- In Memoriam announcements
- Letter to New York Times, Sept 20, 2007
To the New York Times,
In your recent article on J. Michael Bailey and his book, The Man Who Would Be Queen (“Criticism of a Gender Theory, and Scientist Under Siege” by Benedict Carey, August 21, 2007), your journalist reported, “The Lambda Literary Foundation, an organization that promotes gay, bisexual, and transgender literature, nominated the book for an award.”
Mr. Carey failed to disclose that the Foundation later withdrew the award nomination in response to our judges’ assessment of the book, which they ultimately considered transphobic and inappropriate for a Lambda Literary award.
Further, the Bailey incident revealed flaws in our awards nomination process, which I have completely overhauled since becoming the foundation’s executive director in January 2006. Any book with LGBT content may be nominated by its publisher or its author, but the selection of the book as a finalist for an award is in the hands of the category’s judges. Trans writers now serve as judges in our awards process (both in the Transgender category as well as other categories), so that a book such as Bailey’s could be nominated for an award by the author/publisher but not selected as a finalist or recipient by the judges. In addition, we have expanded many of our categories by dropping the “gay” and “lesbian” designation, in favor of “men’s” and “women’s,” to better represent and embrace the literature of bisexual and transgender writers.
Our judges spoke for the foundation in 2004 when they withdrew Bailey’s book from consideration of a Lambda Literary Award, and the foundation’s position remains the same. With the help of the transgender community, we have improved the integrity of our awards, by making them more inclusive and our methods more transparent.
Sincerely,
Charles Flowers
Executive Director
Lambda Literary Foundation
LLF Announces Finalists for the
18th Annual Lambda Literary Awards
March 3, 2006, New York, NY—The Lambda Literary
Foundation announced the finalists for the 18th Annual
Lambda Literary Awards, celebrating achievements in lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) literature for books
published in 2005.
read more...
Tenth Annual Dyson Distinguished Achievement Awards
At the Tenth Annual Dyson Distinguished Achievement Awards,
Dyson College of Arts and Sciences at Pace University will
honor Gloria Steinem for her Distinguished
Leadership in the Arts and Humanities, and Distinguished
Professor of English, Karla Jay, PhD,
with the Distinguished Faculty Award.
read more...
LLF Announces Initiatives for 2006
As we go forward, the Foundation needs your help and involvement.
Whether you are a reader, an author, a publisher, a publicist,
a bookstore owner, an agent, an editor—any kind of
book lover—we want you to be part of Lambda Literary
Foundation as it enters 2006.
read more...
LLF Calls for Nominations for 2006 Lambda Literary Awards
New York, November 5, 2005—Lambda
Literary Foundation is pleased to open the call for nominations
for its 2006 Lambda Literary Awards. Any publisher or
individual may nominate a title for a "Lammy".
All nominations are due by December 31, 2005. For guidelines
and nomination form,
read more...
LLF Announces Charles Flowers as its New Executive Director
New York/San Francisco, October
10, 2005—The Lambda Literary Foundation announced
today that Charles
Flowers will serve as its new executive director,
effective October 15. The appointment comes after several
months of reorganization and extensive planning for the
future by the Board of Directors.
read
more...
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