6 books in different genres to read for Pride Month

Not only is Pride Month a great opportunity to read more LGBTQ literature, but it’s also a cool chance to read works by queer writers in genres that may be outside of your comfort zone! Looking for a place to start with memoir, plays, or graphic novels? Look no further! Here’s my list of 6 classic queer books to read in 6 different genres:

1. The Color Purple by Alice Walker [Fiction]

You may know this classic from the 1985 Steven Spielburg film adaptation, but make no mistake, the novel is way more queer! Written by bisexual, black, feminist activist Alice Walker, The Color Purple is a feminist text that emphasizes strong relationships between women, written as a series of letters from the main character, Celie, to her sister. However, in addition to women finding solidarity with each other in opposition to patriarchal oppression, The Color Purple also features a romantic and sexual relationship between Celie and a bisexual, “free” woman, Shug Avery.

Pick up this classic for Pride Month to celebrate black, feminist, queer women!

2. Tranny by Laura Jane Grace [Memoir]

Known as the fierce frontwoman of punk band Against Me!, Laura Jane Grace wrote this memoir about her experience transitioning in the middle of her band's successful career. Tranny relies heavily on journal entries she wrote over the years that expose exactly what I love about Against Me!'s lyrics too: transparency, passion, and their struggle to balance anti-corporate punk values with the need to share their work with a broader audience. If you’re into the queer punk scene, or just want to hear the story of an inspiring trans woman, check it out!

3. Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes by Tony Kushner [Play]

Tony Kushner wrote this classic play in two parts, Part 1: Millennium Approaches and Part 2: Perestroika, about an eclectic range of characters set in NYC in 1985 during the AIDS epidemic. The play rotates between Prior, a gay man diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, his boyfriend Louis, and friend Belize, whose stories interconnect with Joe, a closeted homosexual, his valium-addicted wife Harper, and Mormon mother Hannah, as well as Roy Cohn (yes, a fictionalized version of the real Roy Cohn, McCarthyist attorney and Trump’s mentor) and the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg. This play is a great way to remember & honor queer history and the AIDS epidemic, and remember why queerness is inherently political.

4. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel [Graphic Novel]

Balancing tragedy/comedy and text/comics, Alison Bechdel chronicles her relationship with her closeted father and his death/suicide throughout her childhood and coming-of-age in rural Pennsylvania. No matter who you are, this graphic novel will contain something that you can relate to as Bechdel explores themes of family, gender, sexuality, mental health, literature, and place. Not to mention the brilliantly and meticulously crafted illustrations.

5. Sappho [Poetry]

Obviously, Sappho’s poetry is so influential that the term “lesbian” came from her origins at the Island of Lesbos, but her fragments really do stand the test of time:

“love shook my senses

like wind crashing on mountain oaks”

Just make sure to get a copy of her work translated by woman classist, Anne Carson.

6. Gender Trouble by Judith Butler [Theory]

I know, I know, Judith Butler is regarded as one of the most challenging, or “worst,” academic writers of her time. But seriously, Gender Trouble will continuously confront, surprise, and engage you about how gender operates at a societal level. I took an entire semester to slowly read through Gender Trouble, and it definitely didn’t provide me with all the answers to my questions about gender/sexuality. But as an essential text for the foundation of third-wave feminist and queer theory, Gender Trouble really is worth the laborious read!

Of course, I’m missing many central LGBTQ pieces of literature! What do you recommend reading for Pride Month and beyond?