Kendra Gayle Lee remembers the first time she read a book with an LGBTQ character who got to live “happily ever after.”
“It was the first book that I read where the lesbian didn’t have to die at the end,” Lee said, referring to Rita Mae Brown’s 1970s lesbian coming-of-age novel “Rubyfruit Jungle.” Lee continued: “It was so empowering for me to see that part of myself represented. As a white girl, I saw that part of myself, but I didn’t see the queer part of myself. When I did, it was like a whole new world.”
Lee owns Bookish, a bookstore in southeast Atlanta. She carefully curates her selection so customers can read stories that accurately reflect who they are, and introduce other customers to new narratives, one page at a time.