Pride Reading List

Pride might be almost over, but queer books are year round. Here are both fiction and nonfiction books highlighting queer stories and queer history.

Introduction to Queer History:

1. Hansen, Karen V. “No ‘Kisses’ Is Like Youres": An Erotic Friendship Between Two African-American Women During the Mid-Nineteenth Century.” Gender & History 7, no. 2 (August 1995): 153–82. This is my go-to recommendation for an introductory article on queer history.

2. The Routledge History of Queer America, ed. Don Romesburg (2018): This is my favorite of the general queer history books.

Queer People in Magical Worlds

1. Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez (Fantasy/Historical fiction): A book about a black, queer vampire with a female indigenous vampire and her slow progression through history. CW: suicide (described in some detail), discussions of suicide, attempted rape, violence, racism, slavery

2. Out of Salem by Hal Schrieve (Fantasy): A genderqueer zombie and a lesbian werewolf become friends and fight bigots. CW: transphobia

3. Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger (Fantasy): In a world like ours but with magic and ghost dogs, an asexual Lipan Apache teenager’s cousin is murdered, and she has to find out who did it.

4. Pet by Akwaeke Emezi (Fantasy novella): A lovely story about utopia and the monsters and angels (literal and figurative) in our lives. Main character is a black trans girl who is selectively mute, entirely black cast. CW for child abuse (not of protagonist),

5. Wild Seed by Octavia Butler (Fantasy): Shapeshifting mythological beings engage in centuries-long struggle with much hatred and sex and occasionally love? It’s complicated. CW: incest, slavery, racism, abuse, sexual violence, suicide

Queer Love Stories

1. Passing Strange by Ellen Klages (Magical Realism novella): Women fall in love with each other in a magical version of 1940s San Francisco.

2. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo (Historical Fiction): Two girls fall in love in 1950s Chinatown, San Francisco in this beautiful historical novel.

3. Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller (Historical Fiction/Romance): Cute sapphic romance about a farmer and a painter in the early 19th century. Written in the 1960’s. CW: Incest references (non-explicit)

4. Maurice by E.M. Forster (Romance/Literary Fiction): The whole point of this book was to write a happy gay romance. In 1912-1913.

5. Primus, Rebecca, Addie Brown, and Farah Jasmine Griffin. Beloved Sisters and Loving Friends: Letters from Rebecca Primus of Royal Oak, Maryland and Addie Brown of Hartford,Connecticut, 1854-1868. 1st ed. New York: Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 1999. (Letter Collection): Two queer black women in love in the 1850s-1860s.

6. Felix Ever After by Kacen Callendar (YA Contemporary): Black trans protagonist figures out gender identity and finds romance. CW: transphobia, deadnaming.

7. Two Noble Kinsmen by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare (Play): This underperformed and understudied Shakespeare play is extremely and extensively queer. See also Coriolanus for queer Shakespeare plays. CW: gaslighting, sexism, death, sexual assault.

Trans History

1. Transgender History by Susan Stryker (History): Classic history of trans people.

2. Histories of the Transgender Child by Jules Gill-Peterson (History): Trans children are not a new phenomenon. Trans kids have always and will always exist.

3. Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton (History/Theory): History of Black trans people.

4. Asegi Stories: Cherokee Queer and Two-Spirit Memory by Qwo-Li Driskill (History): Beautifully written and poetic history of queer Cherokee people.

Legal Regulation of Queer Lives

1. Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America by Margot Canaday (History): Legal history about federal regulation of queer people in the first half of the twentieth century.

2. Arresting Dress: Cross-Dressing, Law, and Fascination in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco by Clare Sears (History): History of cross-dressing laws in San Francisco.

3. Richard Godbeer. “‘The Cry of Sodom’: Discourse, Intercourse, and Desire in Colonial New England.” (History article) Excellent history of legal regulation of sodomy among the Puritans.

4. W.N. Eskridge. “Hardwick and Historiography.” University of Illinois Law Review, no. 2 (1999): 644. (Law Review Article). An excellent account of the (thoroughly flawed) history in Bowers v Hardwick.

5. Freedman, Estelle. “The Prison Lesbian: Race, Class, and the Construction of the Aggressive Female Homosexual, 1915-1965.” Feminist Studies 22 (Summer 1996) (History Article): Interesting and disturbing history of the intersections of race and sexuality in the criminalization of lesbian lives.

6. Clark, Anna. 2005. “Twilight Moments.” Journal of the History of Sexuality, no. 1/2: 139. (History Article): Fascinating theoretical look at the space in between being closeted and being out.

7. The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government by David K. Johnson (History): While everyone learns about the Red Scare, fewer people learn about its rainbow and homophobic cousin.

Be Gay, IN SPACE:

1. Long Way to A Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (Sci Fi): The queer Star Trek-y book we all knew we wanted. Optimism and aliens and wormholes and friendship and cross-species sapphic romances. 

2. Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez (Sci Fi): Vividly described space opera with a side of found family and anti-capitalism. CW: death.

3. Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin (Sci Fi): Famous genderbending anthropological sci fi with cool snow travel.

Queer Joy, Queer Laughter

1. In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan (Fantasy): “So far magic school was total rubbish.” So begins this novel about a bisexual teenager’s adventures at magic school, complete with treaty-making, queer romance and mermaids.

2. “Invasion of the Water Towers” by R.D. Landau (Flashfic): When water towers invade a local Starbucks, can our narrator and the hot nonbinary barista save them?

3. “"Just To Be Clear, Everyone Was A Little Bit Of A Lesbian Then": Contextualizing 19th-Century Lesbianism” by Daniel Lavery (Satire): Hilarious satire of heteronormative queer history.

4. Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner (Fantasy): Fantasy of manners with swordfighting, banter and intrigue.

5. Camp by Lev Rosen (YA Contemporary): Book set at an all queer summer camp, featuring a cast full of gay and a male/male romance.

Same-Sex Marriage: History and Future?

1. “What, Another Female Husband?”: The Prehistory of Same-Sex Marriage in America” by Rachel Hope Cleves (2015) (History Article): Excellent article on the history of this not-so-newfangled phenomenon.

2. Charity and Sylvia: A Same Sex Marriage by Rachel Hope Cleves (History): Long before Obergefell v. Hodges, Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake lived together as a married couple. An entertaining romance and interesting history.

3. "A Right Not to Marry" by Kaiponanea T. Matsumura (2016) (Law Review Article): There is a right to marry: is there a right not to marry?

4. “Before marriage: The unexplored history of nonmarital recognition and its relationship to marriage” by Douglass NeJaime (Law Review Article): What are other directions that partnership and nonmarital recognition went and could have gone?

5. “Tribal Laws and Same-Sex Marriage: Theory, Process and Content” by Ann E Tweedy (2014) (Law Review Article): Analysis of tribal laws on marriage equality on the cusp of Obergefell.

6. “Sexing Skinner: History and the Politics of the Right to Marry” by Ariela Dubler (2010) (Law Review Article): What do the rights to marry or to procreate actually mean?

7. “Marriage Equality and Postracialism” UCLA Law Review by Russell K Robinson (2014) (Law Review Article): Important indictment of the racism surrounding Prop 8.

8. Female Husbands: A Trans History by Jen Manion (History): Excellent history of nineteenth century female husbands: people AFAB who lived as men and married women.

9. “The Future of Polyamorous Marriage: Lessons from the Marriage Equality Struggle” by Aviram, Hadar; Leachman, Gwendolyn M. (Law Review Article): Is polyamorous marriage next?

Queer Families

1. Radical Relations: Lesbian Mothers, Gay Fathers, and Their Children in the United States Since World War II by Daniel Winunwe Rivers (History): Queer parentage and the law have a long and fraught history.

2. House on the Cerulean Sea by T J Klune (Fantasy): Sweet, sentimental found-family book about a middle aged gay guy finding love and family when he goes to inspect a magical orphanage. Cats! Cute kids!

3. Lifelode by Jo Walton (Fantasy): Strange domestic fantasy, where time moves weirdly and gods exist and most relationships are polyamorous. If you want a book about a four adult family raising a group of children together while navigating complicated romantic relationships, laundry and magic, this is for you. If you want a book where the enemy is (almost literally) monogamous heterosexual marriage, then this is also the book for you.

Queer Feminism, Trans Feminism:

1. Koyama, Emi. 2003. "The Transfeminist Manifesto." Pp. 244-59 in Catching a Wave: Reclaiming Feminism for the 21st Century, edited by R. Dicker and A. Piepmeir. Boston: Northeastern University Press. (Article): Ignore Terfs, let’s read about transfeminism!

2. Transfeminist Perspectives in and Beyond Transgender and Gender Studies, edited by A. F. Enke. Philadelphia: Temple University Press (Essay collection).

3. Koyama, Emi. 2006. "Whose Feminism Is It Anyway?: The Unspoken Racism of the Trans Inclusion Debate." Pp. 698-705 in The Transgender Studies Reader, edited by S. Stryker and S. Whittle. New York: Routledge. http://www.eminism.org/readings/pdf-rdg/whose-feminism.pdf (Article).

4. Johnson, Austin H. 2015. "Beyond Inclusion: Thinking toward a Transfeminist Methodology.” Pp. 21-41 in At the Center: Feminism, Social Science and Knowledge.Sociology methods): How do we make our research trans inclusive?

5. Williams, Cristan. 2016. "Radical Inclusion: Recounting the Trans Inclusive History of Radical Feminism." Transgender Studies Quarterly 3(1-2):254-58 (History article): When feminism was trans inclusive.
   

Be Gay, Fight Capitalism

1. Finna by Nino Cipri (Sci Fi novella): Two queer exes have to work together when a wormhole opens in a magical furniture store.

2. Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots (Fantasy): A Hench (ie assistant) to supervillains USES SPREADSHEETS TO GAIN POWER AND DEFEAT SUPERHEROS. About capitalism and temp jobs and the brutal ways that superheroes hurt everyone. Pansexual main character.

3. Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson (Science Fiction): In a multiverse where you can only travel to universes where your counterpart is dead, marginalized individuals get employment as travelers between worlds. An insightful book about labor and capitalism and who gets used and left behind as cities get built. CW: relationship abuse, violence

4. Queering Labour: The Marine Cooks and Stewards' Union by Scarlett C. Davis (History Article): In the 1930s, a union of marine stewards fought against homophobia and racism, and also did drag shows.