June is Pride Month, a time to celebrate diversity, love, and acceptance. It’s an opportunity to honor queer authors and immerse ourselves in the rich, vibrant stories they share, each one adding to the beautiful tapestry of our collective narrative. Pride is more than just a celebration; it’s an opportunity to delve deeper into the LGBTQIA+ community’s history, struggles, and triumphs, and to embrace the spectrum of gender identities and expressions. We’ve curated a list of reads that will enlighten and inspire you this Pride month.
Adult Non-Fiction
Lesbian bars have always been treasured safe spaces for their customers, providing not only a good time but a shelter from societal alienation and outright persecution. In 1987, there were 206 of them in America. Today, only a couple dozen remain. How and why did this happen?
A leading voice in LGBTQ+ advocacy details her deeply personal journey from a life of self-denial in the name of faith to her role in leading the take-down of Exodus International, the largest ex-gay organization in the world, to her marriage to a woman at the Washington National Cathedral.
A professor of English literature presents a memoir of family, identity and acceptance that examines the messiness and complexity of adoption and parenthood from a Black, queer and feminist perspective.
An accessible guide for learning about gender identity for those questioning their own genders, generally curious about gender, or interested in better understanding someone else’s identity.
Adult Fiction
Cynical August starts to believe in the impossible when meets Jane on the subway, a mysterious punk rocker she forms a crush on, who is literally displaced in time from the 1970s and is trying to find her way back.
Nina, an aspiring Hollywood scriptwriter takes a chance on romance with gorgeous movie star Ari after a devastating public breakup, in the new novel by the best-selling author of We Used to Be Friends.
Faced with a difficult decision, Betty, a young, queer Palestinian American woman finds answers in partially translated notebooks that reveal her late Aunt Nuha’s complex life and struggle with her own sexuality, which she hid from the family, along with much more than that.
The flutter of first dates, the thrill of a text-back, the heart-stopping seconds before coming out, and the rush when finally discovering who you truly are–all of these life-changing moments across the full spectrum of LGBTQIA+ experience are ready toexplore in this bright and inspiring comics anthology!
Young Adult
Sixteen-year-old trans boy Miles Jacobson’s New Year resolutions include winning back his ex-boyfriend and winning the Widewest’s biggest classical piano competition, but when a new, proudly queer boy moves to town, Miles reconsiders who is was and who he is now.
Refugee advocate Luma Mufleh writes of her tumultuous journey to reconcile her identity as a gay Muslim woman and a proud Arab-turned-American refugee.
A British author of teen fiction offers basic information about the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience, including terms, religious issues, coming out, and sex acts, for people of all orientations, including the merely curious.
Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity–what it means and how to think about it–for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
Children
After Milly discovers a pride flag in Grandad’s attic, this adorable pair are motivated by the past to start a pride parade in their small town. Activism and celebration go hand in hand as the town gathers to help build a world where everyone is proud to be themselves.
On the night before Pride, families everywhere are preparing to partake. As one family packs snacks and makes signs, an older sibling shares the importance of the march with the newest member of the family.
Children from different kinds of families demonstrate the original meanings of the colors in the rainbow flag, and then come together at a Pride parade.
Celebrating the magical experience of finding one’s community, this heartwarming story follows a child at a pride parade, who is free to express their gender identity, as they help a nonbinary child, who doesn’t feel comfortable in their skin, by showing them they are seen, accepted and loved.