Happy LGBTQ+ Pride Month! Celebrated in the month of June, Pride Month honors the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, a six-day stretch of protests in which LGBTQ+ activists fought back against a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in New York City. It was a major protest against anti-LGBTQ+ laws and discrimination and a catalyst for the Pride celebrations known today. 

The following list of resources can help you celebrate Pride Month by learning about the history of LGBTQ+ communities in the United States, reading about the lives of LGBTQ+ persons, and experiencing the works of LGBTQ+ authors and creators. Many of the titles and authors included on this list have received awards or other honors, but this list is by no means comprehensive. 

Adult Fiction 

• Bellies by Nicola Dinan: Two queer men who meet at university and begin a life together face a momentous challenge when one of them announces an intention to transition. 

• Blackouts by Justin Torres: An unnamed narrator and his elderly and dying friend weave together forgotten queer histories in Torres’ second novel. 

• Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis: In the midst of the Uruguayan dictatorship, five wildly different women find each other as lovers, friends, and ultimately family. 

• Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters: The lives of three women collide after an unexpected pregnancy forces them to confront their deepest desires. 

• The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai: In 1985, Yale Tishman’s career as the director of a Chicago art gallery starts to flourish while the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. 

• I’m So (Not) Over You by Kosoko Jackson: Kian Andrews is shocked when his ex-boyfriend Hudson Rivers contacts him months after their breakup, asking him to pretend they’re still dating during an upcoming visit from his parents.  

• Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki: To escape eternal damnation, Shizuka Satomi is tasked by the devil with persuading seven violin prodigies to surrender their souls for success. 

• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides: In this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Calliope’s sense of identity is shaken by the discovery that she is intersex. 

• Old Enough by Haley Jakobson: When her best friend from childhood gets engaged, college sophomore Savannah Henry is pulled back into a history she had just barely begun to heal from while falling in love with Wes, a sweet, nonbinary classmate. 

• Rainbow Rainbow: Stories by Lydia Conklin: This collection of humorous and heartrending stories follows queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming characters as they seek love and connection. 

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid: Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. 

• Siren Queen by Nghi Vo: This tale of movie magic follows Luli, a Chinese American girl who is determined to realize her dreams of movie stardom, no matter how much she must lie, cheat, or steal. 

• Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon: Vern lives in the woods, isolated from society and determined to raise her twins far from its influence, but now her body is undergoing strange transformations. 

• We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian: In New York City in the late 1950s, a hostile time for gay men, reporter Nick Russo finds himself smitten with Andy Fleming, the son of the newspaper’s owner. 

Adult Nonfiction 

• Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar by Cynthia Carr: From an acclaimed biographer comes the first full portrait of the queer icon and Warhol superstar Candy Darling. 

• Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi: This memoir, written by an award-winning nonbinary author, reveals the harrowing yet inspiring truths of their personal, spiritual, and artistic journey. 

• Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel: This darkly funny graphic novel memoir tells the story of Alison Bechdel's family, including her coming out of the closet. 

• Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City by Elyssa Maxx Goodman: This history of drag in New York City reveals the untold stories of its emergence in Harlem Renaissance balls, its crucial role in the Stonewall Uprising and its unifying power during the AIDS crisis and 9/11. 

• He/She/They: How We Talk About Gender and Why It Matters by Schuyler Bailar: Activist and educator Bailar, the first openly transgender athlete to compete in an NCAA Division I sport, offers a vulnerable, incisive discussion of gender and sexuality. 

• Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H.: A queer Muslim immigrant recalls her coming of age and how she drew inspiration from the stories in the Quran throughout her lifetime search for safety and belonging. 

• How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones: The memoir of a young, Black, gay man from the South who fights to carve out a place for himself within his family and his country. 

• Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 by Sarah Schulman: This is the history of the ACT UP coalition in New York that took on the AIDS crisis. 

• Love and Resistance: Out of the Closet Into the Stonewall Era by Kay Tobin: This powerful photographic collection captures the energy, humor, and humanity of the groundbreaking protests that surrounded the Stonewall Riots. 

• Ma and Me: A Memoir by Putsata Reang: The memoir of a woman caught between her identity as a gay woman and the love and life debt she owes her mother. 

• Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal, & Sovereignty in Native America by Gregory D. Smithers: A sweeping history of Indigenous traditions of gender and sexuality that decolonizes North America's past and reveals how Two-Spirit people are reclaiming their place in Native nations. 

• The Stonewall Reader edited by the New York Public Library: This anthology records the tumultuous fight for LGBTQ+ rights in the 1960s and the activists who spearheaded the movement. 

Young Adult Fiction 

• Camp by L.C. Rosen: At a summer camp for queer teens, sixteen-year-old Randall “Del” Kapplehoff schemes to convince Hudson Aaronson-Lim to fall in love with him. 

• Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender: Felix Love, a transgender teenager, attempts to get revenge by catfishing his anonymous bully, but lands in a quasi-love triangle with his former enemy and his best friend. 

• Flamer by Mike Curato: This graphic novel follows Aiden through a week of summer camp in 1995 as he wrestles with the growing realization that he’s gay. 

• If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo: Amanda Hardy wants to fit in at her new school, but she is conflicted about revealing her transgender identity to her new crush. 

• I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuinston: After valedictorian rivals Chloe and Shara kiss, Shara vanishes, leaving Chloe and two boys, who are also enamored with Shara, to follow the trail of clues she left behind.  

• Lakelore by Anna-Marie McLemore: Two nonbinary teens are pulled into a magical world under a lake and struggle to keep their real lives intact. 

• Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo: America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown, where Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone. 

• Loveless by Alice Oseman: Eighteen-year-old Georgia comes to understand her aromantic/asexual identity as she starts college. 

• You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson: High school senior Liz Lighty plans to attend a prestigious medical school, but the unexpected loss of her financial aid forces her to compete for her school’s prom-queen scholarship. 

Movies 

• Call Me by Your Name: Set in 1983 in northern Italy, this film chronicles the romantic relationship between Elio and Oliver and is based on the novel of the same name. 

• The Danish Girl: This love story was inspired by the lives of artists Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener as they navigate Lili's groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer. 

• Milk: This film is based on the true story of Harvey Milk, a middle-aged New Yorker who, after moving to San Francisco, became a gay rights activist and city politician. 

• The Miseducation of Cameron Post: Based on the novel of the same name, this film follows Cameron, a teenage girl who is sent to a conversion therapy center in the 1990s. 

• Moonlight: A young Black man struggles to find his place in the world while growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami. 

• Portrait of a Lady on Fire: This French language film set in 1760 follows Marianne, who is commissioned to paint the wedding portrait of Héloïse, a young woman who has just left the convent.