Two Boys Kissing - by David Levithan

A first-person plural omniscient narrator tells the story not only of Craig and Harry, who set out to break the world record for the longest kiss (32 hours, 12 minutes, 10 seconds) but also those of Tariq (a recent victim of gay bashing), Cooper (whose parents accidentally discovered he was gay) , Avery and Ryan (about to go on their first date), and Peter and Neil (boyfriends together for a year).

Ryan has a favorite aunt (Caitlin) who "after years of trying to rise in the world of corporate insurance...quit and is now going for her library degree". Caitlin's "love for Ryan is the most unconditional love he will ever feel", and so Ryan knows that her home is a safe place for him to bring Avery, a trans boy for whom he is falling.

Peter and Neil spend some time in a bookstore where Neil puts together a pile of books, the titles of which he uses to send a message to Peter

I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This
Just Listen
You're the One that I Want
So Much Closer
The Difference Between You and Me
Positively
Matched
Perfect
Wonder
You Are Here
Where I Belong
I'll Be There
Along for the Ride
The Future of Us
Real Live Boyfriends
Keep Holding On

Peter responds with his own short stack of books

Take a Bow
A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You
Keep Holding On

While this scene took place in a bookstore rather than I library it is certainly worthy of inclusion here. I also like to notice when a book I've blogged about shows up in another book. In this case it is Jacqueline Woodson's I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This.

Later in the book there is also a sneaky reference to Stephen Chbosky's The Perk's of Being a Wallflower

Our narrators provide some insight into their identity. In one of the early hints they tell us

If you are a teenager now, it is unlikely that you knew us well. We are your shadow uncles, your angel godfathers, your mother's or your grandmother's best friend from college, the author of that book you found in the gay section of the library. We are characters in a Tony Kushner play, or names on a quilt that rarely gets taken out anymore. We are the ghosts of the remaining older generation. You know some of our songs.

 If you are a Gen Xer, or young Baby Boomer now (as is this blogger), you did know them well.

Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free

Based on her own experiences, and interviews with dozens of women, Klein's scholarly memoir describes how the purity movement (or what Jessica Valenti calls "the cult of virginity") perpetuates rape culture and creates a climate of humiliation for women. Far from being healthy, many of those who grew up with abstinence-only messages not only found themselves unable to have a healthy sexual relationship, their mental and physical health often suffered as well.

Libraries are mentioned in only three places in this work, but of course that is three times as many as are needed to secure a spot on my blog. They all came near the end. One involved a young evangelical man concerned about his obsession with women's bodies. He would walk "around campus, the library, the supermarket, perpetually hoping to see another accidental glimpse of ...something [cleavage, leg, skin]". He was, laughably, advised by his pastor to attend a Sex Addicts Anonymous meeting, where, not surprisingly, he was met with "an awkward silence" after sharing his story.

Another passage recounted a gay lawyer's research in Washington, DC's theological libraries "where he continued to wrestle with the rift between theology he loved and the lived experience he couldn't refute."

The most interesting, however, was this passage of a young woman who told her story of contemplating suicide

Rosemary prepared for a trip to Europe, where she would spend her sophomore year of college. By the time she was packing her bags...she was so depressed that she was seriously planning her suicide. She would kill herself in a European library, she told herself. She had always loved books so much.

Ultimately, the trip had a healing effect when Rosemary found a brand of Christianity in Europe that focused on fellowship rather than shaming.

The Drowning of Stephan Jones - by Betty Greene - Banned Books Week Day 6

In this novel, based on a true story, Bette Greene tells the story of Carla Wayland who is torn between her infatuation with the handsome homophobe, Andy Harris, and living the values taught to her by her super cool, liberal, librarian mother. Using his church beliefs as justification, Andy relentlessly harrasses a local gay couple. While out with Andy, and some other friends, Carla finds her strength when the bullying becomes homocidal.

This book has been challenged in several states for its homosexual themes, and "anti-Christian" beliefs (presumably because the murderer belongs to a fundamentalist church) and because it "codones illegal activity" (that would be homosexuality, not murder).
At least one teacher, Penny Culliton, of Mascenic, New Hampshire, was fired for using this book in the classroom. She eventually was reinstated, but the books were not.