No Way, They Were Gay? Launch Party and Pre-Order Donations To Empower LGBTQ Youth - The March 2021 Lee Wind Video Newsletter

Hello Community!

Want the scoop on the upcoming virtual launch party for "No Way, They Were Gay?" and the preorder campaign to donate copies to empower LGBTQ kids and teens? 

watch the March 2021 Lee Wind Video Newsletter. (Or check out the transcript and links below.)

Transcript:

Hi Everyone! I'm Lee Wind. I'm in one of my favorite places ever [the beach] and I'm talking to you about one of my favorite things, which is empowering LGBTQ kids and teens.

Eleven years ago I started on this journey of research and writing and now, finally, No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secrets Loves is coming out in April! (Like I came out, right? Coming out, it's a good word.) In April, April 6, 2021, there's going to be a big launch party [online] and you're invited. It's free for everyone. 

RSVP at: bit.ly/NoWayLaunchParty

I'm going to be interviewed by Alex Sanchez, whose latest book is The Greatest Superpower. He's an amazing writer, we're going to have an awesome conversation about gender, about representation, about Queer characters -- in fiction and in nonfiction -- and I hope you'll join us!

The other cool thing that we're doing for the launch, that I'm doing for the launch...

(But first, some backstory...)

In Hebrew tradition, there's an expression Chai חי, and it means life. It's two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, Chet ח and Yud י,  so anyway, the letters add up. They have a numerical value, and they add up to 18. 18 is sort of like a good luck number. So I'm getting some author copies, and I'm going to give the majority of them -- 18 of them -- as a donation to LGBTQ Teens, because I really feel that this book is all about empowering them. Empowering readers. 

Because I know if I had had this book growing up it would have changed my entire life. So, I don't have a time machine, so instead I'm going to try to pay it forward. So we're doing this cool preorder campaign. Where, working with my local bookstore, my local indie bookstore PAGES, a bookstore in Manhattan Beach, they're fantastic, and they're helping me. So if you want, you can purchase a copy through their website,

Donate at: bit.ly/NoWayLaunchParty

and we'll add them to the 18 I'm donating. And we'll make a donation through this amazing nonprofit, Brave Trails, to give the books directly to LGBTQ kids and teens. Because that's who really it's for. I mean sure, it's for allies, too. And I think that anybody can learn a lot from it. It's really, really a book of my heart. 

It's all about primary sources and letting these people speak for themselves. Letting Gandhi tell us the story about how the love of his life was Hermann Kallenbach and not his wife Kasturba. It's about us hearing Sappho's poems and learning from her how we all believe in the power of true love because she loved this woman Anactoria. It's us discovering stories of people who lived outside gender boundaries, like Hatshepsut, the Pharaoh, who in Egypt, over the course of 22 years, changed how they publicly presented their gender. 

We have this idea in our culture that LGBTQ people are brand new. That we sprung up since Stonewall in 1969. But you know what? We have thousands of years of stories and legacy and this rich history of men who loved men, and women who loved women, people who loved without regard to gender, and people who lived outside gender boundaries. And that's what the book is about, and that's why I really think it can be so empowering for readers. 

I'm very excited, the launch is coming up April 6, 2021. I hope you'll join me at the party, I hope you'll get a copy, donate a book, and come on board. I'm really excited.

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you. 

Stay safe. Thanks very much! Bye.