Rex Ogle - Road Home - In partnership with Friendship Place - at Conn Ave

Thursday, May 16, 2024 – 7:00pm
Politics and Prose
5015 Connecticut Avenue NW

Meet author Rex Ogle as we discuss his new book “ROAD HOME.”  This event is in partnership with Friendship Place’s LGBTQ+ Work Group.

“Each year, an estimated 4.2 million youth experience homelessness or housing instability in the United States. Up to 40% of them identify as LGBTQ+. More than half (55%) reported they ran away from home because of fear or mistreatment due to their LGBTQ identity, and 40% reported being kicked out or abandoned.

In the summer of 1997, I was one of these young people. After my father kicked me out for being gay, I found myself on the streets of New Orleans. I honestly didn’t know if I would survive. I did. But many don’t.

My memoir, Road Home, is the chapter of my life I’ve never wanted to revisit.” – Rex Ogle

About the Book:

When Rex was outed the summer after he graduated high school, his father gave him a choice: he could stay at home, find a girlfriend, and attend church twice a week, or he could be gay—and leave. Rex left, driving toward the only other gay man he knew and a toxic relationship that would ultimately leave him homeless and desperate on the streets of New Orleans.

Here, Rex tells the story of his coming out and his father’s rejection of his identity, navigating abuse and survival on the streets. Road Home is a devastating and incandescent reflection on Rex’s hunger—for food, for love, and for a place to call home—completing the trilogy of memoirs that began with the award-winning Free Lunch.

About the Author:

Rex Ogle is an award-winning author and the writer of nearly a hundred children’s books, comics, graphic novels, and memoirs—most notably Free Lunch, which won the ALA/YALSA award for Excellence in Non-Fiction. He has written under several pseudonyms, including Trey King, Honest Lee and , Rey Terciero, under which he penned bestselling Meg, Jo, Beth, & Amy, as well as Northranger, nominated for both a Harvey and GLAAD Media Award. Now, Rex lives in Los Angeles where he writes every day—that is, when he’s not outdoors hiking with his dog, playing MarioKart with friends, or thinking up new ideas for books.