This has been a Pride like no other. Our usual celebrations were cancelled for COVID-19, and police brutality protests take us right back to where Pride began. LGBTQ people have Black trans people to thank for the LGBTQ rights movement, for Pride, and for so much that we take for granted, which is why it’s even more important for us to stand by them now. Police continue to target Black people of all genders, Black trans people continue to face so much violence, and the fight for rights is far from over. Black Lives Matter protests continue (even if they’re not getting as much news coverage), and there are many ways to support the movement. Check out the Black Lives Matter carrd for continually updated petitions to sign, places to donate, and ways to educate yourself. For white and white-passing people, I highly recommend reading Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad. It guides you through digging into your own internal racism and the work to be done, and it’s really opened my eyes to how far I have to go, and how much anti-racism education is a lifelong process.
The world of LGBTQ books and publishing has began to reckon with its own racism, with Black Lives Matter protests bringing more attention to the inequalities that Black authors have been raising the alarm about for years. Check out the Lesbrary’s recent article Let’s Talk About Racism in Lesbian Publishing for a brief overview of the most recent iteration of the conversation.
- Continuing this conversation, Black f/f author Renée Bess wrote Excuse Me While I Burn a Few Bridges, asking publishers and readers both to examine their own racism, and also names a ton of Black authors of lesbian and f/f fiction
- Sistahs on the Shelf is a fantastic resource for Black lesbian and f/f books. They’ve been on hiatus for a while, but I’m so happy to see that Sistahs on the Shelf is back!!
- In the article Reading Black Joy: F/F Romances by Black Authors, I mentioned how Katrina Jackson’s twitter thread about queer Black romances was where I got many of the titles. At LGBTQ Reads, Katrina Jackson wrote about that thread and why she started it: Finding Queer Black Love in Literature
- Leah Johnson, author of You Should See Me in a Crown, wrote the stunning essay How Queer YA Novels Taught Me to Write My Own Happy Ending about growing up Black and queer and finding possibility in queer YA
- For other resources to find more Black queer books, NBC News posted Best Black Queer Books, According to Black LGBTQ Leaders, including recommendations from the president of the Human Rights Campaign, the executive director of Equality North Carolina, a filmmaker, and the programs officer for communities of color at GLAAD
- And for finding more queer authors of colour generally, check out Electric Literature’s Poetry Collections About Being a Queer Person of Color
- Of course, Pride has also come with a tidal wave of queer book recommendation posts, and Book Riot always excels here. Check out 10 LGBTQIA+ Fantasy and Sci-Fi Adventures to Take You Far From Here and 8 LGBTQ+ Fairytales From 2020
- Anxious Nachos has been doing 30 Days of Pride, covering a ton of genres: Queer Romcoms, Historical Fiction, and The Rise of the Queer Novella
- In the comics side of, Comic Book Resources posted The Best Manga Reads for Pride, From Utena to Wandering Son
- And finally, in slightly more niche genres, check out Electric Literature’s 8 Stories by LGBTQ Women Writers From Around the World recommending lesbian literary geographies
Lesbrary link round ups are made possible by Patreon!
Support the Lesbrary for $5 a month and get queer books throughout the year!
- Pride has also brought some posts about queer history, which I love to see. Stylist’s These Fascinating LGBTQ+ Stories are a Celebration of Joy We All Need to Hear is about The Log Books, a podcast that tells stories from the handwritten log book entries of volunteers at Switchboard, a British LGBTQ+ helpline in the 70s and 80s
- Of course, maybe you want to pick up some queer history books! Check out Book Riot’s 12 Informative Queer Women’s History Reads
- And if your brain is feeling too overloaded for a history book, maybe Book Riot’s 11 Photography Books To Enjoy for Pride will be more your speed
- Speaking of Pride and history, The Boar discussed Why are LGBTQ+ Children’s Books Still Being Censored?
- Lisa Jenn Bigelow, author of Hazel’s Theory of Evolution, discussed the importance of LGBTQ representation for young kids: “While adults wait for the ‘right time’ to introduce issues of gender identity and sexual orientation in an affirming and fact-based manner, the mob never stops chanting its messages of hatred and fear.”
- And if you want to see how people are doing this work, check out the Mental Floss post This Organization Is Bringing LGBTQ+ Representation to Rural Schools One Box of Books at a Time
- Looking for queer kids’ books to read to your kids and niblings or just to read yourself?Try Book Riot’s 10 of the Best LGBTQ+ Middle Grade Books That Celebrate Pride as well as Popsugar’s 50+ Books For Tweens and Teens With LGBTQ+ Characters and Experiences
- Not enough? More are coming out all the time! Dahlia Adler and LGBTQ Reads posted LGBTQA MG 2020 Preview (July-December), 31 Brand New LGBTQ YA Books To Devour This Summer, and LGBTQAP YA 2020 Sequel Preview: July-December
- And finally, celebrating queer community, check out Book Riot’s 5 Great Queer YA Books About Friendship for Pride
- And of course, it wouldn’t be Pride on the bookternet without some good old-fashioned giant lists of LGBTQ book recommendations. Check out Reads Rainbow’s Book Recs: Twitter’s Best LGBTQ Books
- If you’re very organized and caught up on new queer releases, keep in the loop for upcoming titles with LGBTQ Reads’s June 2020 Book Deal Announcements
