The Great Gays in YA Controversy: A Summary

Who will rep the next
Will Grayson?

If you happened to be on another planet this week, you missed the Great Gays in YA Controversy bubbling away in the blog-and-twittersphere. I won't go into the gory details: You can read the original article from the Publisher's Weekly blog. The gist is this: Two authors argue that an unnamed agency tried to "straighten" their gay characters as a condition for representation. They further argue that a sort of subtle intimidation operates within the system to discourage YA authors from writing gay characters.

You can check out agent Michael Bourret's two cents on the subject (he also passed on the novel). And then the unnamed agents outed themselves, under a bit of pressure. Agent Joanna Volpe, speaking for the Nancy Coffey Agency, was one of the people who allegedly tried  Conversion Therapy on said gay characters.