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SUPPORT & CRISIS RESOURCES

Local Support

For help raising your rainbow youth (someone local to listen, offer resources, and referrals) please call: 828-214-5645

Crisis Hotlines

National Suicide Prevention Line (24/7): 800-273-8255
The Trevor Project (24/7, youth-focused): 866-488-7386
The LGBT National Youth Talkline (youth-focused): 800-246-7743

Local, State & National Resources

National Organizations

PFLAG National
GLAAD
The Trevor Project
It Gets Better Project
Matthew Shepard Foundation
Lambda Legal

North Carolina Resources

Campaign for Southern Equality
Equality NC
Glisten

Western North Carolina Resources

Blue Ridge Pride
Youth OUTright WNC
WNCAP
Tranzmission
NAMI Western North Carolina

Youth, Family & Education Resources

Gender Spectrum
Children's National LGBTQ+ Care & Support
Learning for Justice

Medical & Professional Resources

WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health)

Recommended Reading

For a deeper dive into LGBTQ+ identities, stories, and support, explore these books and resources. For PFLAG’s own coming out reading list, visit: Coming Out (PFLAG resource) – https://pflag.org/resource/comingoutbooks/

Parents, Families & Allies

  • This Is How It Always Is — Lauriex Frankel
  • The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals — Stephanie Brill and Rachel Pepper
  • Love Lives Here — Rowan Jetté Knox
  • Trans New York: Growing Up Transgender in New York City — Diverse Authors
  • Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family — Amy Ellis Nutt

LGBTQ+ 101 & Identity

  • The ABC's of LGBT+ — Ash Hardell
  • Beyond the Gender Binary — Alok Vaid-Menon
  • A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns — Archie Bongiovanni and Tristan Jimerson
  • The Queer Bible — Edited by Jack Guinness

Appalachian & Southern Voices

  • Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father — Alysia Abbott
  • Bastard Out of Carolina — Dorothy Allison
  • The Color Purple — Alice Walker
  • Steel Magnolias (Script) — Robert Harling

Two-Spirit & Indigenous Voices

  • Jonny Appleseed — Joshua Whitehead
  • A History of My Brief Body — Billy-Ray Belcourt
  • Love After the End — Edited by Joshua Whitehead

BIPOC Voices

  • Real Life — Brandon Taylor
  • Redefining Realness — Janet Mock
  • All Boys Aren't Blue — George M. Johnson
  • The Prophets — Robert Jones Jr.

Asexual & Aromantic Experiences

  • Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex — Angela Chen
  • The Invisible Orientation — Julie Sondra Decker
  • Loveless — Alice Oseman

Picture Books & Family Read-Alouds (Ages 4–8)

  • And Tango Makes Three — Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
  • Julián Is a Mermaid — Jessica Love
  • Prince & Knight — Daniel Haack
  • Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag — Rob Sanders
  • Red: A Crayon's Story — Michael Hall

Middle Grade (Ages 8–13)

  • Melissa— Alex Gino
  • Better Nate Than Ever — Tim Federle
  • Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World — Ashley Herring Blake
  • Zenobia July — Lisa Bunker

Young Adult Fiction (Ages 13+)

Contemporary
  • Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda — Becky Albertalli
  • Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe — Benjamin Alire Sáenz
  • I'll Give You the Sun — Jandy Nelson
  • The Miseducation of Cameron Post — Emily M. Danforth
Fantasy & Speculative Fiction
  • Cemetery Boys — Aiden Thomas
  • Carry On — Rainbow Rowell
  • We Set the Dark on Fire — Tehlor Kay Mejia
  • Pet — Akwaeke Emezi

Adult Memoirs & Personal Stories

  • The Argonauts — Maggie Nelson
  • In the Dream House — Carmen Maria Machado
  • Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic — Alison Bechdel
  • Untamed — Glennon Doyle
  • I'm Afraid of Men — Vivek Shraya

Adult Fiction

Contemporary Fiction
  • Less — Andrew Sean Greer
  • On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous — Ocean Vuong
  • Detransition, Baby — Torrey Peters
  • Red, White & Royal Blue — Casey McQuiston
Fantasy & Cozy Fiction
  • The House in the Cerulean Sea — TJ Klune
  • Priory of the Orange Tree — Samantha Shannon
  • Legends & Lattes — Travis Baldree
  • Light from Uncommon Stars — Ryka Aoki
Literary & Historical Fiction
  • The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo — Taylor Jenkins Reid
  • Giovanni's Room — James Baldwin
  • Tipping the Velvet — Sarah Waters
  • The Great Believers — Rebecca Makkai

LGBTQ+ History & Social Justice

  • Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution — David Carter
  • How to Survive a Plague — David France
  • Transgender History — Susan Stryker
  • Sister Outsider — Audre Lorde
  • Queer Theory, Gender Theory — Riki Wilchins

Faith & Spirituality

  • God and the Gay Christian — Matthew Vines
  • Changing Our Mind — David P. Gushee
  • Walking the Bridgeless Canyon — Kathy Baldock
  • Outside the Lines — Mihee Kim-Kort

PFLAG Literature

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