LGBTQIA+: Publishers Prioritize Stories Over Politics – School Library Journal
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Despite the current Trump administration’s efforts to make the recognition of only two genders federal policy, publishers remain committed to inclusive representation of LGBTQIA+ characters and stories.
Despite the current Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate terms like “pronouns” and “LGBTQ” from official government communications, ban DEI and gender topics from K–12 schools, and make the recognition of only two genders federal policy, publishers remain committed to inclusive representation of LGBTQIA+ characters and stories.
“Our titles have gone through bans in the past,” says Mark de Vera, sales and marketing director at Yen Press. “If that wasn’t going to stop us before, it’s not going to stop us now. We believe in publishing books people want to read.” And Yen Press’s sales show readers want LGBTQIA+ titles. Boys’ love and girls’ love manga are among its best-selling categories.
Allison Marie Pond, vice president of marketing at Mad Cave Studios, stresses the essential role libraries will play should large retailers begin to shy away from LGBTQIA+ titles. “Libraries are a safe space for readers,” she says. “These stories are more imperative now than ever. And I know I can count on librarians to get these books into the hands of the people who need them.”
Many of the latest LGBTQIA+ titles go beyond representation and inclusion. “Right now, people in the queer community want to focus on queer joy, showing people in positive, affirming situations,” says Allister Thompson, editor at James Lorimer and Company. “Which doesn’t mean that negativity won’t come in or that they don’t have to fight prejudice in some of these books, but that’s not the focus.”
Read on for the LGBTQIA+ titles these three publishers are most excited about this spring.
Mad Cave Studios
Miami-based Mad Cave Studios has been publishing inclusive comics and graphic novels for all ages since 2014—with no plans to stop. “What’s happening in the political space isn’t going to affect the content that we feel is important,” says Allison Marie Pond, vice president of marketing. “Graphic novels are such an important medium in which people can see themselves and others reflected and understand that being queer is normal.”
For Pride Month, Mad Cave’s Papercutz imprint will publish The Loud House: Loudest and Proudest by the Loud House Creative Team, May 2025, ISBN 9781545818992, a licensed collection of four short stories for ages 7–12. Like the franchise’s Nickelodeon show, these stories feature queer characters without making queerness the point.
In “Lipstick,” Dana is a pageant judge who doubts their makeup skills. Everyone ends up covered in sparkles, unafraid to shine. In “Pigeonholed,” the kids are too young to try out for wrestling and put on their own tournament in the park. “The message is, just because people say you can’t do things in a certain setting doesn’t exclude you from doing things your own way,” Pond says.
Mad Cave’s YA imprint, Maverick, is re-releasing its best-selling, award-winning graphic novel, The Last Session Vol. 1 by Jasmine Walls and Dozerdraws, June 2025, ISBN 9781545818190. A diverse group of kids 
meet in their high school’s gender and sexuality alliance group, where they grow close playing Dice & Deathtraps, a Dungeons and Dragons–like dice game that offers the kids a safe space to explore different identities.
The Last Session Vol. 2, October 2025, ISBN 9781545820605, has an entirely new cast of characters who reunite after high school to live stream a role-playing game for a charity. “As the pages go between real-life and gameplay interactions, you see the colors and the characters change,” Pond says. “Visually, it’s really fun.”
Also from Maverick, Abuzz by Amy Chase, illustrated by Stelladia, November 2025, ISBN 9781545820827, is a modern, graphic retelling of Much Ado About Nothing. Two feuding seniors, Ben and Beatriz, drag all their classmates into their drama, making everyone pick sides. Kids whose focus is on prom and college acceptance letters end up in the middle of the fight. Meanwhile, a group of outcasts takes advantage of the chaos by trying to assert their dominance over the school. “Abuzz centers queer youth not just as sidekicks or cautionary tales, but as the protagonists of their own messy, joyful kind of story,” Pond says.
Lorimer Children & Teens
An imprint of Toronto- and Halifax-based James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Lorimer Children & Teens specializes in diverse titles for reluctant and struggling readers and currently has over 500 books in print. Lerner Publishing Group distributes its children’s and YA fiction and nonfiction titles in the U.S. But Digital Projects Manager David Glover is undeterred by book bans—on either side of the border.
“We have to believe that great content will win out,” he says. “That wholesome, safe, inclusive stories that help kids will be powerful and valuable. That’s the goal.”
“Real Love” is a hi-lo YA series of 22 inclusive LGBTQIA+ relationship novels for ages 13–18. The high-interest stories are written at an approachable third-grade reading level and average fewer than 25,000 words. “Romance figures into the stories,” says Editor Allister Thompson. “But really they’re coming-of-age teens having their first experiences of certain kinds of feelings.”
One of the new titles in the series, Lonely in Happy Town by Kristopher Mielke, August 2025, ISBN 9781459420045, follows a trans youth who escapes a difficult home life through a convenience store job and an Animal Crossing–like handheld game. He develops a crush on both a trans girl he works with and one of the avatars in the game. “He’s divided, he thinks, between two people and he has to make the decision [about] what’s more honorable, which one to commit to,” Thompson says.
Another new addition, Dogs Don’t Break Hearts by ’Nathan Burgoine, August 2025, ISBN 9781459420076, is about Beck, a teen who’s recently broken up with his boyfriend who gaslit him and led other friends to exclude him. When Beck starts volunteering at an animal shelter, he falls in love with the dogs and a shelter employee who’s now dating Beck’s ex. “Beck needed to get out of that relationship to understand what happened,” Thompson says. “He’s dealing with a lot of emotional management, gaslighting, a toxic relationship.”
In Not Not Normal by Peter E. Fenton, January 2025, ISBN 9781459419322, Jordan struggles with OCD that’s intensified by the recent loss of his mother. Then he meets Nathan, a proud, outgoing, queer activist. “You’ve got two characters—one who’s trying to control his life as a result of his anxiety and grief,” says Glover. “And Nathan, who is this expressive, spontaneous character, which Jordan finds threatening initially. Nathan is disrupting the little box that Jordan has placed himself in. With time, the spontaneity in this relationship gives Jordan the confidence to step outside his self-imposed boundaries.”
Line Drive to Love by Angel Jendrick, January 2025, ISBN 9781459419599, is the story of Rory, an ambitious young softball star whose father has been suffering from ALS. When Shanty, the attractive, bookish cousin of one of Rory’s teammates, comes to town for the summer, Rory is distracted, and her play starts to suffer. “She needs to make a decision, so it’s about navigating that situation,” Thompson says. “By the end, she gets to have her cake and eat it too because while we want to avoid melodrama, we also want happy endings sometimes.”
Summer with Sunil by Alison Lister, September 2024, ISBN 9781459419292, is the perfect beach read. Dominic, a trans teen, goes to a beach resort in Nova Scotia for the summer with their parents. There, they meet Sunil, an outwardly confident non-binary character. The two spend a lot of time talking about what it means to be queer. “This is a sweet, conscious romance,” Thompson says. “Lister is more activist in tone, in the sense that she believes it’s very important that these are proud queer characters, and no matter what situation you put them in they’re not going back in the box.”
Yen Press
Yen Press is a leading publisher of Japanese manga, comics, and graphic novels in the U.S. And it has long published both boys’ and girls’ love titles. “Girls’ love is a category that Yen Press has supported for quite some time,” says Mark de Vera, sales and marketing director. “Because of that, it’s been very gratifying to see that the category has been taken to a new level.”
De Vera attributes that growth to the release of Yen Press’s best-selling new series for ages 13 and up, The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All, Vol. 1 by Sumiko Arai, October 2024, ISBN 9781975399689. A stylish, music-loving high school girl, Aya, develops a crush on a record store employee with a similar style and taste in music. Mistaking her crush for a guy, Aya doesn’t recognize her awkward and quiet female classmate, Mitsuki, as the record store employee, because Mitsuki completely transforms at work, where she feels and dresses more like herself.
“It’s a very female-forward series,” De Vera says. “We have two female protagonists. It involves female friendship before it gets to the romance.” And while most manga art is exclusively black and white, this title also features splashes of green.
Acclaimed manga artist Fumi Yoshinaga of Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 1 and What Did You Eat Yesterday?, Vol. 1 is back with Tamaki and Amane, April 2025, ISBN 9798855401776. A collection of four short stories combining the slice-of-life and historical narratives Yoshinaga is known for, this title begins with the story of a married couple, Tamaki and Amane, who discover that their daughter is in love with a female classmate. This discovery sparks a conversation about their prejudices and reveals Tamaki’s own same-sex attraction in the past.
In the subsequent short stories, Tamaki and Amane are reincarnated in different forms, genders, and periods of Japan’s past. “Thematically I would say that it’s not just about LGBTQ+,” says Marketing Assistant Ingrid Lorenzi. “There’s a large appeal of exploring love in all of its forms.”
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