Classic gay literature

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These books are fairly sexless but fun from a romantic perspective.

26. The five scouts of the Roanoke cabin find themselves dealing with supernatural occurrences and creatures to solve mysteries and earn Lumberjane scout badges. In 2020, an attempt was made to recover records from the LAPD, only to discover they had been destroyed at some point, making Rechy’s description in his novel the only original account of the event considered by some to be the first gay uprising in the U.S.
Content warnings for drug use, transphobia.

Thérèse and Isabelle by Violette Leduc, translated by Sophie Lewis (1966)

Young Leduc, a writer whose early admirers included Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus, was thrilled by the new revolution in writing that allowed for more explicit, courageous stories of sexuality and sex that pushed old boundaries.

It’s a book of sexuality, trauma, otherness, and most of all, painful, messy family, that deals frankly and unapologetically with issues of child abuse, poverty, toxic masculinity, and the American South.

Content warnings for graphic child abuse (sexual, physical), sexual assault, alcoholism, racial slurs, animal death.

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg (1993)

Jess Goldberg is a butch working-class lesbian in 1970s America, struggling to survive in a painful and unaccepting world.

From his own personal story of coming to New York as a gay man in 1978 to the devastating impact of the virus to the biased news articles to the founding of ACT UP and TAG, France covers with incredible detail and heart the story of the activists, doctors, lobbyists, and more who fought against all the pressure and resistance of the system around them to find a way to stop this horror in its tracks.

Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date

Author: Ashley Herring Blake

Release Date: October 24th, 2023

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In her third book in the Bright Falls series, Ashley Herring Blake takes on Iris Kelly, the flirty redhead who doesn’t want anything serious.

3. Some reviewers (a bit optimistically) say that much of the bullying or homophobia they experience isn’t relevant today, but the truth is, many young queer people are still struggling to navigate an intolerant world packed with toxic masculinity. As family struggles unspool around her, and as she timidly enjoys the company of ghostly Sandy and Black drag queen Franklin, she continues to find herself missing her best friend and childhood love, Missy.

Dykette

Author: Jenny Fran Davis

Release Date: May 16th, 2023

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This book was absolutely bizarre and yet totally intoxicating. Clare continues to be a powerful and vital activist within queer, trans, and disabled spaces.

Content warnings for ableism, adult/minor relationship, medical trauma.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel (2006)

This modern classic focuses on Bechdel’s complicated and twisting relationship with her father.

This series is a San Francisco saga, a comic and rich series that as a serial, pushed the boundaries of storytelling. Many histories to educate myself on. Most of all, she emphasizes a solidarity that recognizes rather than ignores the intersections of class, race, gender, and sexuality that make us different.

Content warnings for racism, misogyny, sexual assault and rape, racial slurs.

Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks (1981)

This was the first major work of bell hooks, and arguably one of the most influential books of feminist thought and political theory.

That being said, there is something for everyone on this list, and I tried my best to make it as comprehensive as possible!

Below are my 40 favorite queer books, out of the 76 total I’ve read.

I will continue to update the list each year with all of the new stories I’ve read. We Could Be Rats

Author: Emily Austin

Release Date: January 28th, 2025

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I read this book in one day while sick and cried nearly the entire time.

Isherwood himself later felt ambivalent about the commercial success of his writings that touched on real suffering that he, as a foreigner, could only hint at.

Content warnings for anti-Semitism, abortion, medical trauma.

The City and the Pillar by Gore Vidal (1948)

Jim Willard and best friend Bob Ford decide to take a camping trip before Bob leaves high school.

Even as an out lesbian and independent woman at a time when both were rare, her work was very popular — she was one of modern Japan’s most commercially successful authors. Before hir death (due to complications from multiple tick-borne co-infections including Lyme disease), zie insisted that the 20th-anniversary edition of hir novel be free online to the public.

The book laid a foundation for third-wave feminism, and had a huge impact on activism and on academia, by providing an intersectional framework for bringing race, ethnicity, and class into queer studies. His memoir Becoming a Man: Half a Life Storywould be the first LGBTQ title to win the National Book Award in 1994.

Mock is a writer and producer on the show. Will the ghostwriter be able to escape? If you don’t know enough about asexuality or need to dig deeper into trans-ness and the experience of being gender queer, now is the time.

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