Classic gay literature

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Myles (who is genderqueer and whose pronouns are they/them) is a poet, journalist, and reviewer, a notable figure in the art scenes of 1980s and ’90s New York. It got fairly middling reviews on Goodreads but I’m convinced it’s only because people didn’t understand what they were getting into when they started.

The book, of course, became Carol (2015), which on its own has had a large impact. A trans boy and a trans woman are at the heart of this story, and it explores gender and gender fluidity with brilliance. This is what inspired him to write the fairy tale of sorts that is this book, a series of vignettes that paint the story of a group of gay men, feminists, drag queens, lesbians, queer men, and more who live, produce art, have sex, and wait for a revolution as they’re ruled by a declining patriarchal empire.

If you are a fan of some light magic in the real world, this book should be at the top of your TBR.

30. But then they were separated — and what followed was a string of homes, a need to survive, and a quest to find her voice as a lesbian and a performer. This book works both as an introduction to butch/femme dynamics and as a powerful and earnest story for people who are already deeply familiar.

As she settles into life with the other women of the brothel, they initiate her into vampirism and the secret of eternal life, and she takes on the name Gilda. Orlando has the same mind and soul as a woman, but the way she is treated by those around her in turn changes the way she acts. When it first premiered, the audience at Cannes Film Festival gave it a 10-minute standing ovation.

Partially a response to the racism of white feminists in the second-wave movement who were silencing and erasing women of color, this book is now on its fourth edition.
Content warnings for biphobia, xenophobia, racism, misogyny.

Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde (1982)

In this book, which Lorde describes as a “biomythography,” she tells us that Zami is “a Carriacou name for women who work together as friends and lovers.” Lorde is one of our most crucial Black lesbian icons and is known for her incredible contributions to feminist theory, critical race studies, and queer theory.

The novel was immensely successful, to the point that a cult of personality sprung up around Brown, who had long been active in women’s and queer movements — women even started camping on her doorstep.

Content warnings for incest, racial slurs, age gap, anti-Semitism, sexual assault.

The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions by Larry Mitchell (1977)

Mitchell cofounded and lived in Lavender Hill, a queer commune in Ithaca, New York, for many years.

This memoir is a desperate, painful story about the real-life experience of living through the AIDS crisis.

Jason, Kyle, and Nelson are three high school teens struggling with their queer identities — Jason is the classic jock, a basketball team star who has a lot to lose if he admits he’s bisexual; Kyle is gay but hopes no one, especially his parents, ever finds out; and Nelson is the first in his grade to be fully out of the closet, thanks in part to a supportive mom.

The dialogue and rallying call of this collection became a touchstone for generations of feminist women of color. We accompany them on their first few dates and learn about how they started falling in love. Every single story was painfully relatable and made me either laugh or cry or both. Skye Falling

Author: Mia McKenzie

Release Date: June 22, 2021

Find the Book: Goodreads | StoryGraph | Bookshop

I cannot get over how much I loved this book.

The Last Love Song

Author: Kalie Holford

Release Date: April 9th, 2024

Find the Book: Goodreads | StoryGraph | Bookshop | Review

In this dual perspective YA book, Mia Peters is faced with one last challenge before the end of her summer after high-school.

Using the more fantastical elements, Woolf is able to use this 1928 novel to push into more radical topics, in its discussions of gender, sexuality, transition, and pronouns.

Content warnings for alcoholism, addiction, religious bigotry, sexual assault.

Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai (1994)

As war rages between the army and the Tamil Tigers in northern Sri Lanka, Young Arjie is struggling with society’s racism and with his own strangeness — in his large family, he is a “funny boy,” preferring to dress up as and imagine himself as a girl than play cricket with his brother.

Too often, as Machado highlights, queer people play down the realities of toxic relationships in order to paint queerness in the best possible light. As prejudiced, ethnic violence increases in a tumultuous Sri Lanka, Arjie grows into his homosexuality and comes of age.

Content warnings for child abuse, genocide, emotional abuse, fatphobia, sexual assault, violence.

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters (1998)

It’s 1890, and Nan is smitten with male impersonator Kitty.

As of November 2019, the National AIDS Memorial is the permanent caretaker of the quilt, and it can now be seen online.

Content warnings for terminal illness, suicide, suicidal thoughts, addiction, police brutality, violence.

Velour: The Drag Magazine edited by Sasha Velour (2018)

Genderfluid drag queen Sasha Velour, a former Fulbright scholar and drag-historian and the winner of Season 9 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, is at the forefront of rebellious gender art.