Raleigh, NC (OPENPRESS) December 26, 2010 -- Narrow Path Publishing released Shades of Gay (ISBN 9780981645926) today, author Stephanie Silberstein said. Shades of Gay is the first-person account of a gay teenager's attempt to openly have a same-sex relationship with a bisexual neighbor. The novel, which takes place over the course of the protagonist's senior year of high school, addresses anti-LGBT bullying, homophobia among the community's adults and suicide and self-harm by LGBT youth. It features an asexual teen as the protagonist's best friend, making it one of the only pieces of literature to feature an explicitly asexual character.
Silberstein wrote the novel in response to her best friend, Hadassah D Gavi Chayim's, past struggles with suicidal impulses related to Chayim's gender and sexual orientations. "No one should have to suffer simply because of who he or she is," she said. "Shades of Gay honors Hadassah's struggle as well as the challenges thousands of LGBT kids face every day." Chayim, who is openly Transgender, contributed an afterword to the book about her experiences as well as designing its cover.
Shades of Gay comes out a few months after a string of suicides brought national attention to the high suicide rate in the LGBT community. Silberstein and Chayim hope that by reading it, LGBT kids will feel less isolated and be motivated to ask for help if they feel suicidal. The pair plans to contribute 10 percent of profits to the Trevor Project, the only national suicide hotline geared specifically towards the LGBT community.
Shades of Gay, which is 536 pages long, is available through Narrow Path Publishing's website for $19.99. The Kindle edition of the novel has been out for two weeks, and an audio edition is expected to follow in early 2011.
ABOUT STEPHANIE SILBERSTEIN
Stephanie Silberstein has been an advocate for LGBTQ suicide prevention since 2008. In addition to writing fiction and non-fiction for LGBTQ youth, Silberstein regularly films suicide prevention videos and runs awareness campaigns on Facebook.
