LGBT
In reply to the discussion: What was High School like for you. [View all]jumptheshadow
(3,269 posts)back in the time. The author was two or three classes ahead of me. I recognized several of the characters, or the composites of characters, even though the author's Wiki entry states the book was a work of fiction and was not autobiographical.
Stone Butch Blues
It was a brutal portrait of the school, which was a toxic environment for the transgendered character.
Not many GLBT people were "out" at that time. (That happened after high school and even after college.) The school was quite diverse ethnically and economically. It was the era of Vietnam and Martin Luther King's death. Racism and racial relations were major day-to-day issues that figured into many interactions. It was occasionally a difficult environment, but many of us were shaken out of our childhood comfort zones and learned some valuable life lessons.
I was straight at the time and was working long hours after school so I could afford college. I had to focus my energy on that goal so I could gain control over my own destiny and exercise my creative skills.