Oh go read this essay by 15-year-old gay Kentucky blogger Brent, about his quest to get gay characters stocked in local libraries. This is a kid who runs his own book blog (!) and, rather than list his favorite Top 40 artists on an overstuffed MySpace page, lists his favorite book characters and authors that inspire him. Fall in love.

He writes: “When I set out to find more LGBT titles, I turned to my school’s library. Honestly? It was pathetic. There was not one single LGBT novel. But oh, of course the librarian went out of her way to buy books about gangs, drugs, and teen pregnancy. Like, for real, the people who actually do care about gangs, drugs, and teen sex sure as hell don’t read–they’re too busy (note: gangs, drugs, and teen sex. Yeah, they’re going to interrupt all that fabulous action to sit and read a good novel!). When I asked her about it, she replied, ‘This is a school library. If you are looking to read inappropriate titles, go to a book store.’ Uhm, how in the hell is LGBT YA lit ‘inappropriate’?”

When Brent went to his city library, the only gay book he could find was The Meaning of Matthew.

“The world needs more librarians who serve the purpose of finding the right book to put in the right person’s lap. Not librarians who think that they can decide what’s ‘inappropriate’ and what’s not, based on their personal prejudices.”