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                                        CONTACT:  Lydia Rinaldi  
                                                212/677-4010  
                              
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                            
 
              CHELSEA HOUSE PUBLISHERS INTRODUCES  
                                 
     FIRST BOOKS ON GAY AND LESBIAN TOPICS FOR YOUNG ADULTS   
 
-- Eminent Historian Martin Duberman to be Editorial Consultant--
  
"...The root problem of gay youth suicide is a society that 
discriminates against and stigmatizes homosexuals, while failing 
to recognize that a substantial number of its youth has a gay or 
lesbian orientation." 
 
              --Report of the Health and Human Services          
                Secretary's Task Force on Youth Suicide          
                     
"We get calls every week from lots of young people across the 
country who have nowhere to go, no resources.  They call us for 
referrals, for what to read." 
 
              --Lynn Shepodd, executive director, National Coming
                Out Day, Inc. 
 
     NEW YORK -- In a milestone in publishing, Chelsea House
Publishers is proud to announce its new series, Biographies of  
Notable Gay Men and Lesbians and Gay and Lesbian Studies, the
first such books created especially for a young adult audience. 

     The landmark series will include 25 biographies of gay men 
and women of distinction as well as 15 volumes devoted to topical
and historical issues concerning homosexuality.  The series will
be produced with the guidance of editorial consultant Martin
Duberman, Distinguished Professor of History at The City  
University of New York (CUNY), one of this country's foremost
scholars of gay rights and history, noted author (Hidden From  
History; Cures: A Gay Man's Odyssey; About Time: Exploring the  
Gay Past; and the forthcoming Stonewall), and founder of the   
Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the CUNY Graduate School.  
                                        
     The first two biographies will treat the lives of the
eminent writers James Baldwin and Gertrude Stein.  Both books 
will be available in Fall 1993.  Other biographies will examine
the lives of E. M. Forster, Tennessee Williams, Willa Cather,
Walt Whitman, Lorraine Hansberry, and Truman Capote -- among
others. The 15-volume issues series will address such topics as
Gay History, Youth Issues, Homophobia, Health Issues, and Law and
Homosexuality.  The entire series will be published over a 2-
year period, and all of the 40 volumes will be written by noted
scholars and writers to ensure the highest degree of accuracy.   
 
     It is generally estimated that 10 percent of the U.S.
population is gay or lesbian.  That percentage is the same among
teenagers, making gay and lesbian youths one of the largest young
adult minority groups. 
 
     For any young person, adolescence is a difficult time of
adjustment, one marked by questions about sexuality.  This is 
especially true for homosexual teenagers, fearful of rejection by
loved ones and ostracism by their peers, who often feel they have
nowhere to turn.  

     Experts estimate that gay and lesbian youth are two- to-
three times more likely to commit suicide compared to
heterosexual youth and that up to 30 percent of all teenagers who
commit suicide are homosexual.  Hate crimes against homosexuals,
often perpetrated by young people, are on the rise, pointing to a
need for a greater commitment to the virtues of tolerance and
respect in our schools and our homes.
 
     Given these facts, there can be little doubt of the need for
well-written, objective material about what it means to be 
homosexual, tailored specifically for young people but useful as
well for the adults who care about them.  Yet the reader in need
of such material will currently find very little written for him
or her.  Chelsea House's Biographies of Notable Gay Men and  
Lesbians and Gay and Lesbian Studies were conceived in specific
response to the expressed concern of educators, counselors,
librarians, health-care professionals, parents, and adolescents
about the dearth of trustworthy material for young adults on this
sensitive topic. 
 
     Each of the 25 biographies will tell the life story of an
individual of exceptional accomplishment and historical interest
from the worlds of the arts, sciences, politics, or sports, all
of them models of achievement whose contributions to society
stand as an inspiration.  The personal histories of these
individuals will tell of conflict, growth, and courage, revealing
the purpose and meaning of each person's gay experience.  The 15
issues volumes will provide readers with an up-to-date,
scholarly, informative, and highly readable introduction to the
most important topics in this rapidly developing area of study,
with special focus on those subjects of greatest importance to
younger readers.     
 
     Chelsea House is a leading publisher of young adult and
juvenile nonfiction in the United States, specializing in
multicultural studies that provide students with new perspectives
with which to view their world.  Biographies of Notable Gay Men
and Lesbians and Gay and Lesbian Studies takes its place among
other noteworthy Chelsea House series such as Black Americans of
Achievement, Hispanics of Achievement, Indians of North America,
Peoples and Places of the World, 101 Educational Conversations
You Should Have with Your Child, The Chelsea House Library of
Biography, The Encyclopedia of Health, and Traditional Black Music.
-- 
  ==========================================================================
  Louie Crew, Academic Foundations Department, Rutgers University, NWK 07102
  lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu                                   201-485-4503
                   Preferred:  P. O. Box 30, Newark, NJ 07101