The Necessity of Bridge-Building

David Levithan, author of Boy Meets Boy (2003) and Two Boys Kissing (2013), will be awarded with the 2017 Chicago Tribune Young Adult Literary Prize at next weekend's Printer's Row Lit Fest in Chicago. Many of the bestselling author's books feature gay characters and plots. A few decades ago his books would have been burned and the author scorned in most American cities. Today, as the Lit Fest world celebrates such books and authors, some adults still express concern or disapproval, while many (most?) young adults, our spies on the YA literature scene, yawn. There are battles ahead, but the war over LGBT rights has already been won by advocates. “Get used to it!” critics of the genre and its subjects are told.