LGBTQ+ Community Resources: Books

Gender Queer: a Memoir by Maia Kobabe In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns,thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographicalcomic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortablewith strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intenselycathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes themortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to comeout to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, andfacing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way toexplain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer ismore than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on genderidentity--what it means and how to think about it--for advocates,friends, and humans everywhere.  

Love Makes a Family: Portraits of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Parents and their Families by Gigi Kaeser (Photographer) et al. This volume combines interviews and photographs to document the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender parents and their children. It allows all of the family members to speak candidly about their lives, their relationships, and the ways in which they have dealt with the pressures of homophobia. Included in the book are people from diverse racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds, representing a wide range of family structures. Together, they provide clear evidence that family roles and responsibilities need not be based on gender, and that children thrive in an atmosphere in which understanding, respect, and love transcend the prejudices of the day.

Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About by Carla Trujillo Literary Nonfiction. LGBT Studies. "CHICANA LESBIANS is a love poem, a bible, a dictionary, nothing so simple as a manifesto—this book is yet another reason to believe—to believe in the girls our mothers warned us about, brown girls, lesbians, making their own love poems, bibles, dictionaries, manifestoes, reasons to believe."—Dorothy Allison "When I was selling books at a Chicana conference, I noticed book buyers were literally afraid to touch this anthology. I say now what I said then, 'Don't be scared. Sexuality is not contagious, but ignorance is.' If you've ever been curious, been there, been voyeur, been tourist, or just plain under-informed, misinformed, or unaffirmed, here is a book to listen to and learn from".—Sandra Cisneros

Boys Like Us: Gay Writers Tell Their Coming Out Stories by Patrick Merla (Editor) "Boys Like Us presents the true "coming out" stories of a stellar line-up of gay writers, spanning two generations. Written specifically for this collection, these are powerful, often stunning evocations of the primal process by which men come to terms with their desire for other men." "Coming out is undeniably central to every gay man's life, but the phrase encompasses multiple meanings. Here are accounts of revealing one's sexual identity to parents, siblings, friends, and co-workers and, in one notable instance, to a stockbroker. Men tell of their first sexual encounters from their preteens to their thirties, with childhood friends who rejected or tenderly embraced them, with professors, with neighbors, with a Broadway star. One man writes of his marriage to a lesbian poet, another of leaving his wife for a male lover. Several selections reveal the autobiographical underpinnings of famous novels. These are intense, sometimes unexpectedly funny tales of romance and heartbreak, repression and liberation, rape and first love - defining moments." "Arranged chronologically from Manhattan in the late '40s to San Francisco in the early '90s, these personal essays ultimately form a documentary of changing social and sexual mores in the United States during the last half-century - a literary, biographical, sociological, and historical tour de force."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Bi America by William E. Burleson Gain an in-depth understanding of the unique struggles of the bisexual community! "To me the gay and straight worlds are exactly the same; equally limited, judgmental, and bourgeois . . . just mirror images of each other. I truly like and overlap with some of the gay world, but my roots refuse to take hold there and grow. Unfortunately, my well-established roots in the straight world are simultaneously shriveling and dying too, leaving me feeling extremely unstable." --"Cool," a bisexual woman involved in a support group There are at least five million bisexual people in America, generally invisible to straight society, the gay community, and even to each other. While the vast majority of these five million live within the straight or gay world, there are a few who have formed a community of their own. Bi America: Myths, Truths, and Struggles of an Invisible Community offers an inside look at the American bisexual community and gives an understanding of the special circumstances unique to being bisexual. The book takes the reader to bi community events from picnics, to conferences, to support groups, to performances in order to expose the everyday trials of the bisexual community. Bi America includes very personal stories that let the voice of everyday bisexuals be heard through interviews, the "Bisexual History Project," in which ten bisexual people tell their life stories, and the "Online Support Group," a group of about 75 people who meet in cyberspace to talk about their lives and challenges. The book also includes the findings of a 2002 survey of about 300 bisexual people conducted via the Internet, an appendix that offers a concise list of resources for further study and personal enrichment, and an unabridged transcript of the "Bisexual History Project." Get the answers to these questions in Bi America: What is bisexuality? Is there a bisexual community? What is the culture of the bisexual community? What are commonalities and differences between the experiences of bi men and bi women? What is the special relationship between the bisexual and the transgender community? How have bisexuals and the bi community been affected by HIV/AIDS? What is the future of bisexual activism, if any? and many more! Bi America is a fascinating resource that exposes the challenges, struggles, and triumphs of bisexuals in America. Bisexuals, especially those newly coming out, can use this book to help understand their identity, and family members and friends seeking some insight into the unique circumstances faced by their loved ones will also find it helpful. This book will interest those concerned with the sociology of deviance or with subcultures in general. It is also appropriate for undergraduate sociology and cultural anthropology, as well as feminist studies and LGBT studies classes. This book offers one of the few accessible, nonacademic looks at this unique and interesting community. Visit the book's Web site at http://www.bi101.org

Understanding Asexuality by Anthony F. Bogaert Asexuality can be defined as an enduring lack of sexual attraction. Thus, asexual individuals do not find (and perhaps never have) others sexually appealing. Some consider asexuality as a fourth category of sexual orientation, distinct from heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality. However, there is also recent evidence that the label asexual may be used in a broader way than merely as a lack of sexual attraction. People who say they have sexual attraction to others, but indicate little or no desire for sexual activity are also self-identifying as asexual. Distinct from celibacy, which refers to sexual abstinence by choice where sexual attraction and desire may still be present, asexuality is experienced by those having a lack or sexual attraction or a lack of sexual desire. More and more, those who identify as asexual are coming out, joining up, and forging a common identity. The time is right for a better understanding of this sexual orientation, written by an expert in the field who has conducted studies on asexuality and who has provided important contributions to understanding asexuality. This timely resource will be one of the first books written on the topic for general readers, and the first to look at the historical, biological, and social aspects of asexuality. It includes firsthand accounts throughout from people who identify as asexual. The study of asexuality, as it contrasts so clearly with sexuality, also holds up a lens and reveals clues to the mystery of sexuality."

Shameless: Sexual Dissidence in American Culture by Arlene Stein Shame, a powerful emotion, leads individuals to feel vulnerable, victimized, rejected. In Shameless, noted scholar and writer Arlene Stein explores American culture's attitudes toward shame and sexuality. Some say that we live in a world without shame. But American culture is a curious mix of the shameless and the shamers, a seemingly endless parade of Pamela Andersons and Jerry Falwells strutting their stuff and wagging their fingers. With thoughtful analysis and wit, Shameless analyzes these clashing visions of sexual morality. While conservatives have brought back sexual shame--by pushing for abstinence-only sex education, limitations on abortion, and prohibitions of gay/lesbian civil rights--progressives hold out for sexual liberalization and a society beyond "the closet." As these two Americas compete with one another, the future of family life, the right to privacy, and the very meaning of morality hang in the balance.

Queer Migrations by Eithne Luibheid (Editor); Lionel Cantu (Editor) Emmigration from Latin America and Asia has influenced every aspect of social, political, economic, and cultural life in the United States over the last quarter century. Within the vast scholarship on this wave of immigration, however, little attention has been paid to queer immigrants of color. Focusing particularly on migration from Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, and the Philippines, Queer Migrations brings together scholars of immigration, citizenship, sexuality, race, and ethnicity to provide analyses of the norms, institutions, and discourses that affect queer immigrants of color, also providing ethnographic studies of how these newcomers have transformed established immigrant communities in Miami, San Francisco, and New York.

Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement by Marcia M. Gallo Nearly fifteen years before the birth of gay liberation, the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) was the world’s first organization committed to lesbian visibility and empowerment. Like its predominantly gay male counterpart, the Mattachine Society, DOB was launched in response to the oppressive anti-homosexual climate of the McCarthy era, when lesbian and gay people were arrested, fired from jobs, and had their children taken away simply because of their sexual orientation. It was against this political backdrop that a circle of San Francisco lesbians formed a private club where lesbians could meet others in a safe, affirming setting. The small social group evolved over the next two decades into a national organization that counted more than a dozen chapters, and laid the foundation for today’s lesbian rights movement. Different Daughters chronicles this movement and the women who fought the church and state in order to change not only our nation’s perception of homosexuality, but how lesbians see themselves. Marcia Gallo has interviewed dozens of former DOB members, many of whom have never spoken on record. Through its leaders, magazine, and network of local chapters, DOB played a crucial role in creating lesbian identity, visibility, and political strategies in Cold War America.

On Being Different: What It Means to Be a Homosexual by Merle Miller; Charles Kaiser (Afterword by); Dan Savage (Foreword by) The groundbreaking work on being homosexual in America Originally published in 1971, On Being Differentis a pioneering and thought-provoking book about being gay in America. Just two years after the Stonewall riots, Miller wrote an essay for the New York Times Magazine, entitled 'What It Means To Be a Homosexual,' in response to a homophobic article published in Harper's Magazine. Miller's writing, described as 'the most widely read and discussed essay of the decade,' along with an afterword chronicling his inspiration and readers' responses, became On Being Different- one of the earliest memoirs to affirm the importance of coming out. This updated edition includes a foreword by Dan Savage and an afterword by Charles Kaiser to highlight the impact of Miller's classic work. 'Forty years later, the story Millers tells remains important and necessary to read, not only for both gay and straight readers to understand 'the way it used to be,' but because the issues Miller raised are still being discussed and argued about.' Nancy Pearl' Miller bridged the gap between the 'straights' and the 'gays' in a way that few recent writers on the subject have done. He also put himself on the line as a well-known writer, who was not afraid to publicly acknowledge his homosexuality.' Publishers Weekly

Learning Good Consent by Cindy Crabb (Editor) Cindy Crabb provides a DIY tour of the promise and perils of sexual relationships in Learning Good Consent. Building ethical relationships is one of the most important things we can do, but sex, consent, abuse, and support can get complicated. This collection is an indispensable guide to both preventing sexual violence and helping its survivors to heal. Includes a foreword by Kiyomi Fujikawa and Jenna Peters-Golden. "Whether or not you think you need it, whether or not you’re a survivor, or dating a survivor, or even having sex, you would probably benefit from reading this book. And the people you choose to be intimate with will probably thank you for making their safety a priority.” --Nomy Lamm, Feminist Review "Learning Good Consent ... offers powerful, complicated information (instead of shallow questions and uncomplicated answers). This book speaks to those who are unlearning silence as a safety/communication strategy.” --Jen Cross, make/shift "Essential reading.” --Colin Atrophy Hagendorf, author of Slice Harvester "What this book does is to stress consent: not 'no means no,’ or even 'yes means yes,’ but 'Do you want me to stay here with you?’ 'Are you here?’ 'I thought I wanted this, but I’m not sure now.’ 'Do you think we should take this farther?’ I’m moved that this book is here. It matters.” --Alison Piepmeier, author of Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism Cindy Crabb is an author of the influential, feminist, autobiographical 'zine Doris, which has been anthologized into two books: The Encyclopedia of Doris: Stories, Essays and Interviews and Doris: An Anthology 1991-2001. Her essays and analyses of the impact of her writing have appeared in numerous books and magazines, including: The Riot Grrrl Collection; Stay Solid! A Radical Handbook for Youth; Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism; and We Don’t Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists.

Queer: a Graphic History by Meg-John Barker; Julia Scheele (Illustrator) 'Queer: A Graphic History Could Totally Change the Way You Think About Sex and Gender' Vice Activist-academic Meg-John Barker and cartoonist Julia Scheele illuminate the histories of queer thought and LGBTQ+ action in this groundbreaking non-fiction graphic novel. From identity politics and gender roles to privilege and exclusion, Queer explores how we came to view sex, gender and sexuality in the ways that we do; how these ideas get tangled up with our culture and our understanding of biology, psychology and sexology; and how these views have been disputed and challenged. Along the way we look at key landmarks which shift our perspective of what’s ‘normal’ – Alfred Kinsey’s view of sexuality as a spectrum, Judith Butler’s view of gendered behaviour as a performance, the play Wicked, or moments in Casino Royale when we’re invited to view James Bond with the kind of desiring gaze usually directed at female bodies in mainstream media. Presented in a brilliantly engaging and witty style, this is a unique portrait of the universe of queer thinking.

Gay Seattle: Stories of Exile and Belonging by Gary Atkins Winner of a 2004 Washington State Book Award Winner of a 2004 Alpha Sigma Nu (ASN) Jesuit Book Award In 1893, the Washington State legislature quietly began passing a set of laws that essentially made homosexuality, and eventually even the discussion of homosexuality, a crime. A century later Mike Lowry became the first governor of the state to address the annual lesbian and gay pride rally in Seattle. Gay Seattle traces the evolution of Seattle's gay community in those 100 turbulent years, telling through a century of stories how gays and lesbians have sought to achieve a sense of belonging in Seattle. Gary Atkins recounts the demonization of gays by social crusaders around the turn of the century, the earliest prosecutions for sodomy, the official harassment and discrimination through most of the twentieth century, and the medical discrimination and commitment to mental hospitals that continued into the 1970s as homosexuality was diagnosed as a disease that could be "cured." Places of refuge from this imposed social exile were created in underground theater and dance clubs: the Gold Rush-era burlesque shows, modern drag theater, and in mid-century the emergence of openly gay bars, from the Casino to Shelley's Leg. Many of these were subjected to steady exploitation by corrupt police - until bar owner MacIver Wells and two Seattle Times reporters exposed the racket. The increasingly public presence of gays in Seattle was accompanied by the gradual coalescence of social services and self-help organizations such as the Dorian Society, gay businesses and advocacy groups including the Greater Seattle Business Association, and the stormy relationship between the Vatican, Seattle's Catholic hierarchy, and gay worshippers. Atkins' narrative reveals the complex and often frustrating process of claiming a civic life, showing how gays and lesbians have engaged in a multilayered struggle for social acceptance against the forces of state and city politics, the police, the media, and public opinion. The emergence of mainstream political activism in the 1970s, and ultimately the election of Cal Anderson and other openly gay officials to the state legislature and city council, were momentous events, yet shadowed by the devastating rise of AIDS and its effect on the homosexual community as a whole. These stories of exile and belonging draw on numerous original interviews as well as case studies of individuals and organizations that played important roles in the history of Seattle's gay and lesbian community. Collectively, they are a powerful testament to the endurance and fortitude of this minority community, revealing the ways a previously hidden sexual minority "comes out" as a people and establishes a public presence in the face of challenges from within and without.

A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski Winner of a 2012 Stonewall Book Award in nonfiction The first book to cover the entirety of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender history, from pre-1492 to the present. In the 1620s, Thomas Morton broke from Plymouth Colony and founded Merrymount, which celebrated same-sex desire, atheism, and interracial marriage. Transgender evangelist Jemima Wilkinson, in the early 1800s, changed her name to "Publick Universal Friend," refused to use pronouns, fought for gender equality, and led her own congregation in upstate New York. In the mid-nineteenth century, internationally famous Shakespearean actor Charlotte Cushman led an openly lesbian life, including a well-publicized "female marriage." And in the late 1920s, Augustus Granville Dill was fired by W. E. B. Du Bois from the NAACP's magazine the Crisis after being arrested for a homosexual encounter. These are just a few moments of queer history that Michael Bronski highlights in this groundbreaking book.   Intellectually dynamic and endlessly provocative, A Queer History of the United States is more than a "who's who" of queer history: it is a book that radically challenges how we understand American history. Drawing upon primary documents, literature, and cultural histories, noted scholar and activist Michael Bronski charts the breadth of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender history, from 1492 to the 1990s, and has written a testament to how the LGBT experience has profoundly shaped our country, culture, and history.   A Queer History of the United States abounds with startling examples of unknown or often ignored aspects of American history--the ineffectiveness of sodomy laws in the colonies, the prevalence of cross-dressing women soldiers in the Civil War, the impact of new technologies on LGBT life in the nineteenth century, and how rock music and popular culture were, in large part, responsible for the devastating backlash against gay rights in the late 1970s. Most striking, Bronski documents how, over centuries, various incarnations of social purity movements have consistently attempted to regulate all sexuality, including fantasies, masturbation, and queer sex. Resisting these efforts, same-sex desire flourished and helped make America what it is today.   At heart, A Queer History of the United States is simply about American history. It is a book that will matter both to LGBT people and heterosexuals. This engrossing and revelatory history will make readers appreciate just how queer America really is.

Queering Health: Critical Challenges to Normative Health and Healthcare by Laetitia Zeeman (Editor); Kay Aranda (Editor); Alec Grant (Editor) The latest research into how different members of our society access and experience health care. In particular, the authors explore issues around gender, age, mental health, and sexual orientation.Queering Health is aimed at helping practitioners understand the wider needs of society and the key role they can play in providing a fairer system.

Indian Blood: HIV & Colonial Trauma in San Francisco's Two-Spirit Community by Andrew J. Jolivette Finalist for the 2017 Lambda Literary "Lammy" Award in LGBTQ Studies The first book to examine the correlation between mixed-race identity and HIV/AIDS among Native American gay men and transgendered people, Indian Blood provides an analysis of the emerging and often contested LGBTQ "two-spirit" identification as it relates to public health and mixed-race identity. Prior to contact with European settlers, most Native American tribes held their two-spirit members in high esteem, even considering them spiritually advanced. However, after contact - and religious conversion - attitudes changed and social and cultural support networks were ruptured. This discrimination led to a breakdown in traditional values, beliefs, and practices, which in turn pushed many two-spirit members to participate in high-risk behaviors. The result is a disproportionate number of two-spirit members who currently test positive for HIV. Using surveys, focus groups, and community discussions to examine the experiences of HIV-positive members of San Francisco's two-spirit community, Indian Blood provides an innovative approach to understanding how colonization continues to affect American Indian communities and opens a series of crucial dialogues in the fields of Native American studies, public health, queer studies, and critical mixed-race studies.

The Rise and Fall of Gay Culture by Daniel Harris In this provocative, brilliantly reasoned book, charged throughout with a penetrating eye and stinging wit, Harris examines the many shadings of the gay experience as they have evolved over time. Includes the demise of camp and kink, the evolution of personal ads, the origins of the underwear revolution, the changing face of porn, the morph of leathermen and drag queens, and the marketing of AIDS as a commodity.

Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights by Kenji Yoshino In this remarkable and elegant work, acclaimed Yale Law School professor Kenji Yoshino fuses legal manifesto and poetic memoir to call for a redefinition of civil rights in our law and culture. Everyone covers. To cover is to downplay a disfavored trait so as to blend into the mainstream. Because all of us possess stigmatized attributes, we all encounter pressure to cover in our daily lives. Given its pervasiveness, we may experience this pressure to be a simple fact of social life. Against conventional understanding, Kenji Yoshino argues that the demand to cover can pose a hidden threat to our civil rights. Though we have come to some consensus against penalizing people for differences based on race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, and disability, we still routinely deny equal treatment to people who refuse to downplay differences along these lines. Racial minorities are pressed to “act white” by changing their names, languages, or cultural practices. Women are told to “play like men” at work. Gays are asked not to engage in public displays of same-sex affection. The devout are instructed to minimize expressions of faith, and individuals with disabilities are urged to conceal the paraphernalia that permit them to function. In a wide-ranging analysis, Yoshino demonstrates that American civil rights law has generally ignored the threat posed by these covering demands. With passion and rigor, he shows that the work of civil rights will not be complete until it attends to the harms of coerced conformity. At the same time, Yoshino is responsive to the American exasperation with identity politics, which often seems like an endless parade of groups asking for state and social solicitude. He observes that the ubiquity of the covering demand provides an opportunity to lift civil rights into a higher, more universal register. Since we all experience the covering demand, we can all make common cause around a new civil rights paradigm based on our desire for authenticity–a desire that brings us together rather than driving us apart. Yoshino’s argument draws deeply on his personal experiences as a gay Asian American. He follows the Romantics in his belief that if a human life is described with enough particularity, the universal will speak through it. The result is a work that combines one of the most moving memoirs written in years with a landmark manifesto on the civil rights of the future. “This brilliantly argued and engaging book does two things at once, and it does them both astonishingly well. First, it's a finely grained memoir of young man’s struggles to come to terms with his sexuality, and second, it's a powerful argument for a whole new way of thinking about civil rights and how our society deals with difference. This book challenges us all to confront our own unacknowledged biases, and it demands that we take seriously the idea that there are many different ways to be human. Kenji Yoshino is the face and the voice of the new civil rights.” -Barbara Ehrenreich, author ofNickel and Dimed “Kenji Yoshino has not only given us an important, compelling new way to understand civil rights law, a major accomplishment in itself, but with great bravery and honesty, he has forged his argument from the cauldron of his own experience. In clear, lyrical prose,Coveringquite literally brings the law to life. The result is a book about our public and private selves as convincing to the spirit as it is to the mind.” -Adam Haslett, author ofYou Are Not A Stranger Here “Kenji Yoshino's work is often moving and always clarifying.Coveringelaborates an original, arresting account of identity and authenticity in American culture.” -Anthony Appiah, author ofThe Ethics of Identityand Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor Of Phi

The Men with the Pink Triangle: The True, Life-and-Death Story of Homosexuals in the Nazi Death Camps by Heinz Heger; David Fernbach (Translator); Klaus Muller (Introduction by) Heinz Heger was imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen Nazi concentration camp because of his homosexuality. In 'The Men With the Pink Triangle', Heger opens new doors into the understanding of homosexuality and the Holocaust.

Beyond Shame: Reclaiming the Abandoned History of Radical Gay Sexuality by Patrick Moore With bathhouses, "cruising" in urban areas, and private clubs built specifically for anonymous erotic encounters, the radical sexuality of gay American men in the 1970s is often seen as a shameful period of excess that led to the AIDS crisis. In Beyond Same, activist Patrick Moore claims that when the gay community divorced itself from this allegedly tainted legacy, the result was an intergenerational disconnect between younger and older gay men. The original participants in the 1970s' sexual culture were unable to impart a sense of pride and identity to younger generations. Indeed, one reason for the current rise in HIV, Moore argues, is precisely due to this destructive disconnect. Moore encourages gay men to reclaim the entirety of their heritage-including AIDS-so that the gay community's prevailing sense of shame and isolation will change. Lifting the veil of AIDS, Moore recasts the gay male sexual culture of the 1970s as both groundbreaking and creative, provocatively comparing extreme sex to art. In the process, he presents a powerful yet nuanced snapshot of a maligned, forgotten era, with its heady mix of sexual liberation, artistic celebrations of homosexuality, and political anger fueled by the prevalent homophobia. Moore's critical work attempts to rescue gay America's past, present, and future from a disturbing spiral of destruction and AIDS-related shame.

Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America by Dudley Clendinen; Adam Nagourney (Based on a work by) "This is the definitive account of the last great struggle for equal rights in the twentieth century. From the birth of the modern gay rights movement at the Stonewall riots in New York in 1969, through 1988, when the gay rights movement was eclipsed by the more urgent demands of AIDS activists, this is the remarkable and until now untold story of how a largely invisible population of men and women banded together to create their place in America's culture and government. Told through the voices of gay activists and their opponents, filled with dozens of colorful characters, Out for Good traces the emergence of gay rights movements in cities across the country and their transformation into a national force that changed the face of America forever." "Out for Good contains vivid portraits of dozens of unheralded figures who founded and shaped the movement, often at great personal risk: Franklin Kameny, the Harvard astronomer fired from his government job who first sued for homosexual rights and ran for Congress from Washington; Martha Shelley, who shouted the gay rights movement into shape in New York: Rev. Troy Perry, who founded the first gay church in Los Angeles; David Goodstein, the autocratic millionaire who bought a gay newspaper to try to put his stamp on the movement: Virginia Apuzzo, the ex-nun who battled at two Democratic National Conventions to get homosexual rights included in the party platform; Del Martin, whose public repudiation of gay male sexism captured the early depths of the difficulties between lesbians and gay men; Ivy Bottini, who was expelled from leadership in the women's movement after her lesbianism became known; Arthur Evans, the philosophy graduate student who drew on the United States Constitution in writing a constitution for the first mainstream gay rights movement founded in New York after Stonewall: and Steve Endean, who built a gay rights movement in Minneapolis and then in the nation's capital before losing a fight for leadership, then his life to AIDS."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present by Neil Miller A unique and hugely absorbing narrative history of gay life--from Oscar Wilde to the first gay marriage performed in San Francisco in 2004--by the award-winning journalist and distinguished author of Out in the World and Sex- Crime Panic. Miller accompanies his narrative with essays and excerpts from contemporary and historical writings, and the text is illustrated with photos and line drawings. Neil Miller is the author of Sex-Crime Panic and winner of the 2003 Randy Shilts Award for nonfiction and an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book. He is also the author of In Search of Gay America, winner of the 1990 American Library Association prize for gay and lesbian literature. He teaches journalism and nonfiction writing at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.

Trap Door by Reina Gossett; Eric A. Stanley; Johanna Burton

My (New) Gender Workbook by Kate Bornstein "This updated edition of Bornstein's formative My Gender Workbook (1997) provides an invigorating introduction to contemporary theory around gender, sexuality, and power. The original is a classic of modern transgender theory and literature and, alongside Bornstein's other work, has influenced an entire generation of trans writers and artists. This revised and expanded edition extends that legacy, offering an accessible foundation for examining gender in the reader's life and in the broader culture while arguing for the dismantling of all forms of oppression. For fans of the original, Bornstein's new material merits a fresh read..."--Publishers Weekly, starred review Cultural theorists have written loads of smart but difficult-to-fathom texts on gender theory, but most fail to provide a hands-on, accessible guide for those trying to sort out their own sexual identities. In My Gender Workbook, transgender activist Kate Bornstein brings theory down to Earth and provides a practical approach to living with or without a gender. Bornstein starts from the premise that there are not just two genders performed in today's world, but countless genders lumped under the two-gender framework. Using a unique, deceptively simple and always entertaining workbook format, complete with quizzes, exercises, and puzzles, Bornstein gently but firmly guides readers toward discovering their own unique gender identity. Since its first publication in 1997, My Gender Workbook has been challenging, encouraging, questioning, and helping those trying to figure out how to become a "real man," a "real woman," or "something else entirely." In this exciting new edition of her classic text, Bornstein re-examines gender in light of issues like race, class, sexuality, and language. With new quizzes, new puzzles, new exercises, and plenty of Kate's playful and provocative style, My New Gender Workbook promises to help a new generation create their own unique place on the gender spectrum.

Gender Outlaws by Kate Bornstein; S. Bear Bergman In the 15 years since the release of Gender Outlaw, Kate Bornstein's groundbreaking challenge to gender ideology, transgender narratives have made their way from the margins to the mainstream and back again. Today's transgenders and other sex/gender radicals are writing a drastically new world into being. 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.

Intersex and Identity: The Contested Self by Sharon E. Preves Drawing upon life history interviews with adults who were treated for intersexuality as children, Sharon E. Preves explores how such individuals experience and cope with being labeled sexual deviants in a society that demands sexual conformity. Preves frames their stories within a sociological discussion of gender, the history of intersex medicalization, the recent political mobilization of intersexed adults, and the implications of their activism on identity negotiation, medical practice, and cultural norms. By demonstrating how intersexed people manage and create their own identities, often in conflict with their medical diagnosis, Preves argues that medical intervention into intersexuality often creates, rather than mitigates, the stigma these people suffer.

Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality by Anne Fausto-Sterling Why do some people prefer heterosexual love while others fancy the same sex? Is sexual identity biologically determined or a product of convention? In this brilliant and provocative book, the acclaimed author of Myths of Gender argues that even the most fundamental knowledge about sex is shaped by the culture in which scientific knowledge is produced.Drawing on astonishing real-life cases and a probing analysis of centuries of scientific research, Fausto-Sterling demonstrates how scientists have historically politicized the body. In lively and impassioned prose, she breaks down three key dualisms - sex/gender, nature/nurture, and real/constructed - and asserts that individuals born as mixtures of male and female exist as one of five natural human variants and, as such, should not be forced to compromise their differences to fit a flawed societal definition of normality.

The Drag King Book by Judith Halberstam; Del LaGrace Volcano (Photographer) First book on drag kings--women who dress up as men

Behind the Mask: Gender Hybridity in a Zapotec Community by Alfredo Mirandé Las intrépidas and the great Muxe Vela -- Sex, sexuality, and power -- Doing gender in Juchitán -- A blessing from God?: Muxe narratives -- Community acceptance -- Two-spirit Muxe Zapotec identity -- Behind the mask: unraveling sex and gender -- Conclusion: lessons from the field. "This book challenges Mexican narratives of the partriarchal gender binary by looking at the Muxes, a gender fluid indigenous group readily accepted by their community"

Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein "I know I'm not a man . . . and I've come to the conclusion that I'm probably not a woman, either. . . . . The trouble is, we're living in a world that insists we be one or the other." With these words, Kate Bornstein ushers readers on a funny, fearless, and wonderfully scenic journey across the terrains of gender and identity. On one level, Gender Outlaw details Bornstein's transformation from heterosexual male to lesbian woman, from a one-time IBM salesperson to a playwright and performance artist. But this particular coming-of-age story is also a provocative investigation into our notions of male and female, from a self-described nonbinary transfeminine diesel femme dyke who never stops questioning our cultural assumptions. Gender Outlaw was decades ahead of its time when it was first published in 1994. Now, some twenty-odd years later, this book stands as both a classic and a still-revolutionary work--one that continues to push us gently but profoundly to the furthest borders of the gender frontier.

Gender Failure by Ivan E. Coyote; Rae Spoon Ivan E. Coyote and Rae Spoon are accomplished, award-winning writers, musicians and performers; they are also both admitted 'gender failures.' In their first collaborative book, Ivan and Rae explore and expose their failed attempts at fitting into the gender binary, and how ultimately our expectations and assumptions around traditional gender roles fail us all. Based on their acclaimed 2012 live show that toured across the United States and in Europe, Gender Failure is a poignant collection of essays, lyrics and images documenting Ivan and Rae's personal journeys.

No Outlaws in the Gender Galaxy by Chaynika Shah; Raj Mariwala; Shalini Mahajan; Smriti Nevatia; Raj Merchant How is gender understood and constructed? How does it operate in the sociopolitical structures we inhabit? How is gender lived? No Outlaws in the Gender Galaxy answers these questions by analyzing the lives of queer persons who were assigned the female gender at birth. The lived realities of these individuals--both observed by and reported to the authors--help to interrogate the concept of gender and provide clues as to how gender can be re-envisioned as egalitarian. Looking closely at these personal stories, authors Chayanika Shah, Raj Merchant, Shals Mahajan, and Smriti Nevatia explore how gender plays out in both public and private institutions, including family units, schools, offices, and public spaces. Looking at each arena independently, the book examines how binary gender norms are engrained and analyzes how the interlocking systems of heteronormativity create exclusion, marginalization, and violence.

Trans Desire/Affective Cyborgs by Micha Cárdenas; Barbara Fornssler; Wolfgang Schirmacher (Editor)

Hijab: Unveiling Queer Muslim Lives by Pepe Hendricks (Editor) "Hijab: unveiling queer Muslim lives is the first known collection of South African Muslim stories relating to Islam and sexual diversity. This anthology shares real-life stories of people that have struggled, or may still be struggling, to reconcile their spirituality and their sexuality. These are stories that illustrate the oneness of being and reflect on how some interpretations of the scriptures may alienate others. Although it focuses predominantly on Muslim stories, it is universal in its approach in dealing with spirituality rather than religion. Although the stories are all biographies, or autobiographies, the style of creative writing was selected to maintain a story-telling method. The writing of the stories was a therapeutic process for the authors and hopefully it will also provide strength and courage to others in similar situations, not so much through a deeper understanding of the person who wrote the story necessarily, but rather through a process of identification with the circumstances of the author"--The Inner Circle website.

Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East by Brian Whitaker Homosexuality is a taboo subject in Arab countries. Clerics denounce it as a heinous sin, while newspapers write cryptically of "shameful acts." Although many parts of the world now accept sexual diversity, the Middle East is moving in the opposite direction. In this absorbing account, journalist Brian Whitaker calls attention to the voices of men and women who are struggling with gay identities in societies where they are marginalized and persecuted by the authorities. He paints a disturbing picture of people who live secretive, fearful lives and who are often jailed, beaten, and ostracized by their families, or sent to be "cured" by psychiatrists. Whitaker's exploration of changing sexual behavior in the Arab world reveals that--while deeply repressive prejudices and stereotypes still govern much thinking about homosexuality--there are pockets of change and tolerance. The author combines personal accounts from individuals in the region with a look at recent Arab films and novels featuring gay characters and conducts a sensitive comparative reading of Christian, Jewish, and Islamic strictures around sexuality. Deeply informed and engagingly written, Unspeakable Love draws long overdue attention to a crucial subject. Copub: Saqi Books

Sexuality and Social Justice in Africa: Rethinking Homophobia and Forging Resistance by Marc Epprecht The persecution of people in Africa on the basis of their assumed or perceived homosexual orientation has received considerable coverage in the popular media in recent years. Gay-bashing by high political and religious figures in Zimbabwe and Gambia; draconian new laws against lesbians and gays and their supporters in Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda; the imprisonment and extortion of gay men in Senegal and Cameroon; and so-called corrective rapes of lesbians in South Africa have all rightly sparked international condemnation. However, much of the analysis thus far has been highly critical of African leadership and culture without considering local nuances, historical factors and external influences that are contributing to the problem. Such commentary also overlooks grounds for optimism in the struggle for sexual rights and justice in Africa, not just for sexual minorities but for the majority population as well. Based on pioneering research on the history of homosexualities and engagement with current lgbti and HIV/AIDS activism, Mark Epprecht provides a sympathetic overview of the issues at play, and a hopeful outlook on the potential of sexual rights for all.

Out in the Periphery : Latin America's gay rights revolution by Omar G. Encarnación "...In Out in the Periphery, Omar G. Encarnacion breaks away from the conventional narrative of Latin America's embrace of gay rights as a by-product of the global spread of gay rights from the developed West. Instead, Encarnacion aims to "decenter" gay rights politics. His intention is not to demonstrate how the "local" has trumped the "global" in Latin America but rather to suggest how domestic and international politics interacted to make Latin America one of the world's most receptive environments for gay rights."

AsiaPacifQueer: Rethinking Genders and Sexualities by Fran Martin (Editor); Peter A. Jackson (Editor); Mark McLelland (Editor); Audrey Yue (Editor) This interdisciplinary collection examines the shaping of local sexual cultures in the Asian Pacific region in order to move beyond definitions and understandings of sexuality that rely on Western assumptions. The diverse studies in AsiaPacifiQueer demonstrate convincingly that in the realm of sexualities, globalization results in creative and cultural admixture rather than a unilateral imposition of the western values and forms of sexual culture. These essays range across the Pacific Rim and encompass a variety of forms of social, cultural, and personal expression, examining sexuality through music, cinema, the media, shifts in popular rhetoric, comics and magazines, and historical studies. By investigating complex processes of localization, interregional borrowing, and hybridization, the contributors underscore the mutual transformation of gender and sexuality in both Asian Pacific and Western cultures. Contributors are Ronald Baytan, J. Neil C. Garcia, Kam Yip Lo Lucetta, Song Hwee Lim, J. Darren Mackintosh, Claire Maree, Jin-Hyung Park, Teri Silvio, Megan Sinnott, Yik Koon Teh, Carmen Ka Man Tong, James Welker, Heather Worth, and Audrey Yue.

Queer African Reader by Hakima Abbas (Editor); Sokari Ekine (Editor) As homophobia and transphobia threaten to silence the voices of African lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people, this account is a testament to the resistance and unrelenting power of these communities across Africa and its diaspora. It brings together academic writings, political analysis, life testimonies, conversations, and artistic works by Africans that engage with the struggle for LGBTI liberation. The book aims to engage the audience from the perspective that various traits of identity—such as gender, race, and class—interact to contribute to social inequality. Including experiences from diverse African contexts, this work breaks away from the homogenization of Africa as the homophobic continent to highlight the complexities of LGBTI lives and experiences through their own voices.

Queer Indigenous Studies: Critical Interventions in Theory, Politics, and Literature by Qwo-Li Driskill (Editor); Chris Finley (Editor); Scott Lauria Morgensen (Editor); Brian Joseph Gilley (Editor) “This book is an imagining.” So begins this collection examining critical, Indigenous-centered approaches to understanding gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and Two-Spirit (GLBTQ2) lives and communities and the creative implications of queer theory in Native studies. This book is not so much a manifesto as it is a dialogue—a “writing in conversation”—among a luminous group of scholar-activists revisiting the history of gay and lesbian studies in Indigenous communities while forging a path for Indigenouscentered theories and methodologies. The bold opening to Queer Indigenous Studies invites new dialogues in Native American and Indigenous studies about the directions and implications of queer Indigenous studies. The collection notably engages Indigenous GLBTQ2 movements as alliances that also call for allies beyond their bounds, which the co-editors and contributors model by crossing their varied identities, including Native, trans, straight, non-Native, feminist, Two-Spirit, mixed blood, and queer, to name just a few. Rooted in the Indigenous Americas and the Pacific, and drawing on disciplines ranging from literature to anthropology, contributors to Queer Indigenous Studies call Indigenous GLBTQ2 movements and allies to center an analysis that critiques the relationship between colonialism and heteropatriarchy. By answering critical turns in Indigenous scholarship that center Indigenous epistemologies and methodologies, contributors join in reshaping Native studies, queer studies, transgender studies, and Indigenous feminisms. Based on the reality that queer Indigenous people “experience multilayered oppression that profoundly impacts our safety, health, and survival,” this book is at once an imagining and an invitation to the reader to join in the discussion of decolonizing queer Indigenous research and theory and, by doing so, to partake in allied resistance working toward positive change.

As Normal As Possible: Negotiating Sexuality and Gender in Mainland China and Hong Kong by Yau Ching In what ways does normativity produce possibilities and limitations for contemporary Chinese sexualities? What are the strategies of queer representation circulating in non-mainstream cultures in Hong Kong and China? The authors of the nine original and innovative essays presented here take a fresh look on Chinese sexuality's complexities.

Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More by Janet Mock Welcomed into the world as her parents' firstborn son, Mock set out early on to be her own person-no simple feat for a young person like herself. She struggled as the smart, determined child in a deeply loving, yet ill-equipped family that lacked money, education, and resources. Mock had to navigate her way through her teen years without parental guidance but luckily with a few close friends and mentors she overcame extremely daunting hurdles. This powerful memoir follows Mock's quest for identity, from her early gender conviction to a turbulent adolescence in Honolulu that found her transitioning through the halls of her school, self-medicating with hormones at fifteen, and flying across the world for sex reassignment surgery at just eighteen. Ever resilient, Mock emerged with a scholarship to college and moved to New York City, where she earned her master's degree, basked in the success of an enviable career, and told no one about her past. It wasn't until Mock fell for a man who called her the woman of his dreams that she felt ready to finally tell her story, becoming a fierce advocate for girls like herself. A profound statement of affirmation from a courageous woman, Redefining Realnessshows as never before what it means to be a woman today and how to be yourself when you don't fit the mould created for you.

Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin by John D'Emilio; John D'emilio Examines the life of Bayard Rustin, the civil rights activist who organized the 1963 March on Washington, detailing his struggles as being openly gay and his campaigns for civil rights.

Zami - A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Geraldine Lorde "ZAMI is a fast-moving chronicle. From the author's vivid childhood memories in Harlem to her coming of age in the late 1950s, the nature of Audre Lorde's work is cyclical. It especially relates the linkage of women who have shaped her . . . Lorde brings into play her craft of lush description and characterization. It keeps unfolding page after page."--Off Our Backs

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (Illustrator)

Restoried Selves: Autobiographies of Queer Asian-Pacific-American Activists by Kevin K. Kumashiro; John P. Dececco Presents first person accounts of 20 activists - life stories that work against common stereotypes, shattering misconceptions and dispelling misinformation.

She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan The provocative bestseller She's Not There is the exuberant memoir of a man named James who became a woman named Jenny. She's Not There is the story of a person changing genders, the story of a person bearing and finally revealing a complex secret; above all, it is a love story. By turns hilarious and deeply moving, Jennifer Finney Boylan explores the remarkable territory that lies between men and women, examines changing friendships, and rejoices in the redeeming power of family. She's Not There is a portrait of a loving marriage--the love of James for his wife, Grace, and, against all odds, the enduring love of Grace for the woman who becomes her "sister," Jenny. To this extraordinary true story, Boylan brings the humorous, fresh voice that won her accolades as one of the best comic novelists of her generation. With her distinctive and winning perspective, She's Not There explores the dramatic outward changes and unexpected results of life as a woman: Jenny fights the urge to eat salad, while James consumed plates of ribs; gone is the stability of "one damn mood, all the damn time." While Boylan's own secret was unusual, to say the least, she captures the universal sense of feeling uncomfortable, out of sorts with the world, and misunderstood by her peers. Jenny is supported on her journey by her best friend, novelist Richard Russo, who goes from begging his friend to "Be a man" (in every sense of the word) to accepting her as an attractive, buoyant woman. "The most unexpected thing," Russo writes in his Afterword to the book, "is in how Jenny's story we recognize our shared humanity." As James evolves into Jennifer in scenes that are by turns tender, startling, and witty, a marvelously human perspective emerges on issues of love, sex, and the fascinating relationship between our physical and our intuitive selves. Through the clear eyes of a truly remarkable woman, She's Not There provides a new window on the often confounding process of accepting ourselves.

Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serano A provocative manifesto, Whipping Girl tells the powerful story of Julia Serano, a transsexual woman whose supremely intelligent writing reflects her diverse background as a lesbian transgender activist and professional biologist. Serano shares her experiences and observations--both pre- and post-transition--to reveal the ways in which fear, suspicion, and dismissiveness toward femininity shape our societal attitudes toward trans women, as well as gender and sexuality as a whole. Serano's well-honed arguments stem from her ability to bridge the gap between the often-disparate biological and social perspectives on gender. She exposes how deep-rooted the cultural belief is that femininity is frivolous, weak, and passive, and how this "feminine” weakness exists only to attract and appease male desire. In addition to debunking popular misconceptions about transsexuality, Serano makes the case that today's feminists and transgender activist must work to embrace and empower femininity--in all of its wondrous forms.

The Naked Civil Servant by Quentin Crisp; Michael Holroyd (Preface by); Quentin Crisp A comical and poignant memoir of a gay man living life as he pleased in the 1930s 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. This exhibitionist with the henna-dyed hair was harrassed, ridiculed and beaten. Nevertheless, he claimed his right to be himself--whatever the consequences. The Naked Civil Servant is both a comic masterpiece and a unique testament to the resilience of the human spirit. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Transition: The Story of How I Became A Man by Chaz Bono WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A MAN? Imagine feeling in your gut that your whole existence is a lie. Imagine knowing, for decades, that the person you are and the body you inhabit don't match up. Imagine living this life under the scrutiny of the public eye. Imagine Chaz Bono's life. The world first met him as the darling daughter of Sonny and Cher, a frequent guest on their popular television show in the 1970s. The little girl with the cherubic cheeks, blond curls, and bright smile is someone that Chaz hardly remembers, even if the American public still does. Then, in the 1990s, the young woman became a national face of the GLBT political movement, and a beloved activist and author. But the work felt empty, and Chaz knew that no matter how hard he worked, it was hollow, because life, as a woman, wasn't ever going to be fulfilling. Wrestling with gender confusion, failed relationships, the loss of a parent, drug addiction, and a journey toward sobriety, chaz Bono has fought many demons in his life. Transitionis a deeply personal, honest, and ultimately triumphant story. It tells of the physical and emotional process that brought him to come out of the world for a second time and finally claim his life as the one he always wanted . . . as a man. As Chaz Salvatore Bon. 'Transition is not only about the journey from female to male; more importantly, it's about the journey from fear to courage. Chaz Bono is my new hero.' - Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of She's Not There and I'm Looking Through You. 'Chaz Bono has worked hard to become and enjoy who he is, when he could have tried to become someone else, as so many in the entertainment business do.' - Jamison Green, author of Becoming a Visible Man.

Freedom in This Village: Twenty-Five Years of Black Gay Men's Writing by E. Lynn Harris (Editor) Freedom in This Village charts for the first time ever the innovative course of black gay male literature of the past 25 years. Starting in 1979 with the publication of James Baldwin's final novel, Just Above My Head, then on to the radical writings of the 1980s, the breakthrough successes of the 1990s, and up to today's new works, editor E. Lynn Harris collects 47 sensational stories, poems, novel excerpts, and essays. Authors featured include Samuel R. Delany, Essex Hemphill, Melvin Dixon, Marlon Riggs, Assotto Saint, Larry Duplechan, Reginald Shepherd, Carl Phillips, Keith Boykin, Randall Kenan, Thomas Glave, James Earl Hardy, Darieck Scott, Gary Fisher, Bruce Morrow, John Keene, G. Winston James, Bil Wright, Robert Reid Pharr, Brian Keith Jackson, as well as an array of exciting new and established writers.

How Beautiful the Ordinary: Twelve Stories of Identity by Ed. by Michael Cart A girl thought to be a boy steals her sister's skirt, while a boy thought to be a girl refuses to wear a cornflower blue dress. One boy's love of a soldier leads to the death of a stranger. The present takes a bittersweet journey into the past when a man revisits the summer school where he had "an accidental romance." And a forgotten mother writes a poignant letter to the teenage daughter she hasn't seen for fourteen years. Poised between the past and the future are the stories of now. In nontraditional narratives, short stories, and brief graphics, tales of anticipation and regret, eagerness and confusion present distinctively modern views of love, sexuality, and gender identification. Together, they reflect the vibrant possibilities available for young people learning to love others—and themselves—in today's multifaceted and quickly changing world.

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel From the author of Fun Home -- the lives, loves, and politics of cult fav characters Mo, Lois, Sydney, Sparrow, Ginger, Stuart, Clarice, and others For twenty-five years Bechdel’s path-breaking Dykes to Watch Out For strip has been collected in award-winning volumes (with a quarter of a million copies in print), syndicated in fifty alternative newspapers, and translated into many languages. Now, at last, The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For gathers a “rich, funny, deep and impossible to put down” (Publishers Weekly) selection from all eleven Dykes volumes. Here too are sixty of the newest strips, never before publishedin book form. Settle in to this wittily illustrated soap opera (Bechdel calls it “half op-ed column and half endless serialized Victorian novel”) of the lives, loves, and politics of a cast of characters, most of them lesbian, living in a midsize American city that may or may not be Minneapolis. Her brilliantly imagined countercultural band of friends -- academics, social workers, bookstore clerks -- fall in and out of love, negotiate friendships, raise children, switch careers, and cope with aging parents. Bechdel fuses high and low culture -- from foreign policy to domestic routine, hot sex to postmodern theory -- in a serial graphic narrative “suitable for humanists of all persuasions.”

The Very Inside: An Anthology of Writing by Asian and Pacific Islander Lesbian and Bisexual Women by Sharon Lim-Hing (Editor) More than fifty contributions of poetry, prose, interviews, articles and artwork make this collection fascinating and important.

Skim by Mariko Tamaki; Jillian Tamaki (Illustrator) The time is the early 1990s, the setting a girls' academy in Toronto. Enter "Skim," aka Kimberly Keiko Cameron, a not-slim, would-be Wiccan goth. When her classmate Katie Matthews is dumped by her boyfriend, who then kills himself, the entire school goes into mourning overdrive. It's a weird time to fall in love, but Skim does just that after secret meetings with her neo-hippie English teacher, Ms. Archer. When Ms. Archer abruptly leaves the school, Skim has to cope with her confusion and isolation, as her best friend, Lisa, tries to pull her into "real" life by setting up a hilarious double date for the school's semi-formal. Skim finds an unexpected ally in Katie. Suicide, depression, love, being gay or not, crushes, cliques of popular, manipulative peers -- the whole gamut of tortured teen life is explored in this masterful graphic novel by cousins Mariko and Jillian Tamaki.

Black Like Us: A Century of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual African American Fiction by Devon W. Carbado (Editor) Black Like Us chronicles 100 years of the African American lesbian, gay, and bisexual literary tradition. Beginning with the turn-of-the-century writings of Angelina Welde Grimke and Alice Dunbar Nelson, it charts the evolution of black lesbian and gay fiction into the Harlem Renaissance of Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen and the later postwar era, in which works by Audre Lorde and James Baldwin signal the emerging sexual liberation movements. The 40 authors featured also include Alice Walker, E. Lynn Harris, Audre Lorde, April Sinclair, Jewelle Gomez, Thomas Glave, and Jacqueline Woodson.

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin Set in the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. With a sharp, probing imagination, James Baldwin's now-classic narrative delves into the mystery of loving and creates a moving, highly controversial story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.

Lost Boi by Sassafras Lowrey A bold and beautiful retelling of the Peter Pan story. Lambda Literary Award finalist Sassafras Lowrey's gorgeously subversive queer punk novel reimagines the classic Peter Pan story. Prepare to be swept overboard into a world of orphaned, abandoned, and runawaybois who have sworn allegiance and service to Pan, the fearless leader of Neverland, and to the newly corrupted Mommy Wendi. Pan's best boi Tootles narrates this tale of the lost bois who call the Neverland squat home, creating their own idea of family, united in their allegiance to Pan, the boi who cannot be broken,and in their refusal to join ranks with Hook and the leather Pirates. Like a fever-pitched dream, Lost Boi situates a children's fantasy within a transgressive alternative reality, chronicling the lost bois' search for belonging and purpose, and their struggle against the biggest foe of all: growing up.

Blue Is the Warmest Color by Julie Maroh