Special Issue: Global Perspectives in Queer Children’s and Young Adult Literature

Guest Editor: Cheeno Marlo Sayuno, PhD

Queerness has found its space specifically within contemporary children’s and young adult literature scholarship, drawing from gender and queer theories and futuri9esi, as well as the nuances of queer theorizing when applied into the concept of childhood. In Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture, DerriN Mason argued that “invisible, subtle, latent, and sideways queernesses are at least worthy of aNen9on as visible manifesta9ons of nonheterosexual desires and iden99es.” (6). Editors B.J. Epstein and Elizabeth Chapman collected essays for Interna'onal LGBTQ+ Literature for Children and Young Adultsiii, where theore9cal and empirical approaches to LGBTQ+ narra9ves for children and young adults across diverse cultural perspec9ves were showcased to “inspire further ac9vism, wri9ng, and research (xiv). The capacity of children’s books to “undertake essen9al sociocultural work” and “create imagined queer collec9ves that can have real consequences on experiences of community belonging and building as well as social and psychic transforma9on” is the subject of Jennifer Miller’s The Transforma've Poten'al of LGBTQ+ Children’s Picture Booksiv (4). Mary Zaborskis’ Queer Childhoods: Institutional Futures of Indigeneity, Race, and Disability problematized the queering impacts of educa9onal ins9tu9ons in challenging gender/sexual inequities, since “ins9tu9ons inducted children into contextually produced normativity precisely to queer them” (6). The Repara've Impulse of Queer Young Adult Literature is Angel Daniel Matos’ successful attempt at recognizing queer young adult literature’s poli9cs and poten9als in “[encapsula9ng] new ways of envisioning futures that are queer—or that at least defy the normalizing impulses toward gender and sexuality present in Western contexts” (xxviii)

Some milestones in advocating for queer rights emerge. Japan is set to roll out its first nationwide LGBTQIA+ education in schools, workplaces, universities, and homes. Thailand and Liechtenstein have embraced marriage equality, while Lithuania also celebrated its first same-sex civil partnership. However, the social realities of queer people across the globe are muddled with continuous repressions, discrimination, and violence. United Nations (UN) human rights chief Volker Turkix reports trends on discriminatory laws that not only penalize information campaigns on LGBTIQ+ issues but also criminalize same-sex conduct in 64 UN member-states, according to the data from the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Asexual Association (ILGAWorld)x. For instance, in Ghana, homosexual activity is subject to up to 10 years of imprisonment. In Turkey, some lawmakers propose new restrictions on gender-affirming healthcare and punishments to “attitudes and behaviours contrary to biological sex and public morality”xii. In China, content about sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics are curtailed, including creative works on gay ero9ca and articles that surface stories of homophobia. The Malaysian government announced that it will replace the term “LGBT” with “deviant culture (budaya songsang)” in public discourse and social media, an anti-queer rhetoric that targets the safety and rights of LGBTQ+ individuals. In the Philippines, Lance Corporal Joseph ScoN Pemberton of the US Marines was convicted on the death of transgender woman Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude, but the government has pardoned the killer xv. In the US, the Trump administration has continued to cut programs that impact the health needs of LGBTQ+ people. Furthermore, data from PEN American found that 25% of more than 4000 banned titles in the US included LGBTQ people xvii.

These are only a few of the issues that remain to be confronted by queer individuals, also thus impacting queer children. It is thus important now more than ever to continue challenging literary and media representations of queer children and young adults, and to provide commendable examples of the ways by which their lives should be told in narratives that celebrate their individuality and intersec9onali9es but also provide a nuanced understanding of their social contexts. Queerness and childhood are inextricably linked, as “children…are the hill upon which queer theory has been willing to die over and over—to prove its points, its relevance, its legitimacy” (Zaborskis 2).

This special issue aims to contribute to contemporary ships in queer discourse and how these impact the writing, scholarship, and publica9on prac9ces in children’s and young adult literature. We are interested in essays that provide country-specific, cross-country, region-based, and global literatures that exemplify good practices in queer representations, new directions in writing queer children’s literature, and challenging exis9ng perspec9ves that take LGBTQIA+ advocacies steps backward. Topics include, but are not limited to the following:

• Queer and queer-coded representations in picture books and middle-grade and young adult novels

• Representations of queer child protagonists and their narrative journeys

• Representations of queer (chosen) family structures and their dynamics

• Discourses of queerness, race, culture, and class, and other issues on intersectionality

  within LGBTQIA+ narra9ves

• Underrepresented queer experiences in children’s and young adult literature and media

• Cases of in children’s and young adult literature across the globe

• Queer storytelling practices in literature and media

• Children’s responses to queer narra9ves• Presence/absence of queer children’s and young adult literature in relation to the cultural contexts of its country of origin

• Social reali9es of queer youth vis-à-vis literary representa9ons

• Emerging perspectives in queer children’s and young adult literature

Submissions should follow the guidelines set by the International Research in Children’s Literature. Articles should be up to 7000 words, including all notes and a list of works cited, written in English (UK spelling) and following the MLA style guide. Full papers must be submitted on or before January 27, 2027, with a target publication of Fall 2027.

Please send submissions to Roxanne Harde, IRCL Senior Editor, at rharde@ualberta.ca and Dalia Mostafa Abdulrahman at daliamostafar@cu.edu.eg, with subject line: [IRCL Queer CYAL] Short Title of Article.

i See, for example, the following seminal works: Edelman, Lee. No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive. Duke University Press, 2004; Muñoz,

José Esteban. Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York University Press, 2009.

ii Mason, DerriM. Queer Anxie<es of Young Adult Literature and Culture. University Press of Mississippi, 2021.

iii Epstein, B. J., and Elizabeth Chapman, editors. Interna<onal LGBTQ+ Literature for Children and Young Adults. Anthem Press, 2021.

iv Miller, Jennifer. The Transforma<ve Poten<al of LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books. Routledge, 2022.

v Zaborskis, Mary. Queer Childhoods: Ins<tu<onal Futures of Indigeneity, Race, and Disability. New York University Press, 2024.

vi Matos, Angel Daniel. The Repara<ve Impulse of Queer Young Adult Literature. Routledge, 2025.

vii MarUn, Patrick, and Seena Katayama. “Japan to Roll Out NaUonwide LGBTQIA+ EducaUon for the First Time.” ABC News Australia, 15 June

2026, hMps://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-15/japan-rolling-out-lgbtqia-educaUon-for-the-first-Ume/106775430. Accessed 17 June 2026.

viii Middleton, Lucy. “LGBTQ+ Rights in 2026: What to Expect around the World.” Context, 7 Jan. 2026, hMps://www.context.news/socioeconomic-

inclusion/lgbtq-rights-in-2026-what-to-expect-around-the-world. Accessed 17 June 2026.

ix “LGBTIQ+ face mounUng violence and discriminaUon, warns UN rights chief,” UN News, May

2026, hMps://news.un.org/en/story/2026/05/1167532. Accessed 17 June 2026.

x InternaUonal Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex AssociaUon. ILGA World Database. ILGA World, hMps://database.ilga.org/en. Accessed 17

June 2026.

xi “LGBTQ Rights in 2026: What to Expect around the World.” Context, 2026, hMps://www.context.news/socioeconomic-inclusion/lgbtq-rights-in-

2026-what-to-expect-around-the-world. Accessed 17 June 2026.

xii Human Rights Watch. “Abusive AnU-LGBT Proposals Resurface in Türkiye.” Human Rights Watch, 15 June

2026, hMps://www.hrw.org/news/2026/06/15/abusive-anU-lgbt-proposals-resurface-in-turkiye. Accessed 17 June 2026.

xiii Zhang, Phoebe. “Pride Month 2026 Marked by Backslide in LGBTQ Rights.” South China Morning Post, 5 June

2026, hMps://www.scmp.com/news/world/arUcle/3356823/pride-month-2026-marked-backslide-lgbtq-rights. Accessed 17 June 2026.

xiv Somiah, Vilashini, and Satkunasingam, Indramalar. “Anwar Government Joins in the ScapegoaUng of Queer Malaysians.” East Asia Forum, 16

June 2026, hMps://eastasiaforum.org/2026/06/16/anwar-government-joins-in-the-scapegoaUng-of-queer-malaysians/. Accessed 17 June 2026.

xv Lendon, Bran. “US Marine in Philippines Transgender Killing Case Pardoned.” CNN, 8 Sept. 2020, hMps://ediUon.cnn.com/2020/09/08/asia/us-

marine-philippines-transgender-killing-pardon-intl-hnk-scli. Accessed 17 June 2026.

xvi KFF. “Overview of President Trump’s ExecuUve AcUons ImpacUng LGBTQ+ Health.” KFF, 2025, hMps://www.kff.org/lgbtq/overview-of-president-

trumps-execuUve-acUons-impacUng-lgbtq-health/. Accessed 17 June 2026.

xvii Baêta, Sabrina, Madison Markham, Tasslyn Magnusson, and Kasey Meehan. Banned in the USA: Beyond the Shelves. PEN America, 1 Nov.

2024, https://pen.org/report/beyond-the-shelves/. Accessed 17 June 2026; Edwards, Jonathan. “Banned Books about LGBTQ People, Black

People and People of Color Dominate School Censorship Efforts, PEN America Says.” NBC News, 27 Feb.

2025, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/banned-books-lgbtq-transgender-black-people-of-color-pen-america-rcna193879. Accessed 17

June 2026.