Showing results by author "Lee Wind" in All Categories

Welcome to QUEER AS A FIVE-DOLLAR BILL: THE PODCAST with author and host Lee Wind. Join me each Thursday in June as I share my award-winning novel, Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill, chapter by chapter, in its entirety, to empower Queer teens and their allies with the real-world information that would have changed my life – because stories – especially our Queer stories and history – should be available for all.

Wyatt is 15, and nobody in his homophobic small town of Lincolnville, Oregon, knows that he’s gay. Not even his best friend (and accidental girlfriend) Mackenzie. Then he discovers a secret from actual history: Abraham Lincoln was in love with another guy! Since everyone loves Lincoln, Wyatt’s sure that if the world knew about it, they would treat gay people differently, and it would solve everything about his life.

On a block dressed up in red and green, one house shone blue and white. It's a holiday season that both Isaac, whose family is Jewish, and Teresa, whose family is Christian, have looked forward to for months! They've been counting the days, playing in the snow, making cookies, drawing (Teresa) and writing poems (Isaac). They enjoy all the things they share, as well as the things that make them different. But when Isaac's window is smashed in the middle of the night, it seems like maybe not everyone appreciates "difference".   

In the second book of the Queer History Project, The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie: Infinite Identities around the World, author Lee Wind uses historical evidence and primary sources—poetry, ancient burial sites, firsthand accounts, and news stories—to explore gender roles and identities.

"History" sounds really official. Like it's all fact. Like it's definitely what happened. But that's not necessarily true. History was crafted by the people who recorded it. And sometimes, those historians were biased against, didn't see, or couldn't even imagine anyone different from themselves. That means that history has often left out the stories of LGBTQIA+ people: men who loved men, women who loved women, people who loved without regard to gender, and people who lived outside gender boundaries.