Pride Month is observed annually in June to recognize and celebrate their achievements and contributions.
Sandra Caldwell is a celebrated actress with numerous stage, television and movie credits to her name. She got her start as a showgirl in New York and traveled the world before settling in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. While there, she wrote and starred in a one-woman show, "The Guide to Being Fabulous After You've Skinned Your Knee." It was during this time that she came out publicly as transgender and auditioned for a transgender role in the off-Broadway play "Charm." In 2015, she starred in the TV miniseries "The Book of Negroes." Additionally, in 2020, she spoke candidly about transgender representation in the media in the Netflix documentary "Disclosure."
She found joy as a self-made drag queen of Christopher Street, infamous for her unique design and costume creation. Throughout her discovery phase, she was referred to as Malcolm, and Black Marsha before settling on Marsha P. Johnson. The “P” stands for “Pay It No Mind.” Johnson quickly became a prominent fixture in the LGBTQ community, serving as a “drag mother” while helping homeless and struggling LGBTQ youth. Marsha was extremely successful and toured the world as a successful drag queen with the Hot Peaches.
Source: https://ucnj.org/mpj/about-marsha-p-johnson/
In the early 1950s, Christine Jorgensen became widely known in the United States for having sex reassignment surgery and transitioning from male to female. She told her story to the press for a fee and later developed a nightclub act. Jorgensen retired to South California in the early 1970s and died of bladder and lung cancer in 1989. Before transitioning, she was drafted into the military in 1945. Being small and slightly built, she ended up working as a clerk at Fort Dix, New Jersey. After being discharged in 1946, Jorgenson floundered before deciding to transition to a female.
Source: https://www.biography.com/activist/christine-jorgensen
Bayard Rustin moved to New York in the 1930s and was involved in pacifist groups and early civil rights protests. Combining non-violent resistance with organizational skills, he was a key adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. Though he was arrested several times for his own civil disobedience and open homosexuality, he continued to fight for equality.
Barbara Gittings is regarded as the mother of the LGBT civil rights movement. In the 1950s gay activism was in its infancy. “There were scarcely 200 of us in the whole United States,” Gittings said of her fellow crusaders. “It was like a club—we all knew each other.” Although Gittings lived in Philadelphia, in 1958 she started the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB). Founded in San Francisco, the DOB was the first lesbian civil rights organization in the United States. From 1963 to 1966, Gittings was the editor of the DOB’s publication, “The Ladder,” the first national lesbian magazine.
Source: https://lgbthistorymonth.com/barbara-gittings?tab=biography
Life magazine named Billie Jean King one of the “100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century.” A tennis champion and an outspoken advocate for gender equality in sports, King has become an icon and legend for her contributions to the advancement of women’s sports. In 1961, at age 17, King won her first grand slam title at Wimbledon in the women’s doubles tournament. She quickly became known for her aggressive style and personality. In 1966, she won her first of 12 Grand Slam singles titles. She was also an outspoken advocate against sexism in sports. She struggled to come to terms with her sexuality and, during her 22-year marriage had an intimate affair with her female assistant but came out publicly in 1988. Since then she has helped further the visibility and inclusion of the LGBTQ community. She currently serves on the Board of the Elton John AIDS Foundation and National AIDS Fund.
Source: https://www.lgbthistorymonth.com/billie-jean-king?tab=biography
Gay rights activist and community leader Harvey Milk made history when he became one of the first openly gay officials in the United States in 1977 and was elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors. He was tragically shot and killed the following year, and numerous books and films have been made about his life.
World-famous political activist, designer and flag-maker Gilbert Baker created the Rainbow Flag in 1978. During the next four decades, his creation would become embraced throughout the world as the universal symbol of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) movement. Gilbert’s work as a vexillographer (flag maker) includes distinctions for creating two flags that attained world records for their length. Baker was born in Kansas and suffered while growing up in a conservative state. He was drawn to art and fashion design as a child, which alienated him from peers. He hoped that being drafted into the U.S. Army would be his escape, but he encountered severe homophobia during his time in basic training. When he opted to become a medic, Gilbert was stationed in San Francisco. There he found a home as an openly gay man, thriving in the counterculture movement of the post-Stonewall era.
In the early 1990s, RuPaul landed a record contract and released his first album, Supermodel of the World, while starting a career in acting. On the strength of his TV shows, including "RuPaul's Drag Race," and his oversized personality, RuPaul has become a beacon in gay, drag and transsexual communities.
In 2005, political journalist Rachel Maddow began hosting her own liberal political radio program, "The Rachel Maddow Show" on Air America. In January 2008, Maddow signed an exclusive contract with MSNBC as its political analyst, and she went on to earn a slew of awards through the televised version of "The Rachel Maddow Show." Maddow came out about her homosexuality when she was 17 years old and a freshman at Stanford. She met her partner, artist Susan Mikula, while working odd jobs in Massachusetts and finishing her doctoral dissertation.
Source: https://www.biography.com/media-figure/rachel-maddow
An American television journalist and entertainer best known as the anchor of the Cable News Network (CNN) and news-commentary program "Anderson Cooper 360," Cooper shared that he struggled to come to terms with his sexuality because of the limits he and others had in the late 1980s. “I think about a year after college I realized I don’t want to waste any more time worrying about this and wishing I was some other way,” Cooper said. “I think being gay is one of the blessings of my life. And it made me a better person, it made me a better reporter. ... It’s enabled me to love the people that I’ve loved and have the life that I’ve had.” He feels blessed to be able to express his sexuality and have the support for it as well.
Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anderson-Cooper
Pride Month is observed annually in June to recognize and celebrate their achievements and contributions. Below is a selected list of books available at the B.D. Owen’s Library.
| NAME and AUTHOR | SUMMARY |
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Detransition, baby : a novel | Torrey Peters
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"A novel about three women--transgender and cisgender--whose lives collide after an unexpected pregnancy forces them to confront their deepest desires around gender, motherhood, and sex..." |
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The girls I've been | Tess Sharpe
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When seventeen-year-old Nora O'Malley, the daughter of a con artist, is taken hostage in a bank heist, every secret she is keeping close begins to unravel. |
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As far as you'll take me | by Phil Stamper
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Marty arrives in London with nothing but his oboe and some savings from his summer job, but he's excited to start his new life. Here he is no longer the closeted, shy kid; he is free to explore his sexuality without his parents' disapproval. In the span of a few weeks he makes new friends, he's getting closer with his first ever boyfriend, and he's even traveling around Europe. But he hasn't talked to his parents back in Kentucky since he arrived, he's tearing through his meager savings, and he hasn't even come close to landing the job of his dreams. Will Marty be able to find a place that feels like home. |
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Black boy out of time: a memoir | Hari Ziyad
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One of 19 children in a blended family, Hari Ziyad was raised by a Hindu Hare K[ichGa mother and a Muslim father. Through reframing their own coming-of-age story, Ziyad takes readers on a powerful journey of growing up queer and Black in Cleveland, Ohio, and of navigating the equally complex path toward finding their true self in New York City. Exploring childhood, gender, race, and the trust that is built, broken, and repaired through generations, Ziyad investigates what it means to live beyond the limited narratives Black children are given and challenges the irreconcilable binaries that restrict them.” |
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Female husbands: a trans history | Jen Manion
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"Long before people identified as transgender or lesbian, there were female husbands and the women who loved them. Female husbands- people assigned female who transed gender, lived as men, and married women- were true queer pioneers. Moving deftly from the colonial era to just before World War I, Jen Manion uncovers the riveting and very personal stories of ordinary people who lived as men despite tremendous risk, danger, and threat of violence. Female Husbands weaves the story of their lives in relation to broader social, economic, and political developments in the United States and the United Kingdom while also exploring how attitudes toward female husbands shifted in relation to transformations in gender politics and women's rights, ultimately leading to the demise of the category of "female husband" in the early twentieth century.” |
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What's your pronoun?: beyond he & she | Dennis Baron
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"The story of how we got from he and she to zie and hir and singular they. Like trigger warnings and gender-neutral bathrooms, pronouns are suddenly sparking debate, prompting new policies in schools, workplaces, even prisons, about what pronouns to use. Dennis Baron puts them in historical context, demonstrating that Shakespeare used singular they; that women evoked the generic use of he to assert the right to vote (while those opposed to women's rights invoked the same word to assert that he did not include she), and that self-appointed language experts have been coining new gender pronouns, not just hir and zie but hundreds more, like thon, ip, and em, for centuries. Based on Baron's own empirical research, What's Your Pronoun? tells the untold story of gender-neutral and nonbinary pronouns" |
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Fantasia for the man in blue | Tommye Blount
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"An examination of a brutal America through the voices of its most vulnerable sons. Tommye Blount orchestrates a chorus of distinct, unforgettable voices that speak to the experience of the black, queer body as a site of desire and violence. A black man's late-night encounter with a police officer - the titular "man in blue" - becomes an extended meditation on a dangerous, erotic fantasy.” |
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"A remarkable, deeply moving memoir of one man's gender transition amid a pivotal political moment in America" |
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The psychology of sex and gender | Jennifer K. Bosson, Joseph A. Vandello & Camille E. Buckner
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The Psychology of Sex and Gender meets the needs of gender science today, providing students with fresh, contemporary examples, balanced coverage of men and women, and a grounding in psychological science. The dynamic author team of Jennifer K. Bosson, Joseph A. Vandello, and Camille E. Buckner presents classic and cutting-edge research findings, historical contexts, examples from popular culture, cross-cultural universality and variation, and coverage of nonbinary identities, for a full, vibrant picture of the field. In keeping with the growing scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL), the authors ask students in every chapter to identify and evaluate their own myths and misconceptions, participate in real-world debates on topics at the forefront of the field, and stop to think critically along the way." |
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She, he, they, me: for the sisters, misters, and binary resisters| Robyn Ryle
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If you've ever questioned the logic of basing an entire identity around what you have between your legs, it's time to embark on a daring escape outside of the binary box... Open your eyes to what it means to be a boy or a girl -- and above and beyond! Within these pages, you get to choose which path to forge. Explore over one hundred different scenarios that embrace nearly every definition across the world, over history, and in the ever-widening realms of our imagination! What if your journey leads you into a world with several genders, or simply one? Do you live in a matriarchal society, or as a sworn virgin in the Balkans? How does gender (or the lack thereof) change the way we approach sex and love, life or death? Jump headfirst into this refreshingly creative exploration of the ways gender colors every shade and shape of our world. Above all, it's more important than ever for us to celebrate the fact that there are infinite gender paths -- and each of them is beautiful. |
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"According to the research underpinning this book, 85% trans students and staff faced barriers. This practical guide enables post-secondary education professionals to create a safe and supportive environment for gender diverse applicants, students and staff. Using real life examples to explore common experiences and challenges for trans people in further and higher educational settings, it sets out policies, interventions and advice that have proven effective in providing impactful support on a wide range of issues such as learning, teaching, mental health, recruitment, support services, and institutional policies. Included is an easy-to-follow introduction to transgender terminology and identities, as well as legal and medical considerations." |
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The first-ever illustrated history of the iconic designs, symbols, and graphic art representing more than 5 decades of LGBTQ pride and activism--from the evolution of Gilbert Baker's rainbow flag to the NYC Pride typeface launched in 2017, and beyond. Organized by decade beginning with Pre-Liberation and then spanning the 1970s through the new millennium, QUEER X DESIGN will be an empowering, uplifting, and colorful celebration of the hundreds of graphics--from shapes and symbols to flags and iconic posters--that have stood for the powerful and ever-evolving LGBTQ movement over the last five-plus decades. |
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Rainbow milk: a novel | Paul Mendez
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"An essential and revelatory coming-of-age narrative following nineteen-year-old Jesse McCarthy as he grapples with his racial and sexual identities against the backdrop of his Jehovah's Witness upbringing." |
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"The book explores the role that LGBT rights activism directed at corporations and corporate activism on behalf of sexual orientation and gender identity equality have played in the LGBT movement's pursuit of political, legal, and social objectives from the Stonewall era until today." |
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"Ann Travers shows that from very early ages, some as young as two and three years old, trans kids find themselves to be different from the sex category that was assigned to them at birth…Keeping in mind that all trans kids are among the most vulnerable to bullying, violent attacks, self-harm and suicide, and that those who struggle with poverty, racism, lack of parental support, learning differences, etc., are extremely at risk, Travers offers ways to support all trans kids through policy recommendations and activist interventions. Ultimately, the book is meant to open up options for kids' own gender self-determination, to question the need for the sex binary, and to highlight ways that cultural and material resources can be redistributed more equitably." |
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Indestructible: growing up queer, Cuban, and punk in Miami | Cristy C. Road |
"Describes the life of a queer, Cuban high school student in Florida the 1990s, discovering punk rock, her sexuality, and her identity and fighting against sexual assault in her community." |
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Offers a unique comparative assessment of left-leaning Latin American governments by examining their engagement with feminist, women's and LGBT movements and issues. Focusing on the "Pink Tide" in eight national cases - Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and Venezuela - the contributors evaluate how the Left addressed gender- and sexuality-based rights through the state. Most of these governments improved the basic conditions of poor women and their families. |
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"Drawing on examples of teaching from elementary school classrooms, this timely book for practitioners explains why LGBTQ-inclusive literacy instruction is possible, relevant, and necessary in grades K-5. The authors show how expanding the English language arts curriculum to include representations of LGBTQ people and themes will benefit all students, allowing them to participate in a truly inclusive classroom. The text describes three different approaches that address the limitations, pressures, and possibilities that teachers in various contexts face around these topics." |
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A tiny piece of something greater | Jude Sierra
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"Reid Watsford has a lot of secrets and a past he can't quite escape. While staying at his grandmother's condo in Key Largo, he signs up for introductory dive classes, where he meets Joaquim Oliveira, a Brazilian dive instructor with wanderlust. Driven by an instant, magnetic pull, what could have been just a hookup quickly deepens. As their relationship evolves, they must learn to navigate the challenges of Reid's mental illness--on their own and with each other." |
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After killing her attacker, seventeen-year-old Seelie must prove in court and in the hallways of her high school that she acted in self-defense. |
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Being transgender | Robert Rodi and Laura Ross
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What are your options when you feel like your physical sex is out of sync with who you are? Rodi provides an in-depth look at what it means to be transgender. He shares experiences of people who have taken steps to transition from the sex they were assigned at birth, as well as those who have made the choice to live openly as their authentic gender while still in high school. |
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No ashes in the fire: coming of age black & free in America | Darnell L. Moore
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"When Darnell Moore was fourteen, three boys from his neighborhood tried to set him on fire. They cornered him while he was walking home from school, harassed him because they thought he was gay, and poured a jug of gasoline on him. He escaped, but just barely. It wasn't the last time he would face death. Three decades later, Moore is an award-winning writer, a leading Black Lives Matter activist, and an advocate for justice and liberation. In No Ashes in the Fire, he shares the journey taken by that scared, bullied teenager who not only survived, but found his calling. Moore's transcendence over the myriad forces of repression that faced him is a testament to the grace and care of the people who loved him, and to his hometown, Camden, NJ, scarred and ignored but brimming with life. Moore reminds us that liberation is possible if we commit ourselves to fighting for it, and if we dream and create futures where those who survive on society's edges can thrive. No Ashes in the Fire is a story of beauty and hope--and an honest reckoning with family, with place, and with what it means to be free."
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Transgender history: the roots of today's revolution | Susan Stryker
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A timely second edition of the classic text on transgender history, with a new introduction and updated material throughout Covering American transgender history from the mid-twentieth century to today.” |
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Am I safe here?: LGBTQ teens and bullying in schools | Donn Short
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"Am I safe here?" Every day, LGBTQ students ask this question within the school system. This book shines a light on the marginalization and bullying faced by LGBTQ youth, offering a new conceptualization of school safety. Donn Short treats students as the experts on what happens in their schools, giving them a chance to speak for themselves. They identify what it would take to make a school truly safe--insightfully explaining that safety doesn't come merely from security cameras, ID tags, and dress codes, but from a culture that values equity and social justice.” |
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"Immigrant. Socialite. Magician. Jordan Baker grows up in the most rarefied circles of 1920s American society-she has money, education, a killer golf handicap, and invitations to some of the most exclusive parties of the Jazz Age. She's also queer and Asian, a Vietnamese adoptee treated as an exotic attraction by her peers, while the most important doors remain closed to her. But the world is full of wonders: infernal pacts and dazzling illusions, lost ghosts and elemental mysteries. In all paper is fire, and Jordan can burn the cut paper heart out of a man. She just has to learn how. Nghi Vo's debut novel The Chosen and the Beautiful reinvents this classic of the American canon as a coming-of-age story full of magic, mystery, and glittering excess, and introduces a major new literary voice." |
| TITLE | SUMMARY |
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“Everyone deserves a great love story, but for 17-years-old Simon Spier, it’s a little more complicated. He hasn’t told his family or friends that he’s gay, and he doesn’t know the identity of the anonymous classmate that he’s fallen for online. Resolving both issues proves hilarious, terrifying, and life-changing.” |
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“A look at three defining chapters in the life of Chiron, a young black man growing up in Miami. His epic journey to manhood is guided by the kindness, support and love of the community that helps raise him.” |
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A true story of a spectacularly charismatic con man's journey from small-town businessman to flamboyant white-collar criminal, who repeatedly finds himself in trouble with the law and on the lam, all in the name of love. Based on the life of Steven Russell. |
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While preparing for her wedding, Tala meets Leyla, a shy Muslim. Although they come from different worlds, the attraction is immediate, and Tala must decide whether to stay true to her culture or to her heart. |
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The story of Erasmus and Paul, a bickering gay couple whose life is turned inside out when a ten-year-old boy shows up at their door claiming to be Erasmus's grandson. Neither Paul nor Erasmus is ready to give up their extravagant lifestyle to be parents, but maybe this little kid has a thing or two to teach them about the value of family. |
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Before night Falls |
“A richly imagined journey into the life and writing of brilliant Cuban author and exile Reinaldo Arenas. It spans the whole of Arenas’ life, from his rural childhood and his early embrace of the Revolution as a writer and homosexual is Castro’s Cuba; from his departure from Cuba in the Mariel Harbor exodus of 1980 to his exile and death in the United States.” |
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The Watermelon Woman |
Cheryl is young, Black, and lesbian, working in Philadelphia with her best friend Tamara and consumed by a film project: to make a video about her search for a Black actress from Philly who appeared in films in the 30s and was known as the Watermelon Woman. Following various leads, Cheryl discovers the Watermelon Woman's stage name and real name and surmises that the actress had a long affair with Martha Page, a White woman and one of Hollywood's few female directors. As she's discovering these things, Cheryl becomes involved with Diana, who's also White. The affair strains Cheryl's friendship with Tamara. More discoveries bring Cheryl (and us, her audience) to new realizations. |
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Carol (Adapted from “The Prince of Salt”) |
“Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara) spot the beautiful, elegant Carol (Cate Blanchett) perusing the doll displays in a 1950s Manhattan department store. The two women develop a fast bond that becomes a love with complicated consequences”. |
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Poses |
“Set in the 1980s, ‘Pose’ is a dance musical that explores the juxtaposition of several segments of life and society in New York: the ball culture world, the rise of the luxury Trump-era universe, and the downtown social and literary scene. Blanca forms a ‘house’, a self-selected family that provides support to LGBTQ youth who have been rejected by their birth families. Damon is a dancer who joins Blanca’s house. Together, they compete in the balls—where house members challenge each other in various categories and are judged on their outfits, attitude, or dance skills—against Blanca’s former house mother, Elektra. |
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Imagine Me and You |
During her wedding ceremony, Rachel notices Luce in the audience and feels instantly drawn to her. The two women become close friends, and when Rachel learns that Luce is a lesbian, she realizes that despite her happy marriage to Heck, she is falling for Luce. As she questions her sexual orientation, Rachel must decide between her stable relationship with Heck and her exhilarating new romance with Luce. |
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Tangerine |
“After hearing that her boyfriend/pimp cheated on her while she was in jail, a sex worker and her best friend set out to find and teach him, and his new lover, a lesson.” |
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Alex Strangelove |
“A high school senior makes plans to lose his virginity to his girlfriend. Things become complicates when he meets a handsome and charming gay kid from the other side of town who unknowingly sends him on a roller-coaster journey of sexual identity.” |
