PRIDE
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Books
What is not Yours is not Yours
“The key to a house, the key to a heart, the key to a secret—Oyeyemi’s keys not only unlock elements of her characters’ lives, they promise further labyrinths on the other side. In “Books and Roses” one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers’ fates. In “Is Your Blood as Red as This?” an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school. “‘Sorry’ Doesn’t Sweeten Her Tea” involves a “house of locks,” where doors can be closed only with a key—with surprising, unobservable developments. And in “If a Book Is Locked There’s Probably a Good Reason for That Don’t You Think,” a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason).”
– goodreads.com
Sissy: A Coming of Gender Story
“Naturally sensitive, playful, creative, and glitter-obsessed, as a child Jacob was given the label “sissy.” In the two decades that followed, “sissy” joined forces with “gay,” “trans,” “nonbinary,” and “too-queer-to-function” to become a source of pride and, today, a rallying cry for a much-needed gender revolution. Through revisiting their childhood and calling out the stereotypes that each of us have faced, Jacob invites us to rethink what we know about gender and offers a bold blueprint for a healed world–one free from gender-based trauma and bursting with trans-inclusive feminism.”
– goodreads.com
Here For It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America
“In essays by turns hysterical and heartfelt, Eric redefines what it means to be an “other” through the lens of his own life experience. He explores the two worlds of his childhood: the barren urban landscape where his parents’ house was an anomalous bright spot, and the verdant school they sent him to in white suburbia. He writes about struggling to reconcile his Christian identity with his sexuality, about the exhaustion of code-switching in college, accidentally getting famous on the internet (for the wrong reason), and the surreal experience of covering the 2016 election as well as the seismic change that came thereafter. Ultimately, Eric seeks the answer to the ever more relevant question: Is the future worth it? Why do we bother when everything seems to be getting worse? As the world continues to shift in unpredictable ways, Eric finds the answers to these questions by re-envisioning what “normal” means, and in the powerful alchemy that occurs when you at last place yourself at the center of your own story.”
– goodreads.com
Tomorrow Will Be Different
“With emotional depth and unparalleled honesty, Sarah shares her personal struggle with gender identity, coming out to her supportive but distraught parents, and finding her way as a woman. She inspires readers with her barrier-breaking political journey that took her, in just four years, from a frightened, closeted college student to one of the nation’s most prominent transgender activists walking the halls of the White House, passing laws, and addressing the country in the midst of a heated presidential election. She also details the heartbreaking romance with her first love and future husband Andy, a trans man and activist, who passed away from cancer in 2014 just days after they were married.”
– goodreads.com
Radical Hope: Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times
“Radical Hope: Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times addresses the tumult and danger of these times, from the perspective of a range of leading novelists, poets, journalists, and political thinkers. These epistolary essays, or essays in letter form, are woven into a passionate narrative, and divided into three sections: “Roots” explores the histories that bring us to this moment, with many letters addressed to ancestors; “Branches” addresses present-day people or communities—a stranger in the supermarket, Baby Boomers, Millennials, white people, artists, the protestors at Standing Rock—and delves into complex questions of our current era; and, finally, “Seeds” looks to the future by speaking to new generations, to sons and daughters, to godchildren, or to imagined children yet to be born, all of them inheritors of what happens now.”
– Carolinaderobertis.com
All Boys Aren't Blue
“In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys. Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren’t Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. Johnson’s emotionally frank style of writing will appeal directly to young adults.”
– goodreads.com
Transgender History: The Roots of Today's Revolution
“Covering American transgender history from the mid-twentieth century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events. Chapters cover the transsexual and transvestite communities in the years following World War II; trans radicalism and social change, which spanned from 1966 with the publication of The Transsexual Phenomenon, and lasted through the early 1970s; the mid-’70s to 1990-the era of identity politics and the changes witnessed in trans circles through these years; and the gender issues witnessed through the ’90s and ’00s.”
– goodreads.com
This Bridge Called My Back, Fourth Edition: Writings by Radical Women of Color
“This groundbreaking collection reflects an uncompromised definition of feminism by women of color. Through personal essays, criticism, interviews, testimonials, poetry, and visual art, the collection explores, as coeditor Cherríe Moraga writes, “the complex confluence of identities—race, class, gender, and sexuality—systemic to women of color oppression and liberation.”
– goodreads.com
Pleasure Activism
“Drawing on the black feminist tradition, including Audre Lourde’s invitation to use the erotic as power and Toni Cade Bambara’s exhortation that we make the revolution irresistible, the contributors to this volume take up the challenge to rethink the ground rules of activism. Writers including Cara Page of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation For Justice, Sonya Renee Taylor, founder of This Body Is Not an Apology, and author Alexis Pauline Gumbs cover a wide array of subjects— from sex work to climate change, from race and gender to sex and drugs—creating new narratives about how politics can feel good and how what feels good always has a complex politics of its own.”
– goodreads.com
We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics
“A collection of formally inventive writing by trans poets against capital and empire.
Editors Andrea Abi-Karam and Kay Gabriel offer We Want it All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics as an experiment into how far literature, written from an identitarian standpoint, can go as a fellow traveler with social movements and revolutionary demands. Writing in dialogue with emancipatory political movements, the intergenerational writers assembled here imagine an altogether overturned world in poems that pursue the particular and multiple trans relationships to desire, embodiment, housing, sex, ecology, history, pop culture, and the working day.”
– goodreads.com
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one’s own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.”
– goodreads.com
Stone Butch Blues
“Woman or man? This internationally acclaimed novel looks at the world through the eyes of Jess Goldberg, a masculine girl growing up in the “Ozzie and Harriet” McCarthy era and coming out as a young butch lesbian in the pre-Stonewall gay drag bars of a blue-collar town. Stone Butch Blues traces a propulsive journey, powerfully evoking history and politics while portraying an extraordinary protagonist full of longing, vulnerability, and working-class grit. This once-underground classic takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride of gender transformation and exploration and ultimately speaks to the heart of anyone who has ever suffered or gloried in being different.”
– goodreads.com
Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men
“Literary Nonfiction. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. Winner of a Lambda Literary Award. BROTHER TO BROTHER, begun by Joseph Beam and completed by Essex Hemphill after Beam’s death in 1988, is a collection of now-classic literary work by black gay male writers. Originally published in 1991 and out of print for several years, BROTHER TO BROTHER is a community of voices, Hemphill writes. [It] tells a story that laughs and cries and sings and celebrates…it’s a conversation intimate friends share for hours. These are truly words mined syllable by syllable from the harts of black gay men. You’re invited to listen in because you’re family, and these aren’t secrets-not to us, so why should they be secrets to you? Just listen. Your brother is speaking. This new edition includes an introduction by Jafari Allen.”
– goodreads.com
Crazy Brave
“In this transcendent memoir, grounded in tribal myth and ancestry, music and poetry, Joy Harjo, one of our leading Native American voices, details her journey to becoming a poet. Born in Oklahoma, the end place of the Trail of Tears, Harjo grew up learning to dodge an abusive stepfather by finding shelter in her imagination, a deep spiritual life, and connection with the natural world. She attended an Indian arts boarding school, where she nourished an appreciation for painting, music, and poetry; gave birth while still a teenager; and struggled on her own as a single mother, eventually finding her poetic voice. Narrating the complexities of betrayal and love, Crazy Brave is a memoir about family and the breaking apart necessary in finding a voice. Harjo’s tale of a hardscrabble youth, young adulthood, and transformation into an award-winning poet and musician is haunting, unique, and visionary.”
– goodreads.com
The Stonewall Reader
“June 28, 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, which is considered the most significant event in the gay liberation movement, and the catalyst for the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the United States. Drawing from the New York Public Library’s archives, The Stonewall Reader is a collection of first accounts, diaries, periodic literature, and articles from LGBTQ magazines and newspapers that documented both the years leading up to and the years following the riots. Most importantly the anthology spotlights both iconic activists who were pivotal in the movement, such as Sylvia Rivera, co-founder of Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR), as well as forgotten figures like Ernestine Eckstein, one of the few out, African American, lesbian activists in the 1960s. The anthology focuses on the events of 1969, the five years before, and the five years after. Jason Baumann, the NYPL coordinator of humanities and LGBTQ collections, has edited and introduced the volume to coincide with the NYPL exhibition he has curated on the Stonewall uprising and gay liberation movement of 1969.”
– goodreads.com
The Selected Works of Audre Lorde
“Self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” Audre Lorde is an unforgettable voice in twentieth-century literature, and one of the first to center the experiences of black, queer women. This essential reader showcases her indelible contributions to intersectional feminism, queer theory, and critical race studies in twelve landmark essays and more than sixty poems—selected and introduced by one of our most powerful contemporary voices on race and gender, Roxane Gay.”
– goodreads.com
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments
“Beautifully written and deeply researched, Wayward Lives recreates the experience of young urban black women who desired an existence qualitatively different than the one that had been scripted for them—domestic service, second-class citizenship, and respectable poverty—and whose intimate revolution was apprehended as crime and pathology. For the first time, young black women are credited with shaping a cultural movement that transformed the urban landscape. Through a melding of history and literary imagination, Wayward Lives recovers their radical aspirations and insurgent desires.”
– goodreads.com
Websites
Trevor Project
“Founded in 1998 by the creators of the Academy Award®-winning short film TREVOR, The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) young people under 25.”
Transgender Education Network of Texas
“TENT is an organization dedicated to furthering gender diverse equality in Texas. We work to accomplish this through education and networking in both public and private forums. Through our efforts we strive to halt discrimination through social, legislative, and corporate education.”
Organización Latina de Trans en Texas
“Somos una organización de base comunitaria, conformada por muejers Trans para personas Trans (Transexuales, Transgénero e Intersex) y nuestrxs aliadxs, mantenemos nuestro enfoque de trabajo para la visibilidad y elegibilidad los derechos humanos y el bienestar de nuestra comunidad, mediante el empoderamiento, la organización comunitaria que permita fomentar una incidencia política en equidad e igualdad.”
Mijente
“We build power by organizing our impact around campaigns that amplify our collective voice. The voice that represents over 60 million Latinx (and growing). Building power for a campaign or an issue requires that our targets feel public pressure and see interest in our fight. Persistencia amplifies our resistencia.”
Out Boulder County
“Our mission is to educate, advocate and provide services, programs and support for Boulder County’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer communities. Through activities, support groups and events we reach over 15,000 people each year. The vision of Out Boulder County is that Boulder County serves as a model of equality, respect, and well-being for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer people.”
Audre Lorde Project
“The Audre Lorde Project is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non Conforming People of Color center for community organizing, focusing on the New York City area. Through mobilization, education and capacity-building, we work for community wellness and progressive social and economic justice. Committed to struggling across differences, we seek to responsibly reflect, represent and serve our various communities.”
Marsha P. Johnson Institute
“Marsha P. Johnson was an activist, self-identified drag queen, performer, and survivor. She was a prominent figure in the Stonewall uprising of 1969. Marsha went by “BLACK Marsha” before settling on Marsha P. Johnson. The “P” stood for “Pay It No Mind,” which is what Marsha would say in response to questions about her gender. It is the consideration of who “BLACK Marsha” was that inspired The Marsha P. Johnson Institute.”
The Knights and Orchids Society
“The Knights & Orchids Society (TKO) strives to build the power of the TLGB community for African Americans throughout rural areas in Alabama and across the south, to obtain our dream of justice and equality through group economics, education, leadership development, and organizing cultural work.”
The House of GG
“Founded and led by Trans and gender nonconforming people and our allies, we create safe and transformative spaces where members of our community can heal—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—from the trauma arising from generations of transphobia, racism, sexism, poverty, ableism and violence, and nurture them into tomorrow’s leaders. We currently primarily focus on supporting and nurturing the leadership of Transgender women of color living in the U.S. South.”
Brave Space Alliance
“Brave Space Alliance is the first Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ+ Center located on the South Side of Chicago, dedicated to creating and providing affirming, culturally competent, for-us by-us resources, programming, and services for LGBTQ+ individuals on the South and West sides of the city. We strive to empower, embolden, and educate each other through mutual aid, knowledge-sharing, and the creation of community-sourced resources as we build toward the liberation of all oppressed peoples.”
Films / Docs
PRIDE
“In 1984 20 year old closet gay Joe hesitantly arrives in London from Bromley for his first Gay Pride march and is taken under the collective wing of a group of gay men and Lesbian Steph, who meet at flamboyant Jonathan and his Welsh partner Gethin’s Soho bookshop. Not only are gays being threatened by Thatcher but the miners are on strike in response to her pit closures and Northern Irish activist Mark Ashton believes gays and miners should show solidarity. Almost by accident a mini-bus full of gays find themselves in the Welsh village of Onllwyn in the Dulais valley and through their sincere fund raising and Jonathan’s nifty disco moves persuade most of the community that they are on the same side. When a bigot tries to sabotage the partnership with a tabloid smear Mark turns it back on her with a hugely successful benefit concert to which most of the villagers, now thoroughly in tune with their gay friends, turn up. The miners are defeated and return to work but at the Pride march.”
– imdb.com
How to Survive a Plague
“David France discusses his telling of the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S., a riveting, powerful telling of the story of the grassroots movement of activists, many of them in a life-or-death struggle, who seized upon scientific research to help develop the drugs that turned HIV from a mostly fatal infection to a manageable disease. Ignored by public officials, religious leaders, and the nation at large, and confronted with shame and hatred, this small group of men and women chose to fight for their right to live by educating themselves and demanding to become full partners in the race for effective treatments. Around the globe, 16 million people are alive today thanks to their efforts. Speaker Biography: David France is author of “How to Survive a Plague” and creator of the 2012 Academy Award-nominated film of the same title.”
– youtube.com
The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson
“When Stonewall Veteran and beloved Greenwich Village personality Marsha P Johnson turned up dead shortly after Gay Pride in 1992, it was the latest in a series of murders, gay bashings, and “mysterious” deaths in the local gay community. Johnson is seen in footage at a political march shortly before this, at an action trying to draw attention to these hate crimes. Tragically, Johnson then becomes the next victim. Like the other suspicious deaths, Johnson’s death is quickly dismissed as a “suicide”, even though there is no evidence that Johnson was suicidal, and significant evidence that Johnson was harassed and stalked on that very night. Demonstrations are held to protest the lack of police investigation, but it is not until decades later that transgender crime advocate Victoria Cruz succeeds in getting some answers.”
– imdb.com
Milk
“Using flashbacks from a statement recorded late in life and archival footage for atmosphere, this film traces Harvey Milk’s career from his 40th birthday to his death. He leaves the closet and New York, opens a camera shop that becomes the salon for San Francisco’s growing gay community, and organizes gays’ purchasing power to build political alliances. He runs for office with lover Scott Smith as his campaign manager. Victory finally comes on the same day Dan White wins in the city’s conservative district. The rest of the film sketches Milk’s relationship with White and the 1978 fight against a statewide initiative to bar gays and their supporters from public school jobs.”
– imdb.com
The Fosters
“Stef Foster and Lena Adams,have a family of adopted, biological, and foster children. Mariana and Jesus are adopted 15-year-old twins and Brandon is Stef’s 16-year-old biological son from a previous marriage. Everything is going fine in the house until Callie and Jude arrive. 16-year-old Callie and her 12-year-old brother Jude have been in many different foster homes, but when they are placed with the Fosters, things begin to happen. In this series, the Fosters will deal with many different issue like break-ups, romances, and important life lessons.”
– imdb.com
I Hate New Year’s
“With a huge hit on her hands, rising music star Layne hits some serious writer’s block. She decides to head home to Nashville for New Year’s Eve, looking to find her ex and get back her songwriting mojo. As she spends New Year’s jumping between bars and parties with her best friend Cassie, looking for the one that got away, she realizes that the love of her life, and the reason she sings, has been right in front of her all along.”
– imdb.com
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.”
– imdb.com
The “L” Word
“‘The L Word’ follows the lives and loves of a group of lesbian friends living in Los Angeles. The main character, Jenny, is a recent graduate of the University of Chicago, who moves to Los Angeles to live with her boyfriend Tim and begin a professional writing career. Jenny’s life is turned upside down when she attends a party hosted by Tim’s next-door neighbors, Bette and Tina, a lesbian couple who are about to take the step into parenthood after being together for seven years. A brief encounter at the party with Marina, the owner of the local coffeehouse, suddenly has Jenny thrust into a whole new world that makes her question her own sexual orientation. Other friends of Bette and Tina include Dana, a professional tennis player who is shy but eager to meet the right woman; Alice, a magazine writer who has a brief relationship with a self-identified “lesbian” man; and Shane, a hairstylist who can’t stick to just one woman, and Kit, Bette’s half sister who struggles with alcoholism.”
– imdb.com
Pose
“Pose is a drama spotlighting the legends, icons and ferocious house mothers of New York’s underground ball culture, a movement that first gained notice in the late 1980s. Making television history, Pose features the largest cast of transgender actors in series regular roles, including Mj Rodriguez, Dominique Jackson, Indya Moore and Hailie Sahar, who co-star alongside Tony Award® winner and Golden Globe® nominee Billy Porter, Angel Bismark Curiel, Dyllón Burnside, Sandra Bernhard and Jason Rodriguez. The Golden Globe-nominated drama also features the largest recurring cast of LGBTQ actors ever for a scripted series.”
– fxnetworks.com
Love, Simon
“A young coming-of-age tale about a teenage boy, Simon Spier, goes through a different kind of Romeo and Juliet story. Simon has a love connection with a boy, Blue, by email, but the only problem is that Simon has no idea who he’s talking to. Simon must discover who that boy is–who Blue is. Along the way, he tries to find himself as well.”
– imdb.com
Love, Victor
“Love, Victor follows Victor, a new student at Creekwood High School on his own journey of self-discovery, facing challenges at home, adjusting to a new city, and struggling with his sexual orientation. When it all seems too much, he reaches out to Simon to help him navigate the ups and downs of high school.”
– imdb.com
Podcasts
Almost 30 - Episode 149
“Trans issues are cis issues: Challenging the gender binary & connecting through difference – Alok Vaid-Menon is a gender non-conforming performance artist, writer, and educator. Taken from Alok’s own writing “In a world that requires everyone to ‘pass’ within two discrete categories of ‘man’ OR ‘woman’ what would it mean for gender non-conformity to be regarded as beautiful, desirable, legitimate, and worthy?”. They are performing, speaking, and writing from their soul to connect through differences and challenge the archaic social construct that is gender.”
– soundcloud.com
Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America
“R. Eric Thomas writes a column that’s part news, part culture and part celebrity shade for Elle.com. But in his new book Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America, Thomas takes a look at his own life. He talks to Sam about his love of words, growing up as a gay black teenager and finding love in an unexpected place.”
– npr.org
Making Gay History
“Since 2016, Making Gay History* has been bringing the largely hidden history of the LGBTQ civil rights movement to life through the voices of the people who lived it. We’ll be back on July 1 for our ninth season, which focuses on the AIDS crisis through the personal lens of MGH’s founder and host, Eric Marcus. Until then, enjoy—and find inspiration in—our 90+ episodes from seasons past.”
– makinggayhistory.com
Disability After Dark
“The DisabilityAfterDark Podcast was launched in September 2016, completely independently by Andrew Gurza. It is a podcast that shines a bright light on issues about sex and disability with host, Andrew Gurza. In just over 2 years, the show has amassed over 100,000 downloads worldwide and keeps going strong.”
– andrewgurza.com