Recommendations of LGBTQIA+ titles, authors, and academic(s)/academic materials in collaboration with NMU ALLIES.
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Recommendations of LGBTQIA+ titles, authors, and academic(s)/academic materials in collaboration with NMU ALLIES.
*NMU faculty, staff and students have access to all the materials listed. Requesting from the Olson Library requires your NMU login. Requesting from MeLCat requires the barcode on your NMU ID. More information about MeLCat and Interlibrary Loan. Library staff would be happy to assist you in accessing these titles.
Children's & Young Adult
All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto, George M. Johnson, 2020
From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys. Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren't Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy.
Almost Perfect, Brian Katcher, 2010
Logan Witherspoon recently discovered that his girlfriend of three years cheated on him. But things start to look up when a new student breezes through the halls of his small-town high school.
Annie on My Mind, Nancy Garden, 1982
When Liza Winthrop first lays eyes on Annie Kenyon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she knows there’s something special between them. Soon, their close friendship develops into a deep and intimate romance. Neither imagined that falling in love could be so wonderful, but as Liza and Annie’s newfound sexuality sparks conflict in both their families and at their schools, they discover it will take more than love for their relationship to succeed.
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, Kirstin Cronn-Mills, 2012
Readers first meet Gabe as he DJs his first community-radio show, Beautiful Music for Ugly Children. It is only after hearing Gabe's friend and neighbor John, a fellow music lover who worked as a DJ for forty years, use Gabe's birth name that readers learn that Gabe is transgender.
Beyond Magenta, Susan Kuklin, 2014
Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them thoughtfully and respectfully before, during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender preference. Portraits, family photographs, and candid images grace the pages, augmenting the emotional and physical journey each youth has taken.
Boy Meets Boy, David Levithan, 2003
The humorous story of a gay student and his friends and acquaintances in a high school like no other.
Branded by the Pink Triangle, Ken Setterington, 2010
When the Nazis came to power in Europe, the lives of homosexuals came to be ruled by fear as raids, arrests, prison sentences, and expulsions became the daily reality. When the concentration camps were built, homosexuals were imprisoned along with Jews. The pink triangle, sewn onto prison uniforms, became the symbol of their persecution.
Debbie Harry Sings in French, Meagan Brothers, 2008
Johnny’s had kind of a tough life so far, and he’s always been a bit of a freak. His goth look usually includes black nail polish and a little mascara.When he discovers Debbie Harry, the lead singer of Blondie, he not only likes her music but realizes that he kind of, sort of, wants to BE her.
Honestly Ben, Bill Konigsberg, 2017
In the companion to Openly Straight, Ben confronts pressure at school, repression at home, and his passion for two very different people in figuring out what it takes to be Honestly Ben.
I’ll Give You the Sun, Jandy Nelson, 2015
At first, Jude and her twin brother are NoahandJude; inseparable. Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude wears red-red lipstick, cliff-dives, and does all the talking for both of them. Years later, they are barely speaking. Something has happened to change the twins in different yet equally devastating ways . . . but then Jude meets an intriguing, irresistible boy and a mysterious new mentor. The early years are Noah’s to tell; the later years are Jude’s. But they each have only half the story, and if they can only find their way back to one another, they’ll have a chance to remake their world.
If You Could be Mine, Sara Farizan, 2014
Seventeen-year-old Sahar has been in love with her best friend, Nasrin, since they were six. They’ve shared stolen kisses and romantic promises. But Iran is a dangerous place for two girls in love—Sahar and Nasrin could be beaten, imprisoned, even executed if their relationship came to light.
Lawn Boy, Jonathan Evison, 2019
Lawn Boy tells the story of Mike Muñoz, a young adult Mexican American who has faced hardship ever since his childhood and is now going through a phase of self-discovery.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Jesse Andrews, 2012
Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia
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Money Boy, Paul Yee, 2011
After four years in Canada, Ray Liu is stressed out. On top of his parents’ divorce in China, his father’s remarriage, learning English and struggling in high school, Ray faces another challenge: he’s gay.
More Happy than Not, Adam Silvera, 2015
Part Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, part Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Adam Silvera's extraordinary debut confronts race, class, and sexuality during one charged near-future summer in the Bronx.
Openly Straight, Bill Konigsberg, 2013
The coming-of-age story focuses on high school junior Rafe who has been openly gay since he was in the eighth grade. When he switches to a private all boys high school across the country in Massachusetts he decides to hide his sexuality from his new classmates.
Out of Darkness, Ashley Hope Perez, 2015
Ashley Hope Pérez takes the facts of the 1937 New London school explosion―the worst school disaster in American history―as a backdrop for a riveting novel about segregation, love, family, and the forces that destroy people. The novel chronicles a love affair between a teenage Mexican-American girl and a teenage African-American boy in 1930s New London, Texas, occurring right up to the 1937 New London School explosion.
She Loves You, She Loves You Not, Julie Anne Peters, 2011
Seventeen-year-old Alyssa thought she knew who she was. She had her family and her best friends and, most important, she had Sarah. Sarah, her girlfriend, with whom she dreamed about the day they could move far away and live out and proud and accepted for themselves, instead of having to hide their relationship.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie, 2007
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas, 2018
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Emily M. Danforth, 2012
In the early 1990s, when gay teenager Cameron Post rebels against her conservative Montana ranch town and her family decides she needs to change her ways, she is sent to a gay conversion therapy center.
They Both Die at the End, Adam Silvera, 2017
On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They're going to die today. Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they're both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There's an app for that. It's called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure--to live a lifetime in a single day.
This Book is Gay, Juno Dawson, 2014
This candid, funny, and uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it's like to grow up LGBT also includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums, not to mention hilarious illustrations.
Will Grayson, Will Grayson, John Green; David Leviathan, 2010
One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, Will Grayson crosses paths with . . . Will Grayson. Two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, and culminating in epic turns-of-heart and the most fabulous musical ever to grace the high school stage.
Media, Plays, Poetry
Angels in America, Tony Kushner, 2014
The play is a complex, often metaphorical, and at times symbolic examination of AIDS and homosexuality in America in the 1980s.
A Home at the End of the World, Michael Cunningham, 2004
This film chronicles a dozen years in the lives of two best friends, charting a journey of trials, triumphs, loves and losses. Now the question is: can they navigate the unusual triangle they've created and hold their friendship together?
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Brokeback Mountain, Annie Proulx, 2005
It's 1963, a time in the United States when life was simple, straightforward and the lines between the sexes and sex roles were crisply drawn and severely delineated. Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist find themselves thrown together when they are hired to tend sheep in the remote area of Brokeback Mountain, Wyoming.
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Call Me By Your Name, Andre Aciman, 2007
It's the summer of 1983, and precocious 17-year-old Elio Perlman is spending the days with his family at their 17th-century villa in Lombardy, Italy. He soon meets Oliver, a handsome doctoral student who's working as an intern for Elio's father. Amid the sun-drenched splendor of their surroundings, Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives forever.
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Edward II , Marlowe, Christopher, 1970
Edward II is a 1991 British romantic historical drama, the plot revolves around Edward II of England's infatuation with Piers Gaveston, which proves to be the downfall of both of them, thanks to the machinations of Roger Mortimer.
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Lady Windermere's Fan, Oscar Wilde, 2018
On the brink of a momentous life-altering decision, a young lady learns that the difference between good and bad people is not always as straightforward as she thinks. This comedy of manners is packed with the wit and wisdom of the incomparable Oscar Wilde.
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The Selected Works of Audre Lorde, Audre Lorde, 2020
Self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet" Audre Lorde is an unforgettable voice in twentieth-century literature, and one of the first to center the experiences of black, queer women. This essential reader showcases her indelible contributions to intersectional feminism, queer theory, and critical race studies in twelve landmark essays and more than sixty poems—selected and introduced by one of our most powerful contemporary voices on race and gender.
Adult Fiction
A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood, 1964
This short novel spans a day in the life of George, a gay, middle-aged, semi-closeted English professor still grieving the recent tragic death of his partner.
Another Country, James Baldwin, 1988
A story of desire, hatred and violence that opens with the character of Rufus Scott, a scavenging Harlem jazz musician adrift in New York. Self-destructive, bad and brilliant, he draws us into a Bohemian underworld pulsing with heat, music and sex, where desperate and dangerous characters betray, love and test each other to the limit.
At Swim, Two Boys, Jamie O'Neill, 2002
Jim Mack is a naïve young scholar and the son of a foolish, aspiring shopkeeper. Doyler Doyle is the rough-diamond son—revolutionary and blasphemous—of Mr. Mack’s old army pal. Out at the Forty Foot, that great jut of rock where gentlemen bathe in the nude, the two boys make a pact: Doyler will teach Jim to swim, and in a year, on Easter of 1916, they will swim to the distant beacon of Muglins Rock and claim that island for themselves. All the while Mr. Mack, who has grand plans for a corner shop empire, remains unaware of the depth of the boys’ burgeoning friendship and of the changing landscape of a nation.
Bastard Out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison, 1992
Greenville County, South Carolina, is a wild, lush place that is home to the Boatwright family—a tight-knit clan of rough-hewn, hard-drinking men who shoot up each other’s trucks, and indomitable women who get married young and age too quickly. At the heart of this story is Ruth Anne Boatwright, known simply as Bone, a bastard child who observes the world around her with a mercilessly keen perspective. When her stepfather Daddy Glen, “cold as death, mean as a snake,” becomes increasingly more vicious toward her, Bone finds herself caught in a family triangle that tests the loyalty of her mother, Anney—and leads to a final, harrowing encounter from which there can be no turning back.
Blutbuch (Blood Book), Kim de l'Horizon, 2022
A stirring debut novel about family secrets, shame and lust, told from the perspective of a non-binary narrator for whom writing becomes a magical act of liberation.
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Dancer and the Dance, Andrew Holleran, 2001
One of the most important works of gay literature, this haunting, brilliant novel is a seriocomic remembrance of things past -- and still poignantly present. It depicts the adventures of Malone, a beautiful young man searching for love amid New York's emerging gay scene.
Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin, 2000
Set in the 1950s, Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality.
Less: A novel, Andrew Sean Greer, 2017
Less is a 2017 satirical comedy novel by American author Andrew Sean Greer. It follows writer Arthur Less while he travels the world on a literary tour to numb his loss of the man he loves.
Maurice: a novel, E.M. Forster, 1971
Set in the elegant Edwardian world of Cambridge undergraduate life, this story by a master novelist introduces us to Maurice Hall when he is fourteen. We follow him through public school and Cambridge, and into his father's firm. In a highly structured society, Maurice is a conventional young man in almost every way―except that he is homosexual.
My Policeman, Bethan Roberts, 2012
In this evocative portrait of midcentury England, Bethan Roberts reimagines the real life relationship the novelist E. M. Forster had with a policeman, Bob Buckingham, and his wife. My Policeman is a deeply heartfelt story of love's passionate endurance, and the devastation wrought by a repressive society.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong, 2021
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity.
Oranges, Gary Eldon Peter, 2018
Oranges traverses in linked short stories the life of Michael, a gay man from the Midwest who must find his own confusing path to adulthood after personal loss. Michael is confronted with a number of challenges, including coming to terms with his sexuality in the age of AIDS, facing his family’s difficulties accepting him, dealing with the death of his mother and the aging of his father, and starting over after losing a partner.
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Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson, 1987
Jeanette is a bright and rebellious orphan who is adopted into an evangelical household in the dour, industrial North of England and finds herself embroidering grim religious mottoes and shaking her little tambourine for Jesus. But as this budding missionary comes of age, and comes to terms with her unorthodox sexuality, the peculiar balance of her God-fearing household dissolves.
Rainbow Rainbow, Lydia Conklin, 2022
A collection of stories that celebrate the humour, darkness and depth of emotion of the queer and trans experience that’s not typically represented: liminal or uncertain identities, queer conception and queer joy.
Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall, Neil Bartlett, 2017
At three in the morning, to the sound of slow music on the piano, in the darkest corner of the best bar in the city, two lovers fall into each others arms - one is older and wiser: one is just nineteen. Then follow the rites and ceremonies of a love affair and a happy marriage. But this marriage is a marriage between two men.
Skin Lane, Neil Bartlett, 2008
At forty-seven, Mr. F’s working life on London’s Skin Lane is one governed by calm, precision, and routine. So when he starts to have recurring nightmares, he does his best to ignore them. The images that appear in his dreams are disturbing—Mr. F can’t think of where they have come from. After all, he’s an ordinary middle-aged man.
Stone Butch Blues, Leslie Fienberg, 2003
Growing up differently gendered in a blue--collar town in the 1950s, coming out as a butch in the bars and factories of the prefeminist 60s, deciding to pass as a man in order to survive when she is left without work or a community in the early 70s. This powerful, provocative and deeply moving novel sees Jess coming full circle, she learns to accept the complexities of being a transgendered person in a world demanding simple explanations: a he-she emerging whole, weathering the turbulence.
Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin, 1978
Tales of the City is the first book in the Tales of the City series by American novelist Armistead Maupin, originally serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle. Set in 1970s San Francisco, it follows the residents of a small apartment complex at 28 Barbary Lane, including the eccentric landlady, Anna Madrigal.
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison, 1970
The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is the first novel written by Toni Morrison, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove - a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others - who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning and the tragedy of its fulfillment.
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin, 1969
A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary’s mission to Winter, an unknown alien world whose inhabitants can choose—and change—their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization.
The Master, Colm Tóibín, 2010
Beautiful and profoundly moving, The Master tells the story of Henry James, a man born into one of America’s first intellectual families who leaves his country in the late nineteenth century to live in Paris, Rome, Venice, and London among privileged artists and writers.
The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells, 2017
The series is about an artificial construct designed as a Security Unit, which manages to override its governor module, thus enabling it to develop independence, which it primarily uses to watch soap operas. As it spends more time with a series of caring people (both humans and fellow artificial intelligences), it starts developing friendships and emotional connections, which it finds inconvenient.
The Price of Salt, Patricia Highsmith, 2015
The Price of Salt is the story of Therese Belivet, a stage designer trapped in a department-store day job, whose salvation arrives one day in the form of Carol Aird, an alluring suburban housewife in the throes of a divorce. They fall in love and set out across the United States, pursued by a private investigator who eventually blackmails Carol into a choice between her daughter and her lover. With this reissue, The Price of Salt may finally be recognized as a major twentieth-century American novel.
The Priory of the Orange Tree, Samantha Shannon, 2019
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction – but assassins are getting closer to her door.
The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller, 2012
A tale of gods, kings, immortal fame, and the human heart, The Song of Achilles is a dazzling literary feat that brilliantly reimagines Homer’s enduring masterwork, The Iliad. The Song of Achilles is a retelling of classic Greek mythology involving Patroclus and Achilles, specifically covering the battle of Troy.
We the Animals, Justin Torres, 2011
It is a bildungsroman about three wild brothers of white and Puerto Rican parentage who live a rough and tumble childhood in rural upstate New York during the 1980s. The youngest brother, who is the protagonist, eventually breaks away from the rest of the family. The novel is semi-autobiographical and is loosely based on Torres's own life growing up in up-state New York.
We Want What We Want, Alix Ohlin, 2021
A collection of glittering, surprising, darkly funny stories of people testing the boundaries of their lives, from the celebrated author of Dual Citizens.
Adult Nonfiction
A Year without a Name: A Memoir, Cyrus Dunham, 2019
Cyrus Dunham’s life always felt like a series of imitations—lovable little girl, daughter, sister, young gay woman. But in a culture of relentless self-branding, and in a family subject to the intrusions and objectifications that attend fame, dissociation can come to feel normal.
Academic papers and the current research being done by Dr. Jean Hardy at MSU
Bad Gays: A Homosexual History, Huw Lemmey; Ben Miller, 2022
Too many popular histories seek to establish heroes, pioneers and martyrs but as Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller argue, the past is filled with queer people whose sexualities and dastardly deeds have been overlooked. Part revisionist history, part historical biography and based on the hugely popular podcast series, Bad Gays subverts the notion of gay icons and queer heroes and asks what we can learn about LGBTQ history, sexuality and identity through its villains and baddies.
Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family, Amy Ellis Nutt, 2015
The inspiring true story of transgender actor and activist Nicole Maines, whose identical twin brother, Jonas, and ordinary American family join her on an extraordinary journey to understand, nurture, and celebrate the uniqueness in us all. Nicole appears as TV’s first transgender superhero on CW’s Supergirl.
Body Geographic, Barrie Jean Borich, 2013
Barrie Jean Borich's Body Geographic turns personal history into an inspired reflection on the points where place and person intersect, where running away meets running toward, and where dislocation means finding oneself.
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Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold, Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy; Madeleine Davis, 1993
Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold traces the evolution of the lesbian community in Buffalo, New York from the mid-1930s up to the early 1960s. Drawing upon the oral histories of 45 women, it is the first comprehensive history of a working-class lesbian community.
Borealis, Aisha Sabatini Sloan, 2021
In Borealis, Aisha Sabatini Sloan writes about a solitary summer visit to Alaska, observing glaciers, shorelines, mountains, bald eagles, and herself. As she studies her surroundings, the myth of Alaska—excitement, exploration, possibility—is complicated by boredom and isolation, and her attempts to set down place in writing are suffused with nostalgia and anxiety.
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Calypso, David Sedaris, 2018
When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it's impossible to take a vacation from yourself.
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, Alison Bechdel, 2007
A fresh and brilliantly told memoir from a cult favorite comic artist, marked by gothic twists, a family funeral home, sexual angst, and great books. Meet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian home, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with his male students and a family babysitter.
Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940, George Chauncey, 1994
Gay New York brilliantly shatters the myth that before the 1960s gay life existed only in the closet, where gay men were isolated, invisible, and self-hating. Drawing on a rich trove of diaries, legal records, and other unpublished documents, George Chauncey constructs a fascinating portrait of a vibrant, cohesive gay world that is not supposed to have existed.
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Gender Outlaws, Kate Bornstein; S. Bear Bergman, 2010
In Gender Outlaws, Bornstein, together with writer, raconteur, and theater artist S. Bear Bergman, collects and contextualizes the work of this generation's trans and genderqueer forward thinkers — new voices from the stage, on the streets, in the workplace, in the bedroom, and on the pages and websites of the world's most respected mainstream news sources. Gender Outlaws includes essays, commentary, comic art, and conversations from a diverse group of trans-spectrum people who live and believe in barrier-breaking lives.
Gender Queer, Maia Kobabe, 2019
In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma of pap smears.
Greek Homosexuality, Kenneth James Dover, 1989
To what extent and in what ways was homosexuality approved by the ancient Greeks? An eminent classicist examines the evidence―vase paintings, archaic and classical poetry, the dialogues of Plato, speeches in the law courts, the comedies of Aristophanes―and reaches provocative conclusions.
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Growing Up Psychic, Chip Coffey, 2012
In Growing Up Psychic, Chip Coffey offers indispensable information for anyone who interacts with these extraordinary youngsters—parents, educators, medical professionals, mental health clinicians, members of the clergy, paranormal investigators—and adults who faced the challenges of growing up psychic.
Happy-Go-Luck, David Sedaris, 2022
Back when restaurant menus were still printed on paper, and wearing a mask—or not—was a decision made mostly on Halloween, David Sedaris spent his time doing normal things. As Happy-Go-Lucky opens, he is learning to shoot guns with his sister, visiting muddy flea markets in Serbia, buying gummy worms to feed to ants, and telling his nonagenarian father wheelchair jokes.
Logical Family: A Memoir, Armistead Maupin, 2017
In this long-awaited memoir, the beloved author of the best-selling Tales of the City series chronicles his odyssey from the old South to freewheeling San Francisco and his evolution from curious youth to groundbreaking writer and gay rights pioneer. Reflecting on the profound impact those closest to him have had on his life, Maupin shares his candid search for his "logical family", the people he could call his own.
Love Lives Here, Amanda Jette Knox, 2019
Love Lives Here is an inspirational story of accepting and embracing two trans people in a family—a family who shows what's possible when you "lead with love."
Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality, Debbie Cenziper; Jim Obergefell, 2016
In June 2015, the Supreme Court made same-sex marriage the law in all fifty states in a decision as groundbreaking as Roe v Wade and Brown v Board of Education. Through insider accounts and access to key players, this definitive account reveals the dramatic and previously unreported events behind Obergefell v Hodges and the lives at its center. This is a story of law and love—and a promise made to a dying man who wanted to know how he would be remembered.
Lust & Wonder, Augusten Burroughs, 2016
In chronicling the development and demise of the different relationships he's had while living in New York, Augusten Burroughs examines what it means to be in love, what it means to be in lust, and what it means to be figuring it all out.
Mythos: the Greek Myths Retold, Stephen Fry, 2019
Mythos is a modern collection of Greek myths, stylishly retold by legendary writer, actor, and comedian Stephen Fry. Fry transforms the adventures of Zeus and the Olympians into emotionally resonant and deeply funny stories, without losing any of their original wonder.
Now You're the Enemy, James Allen Hall, 2008
This compassionate, nervy collection of poems shows a family in the aftermath of violence. James Allen Hall explores themes of loss, the intersection of grief and desire, and the ways in which history, art, and politics shape the self.
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Punch Me Up to the Gods, Brian Broome, 2021
Punch Me Up to the Gods introduces a powerful new talent in Brian Broome, whose early years growing up in Ohio as a dark-skinned Black boy harboring crushes on other boys propel forward this gorgeous, aching, and unforgettable debut. Brian’s recounting of his experiences—in all their cringe-worthy, hilarious, and heartbreaking glory—reveal a perpetual outsider awkwardly squirming to find his way in.
Queer Criminology, Carrie L. Buist; Emily Lenning, 2015
Queer Criminology offers examples of the grave injustices that Queer people face around the world, particularly in places such as Russia, Kyrgyzstan, England, India, Thailand, Nigeria, and the United States. These injustices include, but are not limited to, selective enforcement, coerced confessions, disproportionate sentencing, rape, extortion, denial of due process, forced isolation, corporal punishment, and death.
Queer Pulp, Susan Stryker, 2001
Queer Pulp gives a complete overview of the cultural, political, and economic factors involved in the boom of queer paperbacks. With chapters covering gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexually oriented books, a lively overview of the genres, and loads of scorching paperback covers, Queer Pulp reveals the complicated and fascinating history of alternative sexual literature and book publishing.
Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More, Janet Mock, 2014
In a landmark book, an extraordinary young woman recounts her coming-of-age as a transgender teen--a deeply personal and empowering portrait of self-revelation, adversity, and heroism. Redefining Realness offers a bold new perspective on being young, multiracial, economically challenged, and transgender in America.
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She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders, Jennifer Finney Boylan, 2003
The bestselling, seminal work of trans literature: a story of love, sex, selfhood, and understanding from Jennifer Finney Boylan. It was the groundbreaking publication of She’s Not There in 2003 that jump-started the transgender revolution.
Tales of the Lavender Menace, Karla Jay, 1999
Karla Jay's memoir of an age whose tumultuous social and political movements fundamentally reshaped American culture takes readers from her early days in the 1968 Columbia University student riots to her post-college involvement in New York radical women's groups and the New York Gay Liberation Front to Southern California in the early '70s, where she continued in the battle for gay civil rights. We see here helping to organize the takeover of The Ladies Home Journal and “ogle-ins”—where women staked out Wall Street and whistled at the men. We follow her in the fast lane of the sexual freedom movement as she liberates sun worshippers from their bathing suits.
The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America, Eric Cervini, 2020
The secret history of the fight for gay rights that began a generation before Stonewall. This book is an assiduously researched history of an early champion of gay liberation, one who fought for the right to follow his passion and serve his country in the wake of Joseph McCarthy's Lavender Scare.
The Missing Myth, Gilles Herrada, 2013
In this heartfelt, beautifully written, and painstakingly researched text, the author sculpts a vision of homosexuality that integrates its biological, sociological, cultural, ethical, psychological, and spiritual dimensions. Stressing the connection between the social status of homosexuality and how same-sex love is depicted in the myths of a particular culture, The Missing Myth advocates the creation of a new mythos--not only informed by all the fields of knowledge, but also inclusive of the beauty, truth, and goodness of same-sex love.
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The Naked Civil Servant, Quentin Crisp, 1968
In 1931, gay liberation was not a movement—it was simply unthinkable. But in that year, Quentin Crisp made the courageous decision to "come out" as a homosexual.
The Natural Mother of the Child, Krys Malcolm Belc, 2021
Krys Malcolm Belc's visual memoir-in-essays explores how the experience of gestational parenthood—conceiving, birthing, and breastfeeding his son Samson—eventually clarified his gender identity. Krys Malcolm Belc has thought a lot about the interplay between parenthood and gender. As a nonbinary, transmasculine parent, giving birth to his son Samson clarified his gender identity. And yet, when his partner, Anna, adopted Samson, the legal documents listed Belc as “the natural mother of the child.”
The Odyssey, Stephen Fry, 2023
Follow Odysseus after he leaves the fallen city of Troy and takes ten long dramatic years - battling monsters, the temptations of goddesses and suffering the curse of Poseidon - to voyage home to his wife Penelope on the island of Ithaca.
To be published in 2023
The Tradition, Jericho Brown, 2019
Jericho Brown's daring new book The Tradition details the normalization of evil and its history at the intersection of the past and the personal. Brown;s poetic concerns are both broad and intimate, and at their very core a distillation of the incredibly human: What is safety? Who is this nation? Where does freedom truly lie?
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To Survive on this Shore: Photographs and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Older Adults, Vanessa Fabbre, 2019
Representations of older transgender people are nearly absent from our culture and those that do exist are often one-dimensional. The featured individuals share a wide variety of life narratives spanning the last ninety years, offering an important historical record of transgender experience and activism in the United States.
Toil & Trouble, Augusten Burroughs, 2019
From the hilarious to the terrifying, Toil & Trouble is a chronicle of one man's journey to understand himself, to reconcile the powers he can wield with things with which he is helpless.
Tomorrow Will Be Different, Sarah McBride, 2018
A timely and captivating memoir about gender identity set against the backdrop of the transgender equality movement, by a leading activist and the National Press Secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBTQ civil rights organization.
Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue, Leslie Feinberg, 1999
In this collection of speeches and new writing, Leslie Feinberg argues passionately for the acceptance of all trans peoples - and for the absolute necessity of building coalitions between all progressive political groups.
Transformations: Crossdressers and those who love them, Mariette Pathy Allen, 1989
This is a pioneering book of photographs and interviews with crossdressers and their loved ones: wives, children, and other family members. The focus is on presenting crossdressers in daily life, in positive settings and relationships.
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Transgender warriors: making history from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman, Leslie Feinberg, 1996
In this fascinating personal journey through history, Leslie Feinberg - one of the most prominent transgender rights activists today - unearths a vast body of evidence that throughout history there have always been people who defy cultural boundaries of sex and gender.
Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy Seal's Journey to Coming Out Transgender, Anne Speckhard; Kristin Beck, 2013
This is the journey of a girl in a man's body and her road to self-actualization as a woman amidst the PTSD of war, family rejection and our society's strict gender rules and perceptions. It is about a fight to be free inside one's own body, a fight that requires the strength of a Warrior Princess. Kristin's story of boy to woman explores the tangled emotions of the transgender experience and opens up a new dialogue about being male or female: Is gender merely between your legs or is it something much bigger?
We are everywhere : protest, power, and pride in the history of Queer Liberation , Matthew Riemer; Leighton Brown, 2019
A rich and sweeping photographic history of the queer liberation movement from the creators of the massively popular Instagram account @lgbt_history, released in time for the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
We are Never Meeting in Real Life, Samantha Irby, 2017
Sometimes you just have to laugh, even when life is a dumpster fire. With We Are Never Meeting in Real Life., "bitches gotta eat" blogger and comedian Samantha Irby turns the serio-comic essay into an art form.
Wow, No Thank You, Samantha Irby, 2020
A new essay collection from Samantha Irby about aging, marriage, settling down with step-children in white, small-town America.