Struggles

After taking time to weed out my options for topics and narrowing in on one that really peaked my curiosity, my topic has become more of a struggle than I expected. I decided on focusing on parents and parental reactions in books that focused on sexual identity struggles. I have done some research and searched out books regarding this topic and while I have found quite a few books for middle/high school students regarding sexual identity, there seems to be a lack of "voice from the parents." This lack raises lots of questions in my mind. Why are parents not being represented in these books? Is there controversy on what type of reaction they should have? Are these authors choosing to just not represent them to avoid controversy? I have had firsthand experience with two friends when they "came out" to their family. I feel that parents play an integral part in this topic and by leaving them out of books it really takes away something that readers can relate to.

Since I am really struggling with this topic, I decided to expand my topic a little more and focus more on the reactions of friends in books that deal with sexual identity. In most of the books I have looked at, peer-to-peer relationships tend to play an important part so hopefully there will be a lot of good literature for me to find!