Pride month is celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan. The Stonewall Uprising was a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. The Last Sunday of June was initially celebrated as “LGBTQ Pride Day”. To celebrate Pride with books by LGTQIA+ authors! Where there are inspirational memoirs to irresistible romances, these stories honor the LGBTQ community.
Here are some of books to read during this Pride month. These books tells the difficult journey this community goes through and also the discrimination that they face. Through narration and stories their struggle comes into our full knowledge.
‘We Are Everywhere’ by Mathew Riemer and Leighton Brown****
A rich and sweeping photographic history of the Queer Liberation Movement. Through the lens of protest, power, and pride. We Are Everywhere is an essential introduction-told through stunning photographs and thoroughly researched narrative. Tracing queer activism from its late 19th century European roots to the homophiles who made Stonewall possible. This Beautiful packaged book contains hundreds of photos and pieces of ephemera that allows the reader to see history as they read.
‘Young Mungo’ By Douglas Stuart***
Growing up in a housing estate in Glasgow, Mungo a Protestant and James a Catholic. They should have been sworn enemies but as they fall in love, they dream of finding somewhere they belong. Imbuing the everyday world of its characters with rich lyricism and giving full voice people rarely acknowledged in the literary world. Young Mungo is a gripping and revealing story about the bounds of masculinity. The division of sectarianism, the violence faced by many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much.
‘Burning Butch’ by R/B Mertz****
Burning Butch is the courageous story of a trans/ non-binary butch on a quest to survive conservatives, religious, American culture. While questioning if there is room in their heart for the traditional faith they were raised with, and what it means to come home again. Ever the outcast during their college years despite their affinity and aptitude for poetry, Mertz is forced to face their sexuality and what it might mean within the confines of their strict faith. As Mertz struggles to navigate this repressive environment, and questions what role they could play in this community, the vulnerable identity they create begins to threaten the life they know in potentially irreversible ways.
‘Her Majesty’s Royal Coven’ by Juno Dawson***
Juno Dawson explores gender and the corrupting nature of power in a delightful and provocative story of magic and matriarchy, friendship and feminism. Dealing with all the aspects of contemporary womanhood, as well as being phenomenally powerful witches, Niamh, Helena, Leonie and Elle. They may have grown apart but they will always be bound by the sisterhood of the coven.
‘Bad Gays: A Homosexual History’ by Huw Lemmey****
Too many popular histories seek to establish heroes, pioneers, and martyrs. But as Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller argue, the past is filled with queer people whose sexualities and dastardly deeds have been overlooked. Part revisionist history, part historical biography and based on hugely popular podcast series, Bad Gays subverts the notion of gay icons. It also subverts the queer heroes and asks what we can learn about LGBTQ history. Together these amazing life stories expand and challenge the mainstream assumptions of sexual identity. Amusing, disturbing and fascinating, Bad Gays puts center stage the queer villains and evil twinks in history.
