing (e.g. great LGBT works can be much more diverse and not encumbered by a genre tag that might otherwise deflect a potential reader for a larger audience).

But it is frustrating when you're trying to browse…

In stores where lgbt is such a small section and it all fits on one shelf i understand it being that way. With online and just adding the correct tags to it, there is no excuse. I couldn't even find lgbt tag at all on audible, i just searched a few authors until i found something i know and then looked at other books frequently bought with this title, and clicked on some of them to do the same thing