In celebration of National Coming Out Day, we gather authors and poets to discuss coming out and creating queer families and communities. Participants will reflect on the evolution of coming out with the rise in equality and visibility of LGBTQ+ individuals and families. Our conversation will address giving and receiving love in the families we build or choose, pathways to LGBTQ parenting, as well as the power of being out, the power of community, and the power of storytelling for families and folks in the margins.

Our guests include Meliza Bañales, poet and author of the 90s coming-out/coming-of-age novel Life Is Wonderful, People Are Terrific (Ladybox Books 2015), which was a 2016 Lambda Literary Finalist; Lane Igoudin, author of the foster-adoptive memoir A Family, Maybe (Ooligan Press, Portland State University 2024); and Hazel Kight Witham, author of the memoir-in-verse The Truth About Secrets (Strikethrough Press 2024).

WeHo Reads is a literary series presented by the City of West Hollywood. More information and events at www.weho.org/wehoreads. BookSwell, a literary events and media company dedicated to lifting up writers from historically excluded communities, is producing the WeHo Reads 2024 season. Additional support is provided by media partnerships with Book Soup and the Los Angeles Review of Books.