10 best LGBTQ History Month books, ranked
Here I was, thinking that Pride month was the only month we got! Imagine my surprise to find out that October is LGBTQ History Month. Yes, apparently, I have been living under a rock. Still, even though I learned something new this month, I do know some pretty good LGBTQ history books. Here are ten of the best LGBTQ History Month books, ranked.
10. The World Spins Only Forward
The World Spins Only Forward by Isaac Butler and Dan Kois chronicles the making of one of the most profound and successful works of theatre in the 20th century. I speak, of course, of Tony Kushner’s landmark play Angels In America. Subtitled “a gay fantasia on national themes,” Angels In America is a rhapsodic work that covers everything from Reaganomics to the AIDS Crisis to the metaphysical intricacies of the universe. This book covers everything from the plays’ development to its historic impact as one of the greatest pieces of theatrical literature (queer or otherwise) ever conceived.
9. Refusing Compulsory Sexuality
Refusing Compulsory Sexuality by Sherronda J. Brown is a stunning exploration of asexuality in a society where sex is constantly on the mind. In contrast (or perhaps response) to its Puritanical roots, American society is highly, compulsorily sexualized, and the asexual identity is often utterly erased. Brown lays out the intricacies and struggle of myriad ace identities from a Black queer feminist perspective. Along with classics like Ace, this book is one of the best dissertations of asexuality on the market.
8. An Angel In Sodom
Taking its title from a bible story in which the men of Sodom attempted to rape two male presenting angels (and consequently where the term “sodomy” developed, along with the stigma) An Angel In Sodom by Jim Elledge is the biography of Henry Gerber, the father of the American gay liberation movement and founder of the first U.S. gay rights organization. Gerber’s story from ostracization in Germany as a youth, to his service in the U.S. military, to his eventual founding of the Society for Human Rights in Chicago is laid out in beautiful, painful, and painfully necessary detail.
7. Sister Outsider
Sister Outsider is a collection of essential essays and speeches from celebrated Black lesbian poet and feminist author Audre Lorde. Lorde’s incendiary prose aims at all of society’s evils, including racism, homophobia, and misogyny while simultaneously offering hope for a better tomorrow, provided that her readers take a stand and fight for that future. It’s a book that stirs the soul and provides a philosophical blueprint for societal change.
6. The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later
Rivaled only by Angels In America in terms of impact, The Laramie Project is the theatrical retelling of the murder of Matthew Shepard, who was found beaten and tied to a fence to die in the small town of Laramie, Wyoming. After playwright Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project went to Laramie and conducted more than 200 interviews with its citizens, The Laramie Project was born. As beautiful as it is brutal, The Laramie Project and its companion piece The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later are two essential works of queer literary history.
5. Stonewall
Stonewall is the story of the Greenwich Village bar where the modern gay rights movement was born. Author Martin Duberman retells the story of the pivotal Stonewall Riot and the liberation movements to follow through the eyes of six different individuals embroiled in the struggle. For those who want to understand the human rights abuses that led to Stonewall and the marches that followed, this book is required reading.
4. The Black Period
Hafizah Augustus Geter’s The Black Period is a haunting, lyrical memoir from one of the most acclaimed U.S. poets. Detailing the struggles of a queer woman of Nigerian and Muslim ancestry in a post 9/11 America, The Black Period details Geter’s struggle with grief, religion, and her blossoming sexuality in a society plagued by Christian fundamentalism, racism, and the desire to find a scapegoat after a national tragedy.
3. Transgender Warriors
Leslie Feinberg’s Transgender Warriors tells trans history from its very beginnings. Covering trans figures in history from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman, Feinberg weaves a tapestry of trans identity that America so often refuses to hang in its halls of power. A mix of memoir, gender studies, and history, Feinberg shows that trans people have always existed and will continue to do so, despite what the oppositional powers that be would have society believe.
2. Stone Butch Blues
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg is a devastating memoir written from the point of view of Jess Goldberg, a stone butch lesbian struggling to find acceptance in a society that would rather see such identities destroyed. Defying easy categorization, it is an autobiography, a novel, and a gender studies course all rolled into one. Fair warning, Stone Butch Blues is an emotional doozy of a novel and does not shy away from the transphobia and homophobia that Goldberg faced daily. It is one of the most profound meditations of lesbian and trans identity. Best of all? It’s available for free on the author’s website.
1. A Queer History of the United States
A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronchi is the first comprehensive history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender America across the centuries. Beginning in 1492 and ending in the present day, A Queer History pulls from primary source documents, literature, and LGBTQ culture to highlight exactly how queer Americans have shaped society for hundreds of years. This book has EVERYTHING. Cross-dressing Civil War soldiers. 18th-century transgender evangelists. Openly lesbian 19th-century Shakespearean actors. The founding of a gay-friendly, anti-racist, and atheist micro-society in 1620. I mean everything. Despite what they taught us in high school, queer history is far older than a certain bar in New York City. This is the high school history class you wish you’d had.
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