6 LGBT Books to Celebrate Pride Month
June is LGBT Pride Month. Celebrations and equal rights marches are occurring all over the country in greater numbers than ever—and with greater success. There are many ways to honor the LGBT jubilee: picnics, parades, workshops, concerts, memorials, and more. Or, because we need diverse books, you could read. Here are six uniquely stellar nonfiction books about gender and sexual identity—some entertaining, some touching, all informative.
My Body Is Yours by Michael V. Smith (Arsenal Pulp Press)
To read Michael V. Smith’s My Body Is Yours is to accompany him on an intimate journey in which he struggles to create his own definition of manhood. Raised in a blue-collar, small-town environment, Smith suffers anxiety about his effeminate body and homosexuality and struggles to find himself within the limited definitions of what it means to be a man. Later, that search manifests itself in compulsive sexual encounters in which he routinely puts himself at risk, swapping one addiction for another, until finally rejecting those behaviors in self-defense, self-preservation, and ultimately, self-creation.
Living Large: Wilna Hervey and Nan Mason by Joseph P. Eckhardt (Woodstock Arts)
Everything about them was large: their size, their bold personalities, their zest for living life, and their love for each other. In Living Large, Joseph P. Eckhardt follows the journey of Wilna Hervey, a silent-screen actress, and her partner, Nan Mason, as they travel the country and settle down together in the artist’s enclave of Woodstock, New York. In an endearing portrayal, he shows how the two women made the world around them a brighter place.
The Invisible Orientation provides an introduction to the lesser-known orientation of asexuality. It sheds light on the struggles and experiences of the approximate 1 percent of the population who lack sexual attraction or sexual inclination toward others, providing information, resources, and tips for both asexual people and those who want to understand them.
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin (Candlewick Press)
Susan Kuklin’s book of photo essays, Beyond Magenta, explains how gender, sexual orientation, and identity itself are complex and multilayered. Six non-binary or transgender young adults explain their lives via photos and interviews, highlighting people who do not fit into traditional societal norms. The intimate personal stories and photos of transgender teenagers invite discussion of the gender continuum.
In a New Century: Essays on Queer History, Politics, and Community Life, by John D’Emilio, covers the history of the LGBT community from closeted and persecuted to visible and legally empowered. The rise of the civil rights and women’s liberation movements are also chronicled in this academically challenging yet easy-to-read book. Entertaining stories from D’Emilio’s decades of teaching college students, moving stories about being gay during the AIDS epidemic, and heartwarming stories about when it became okay for men to dance with men and women with women all add priceless value.
Upon entering the Buddhist path, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, a lesbian and black woman, came face-to-face with her own heartache at having been discriminated against throughout most of her life. Based on her own journey of healing, Manuel’s The Way of Tenderness illuminates Buddhist practice as “a path so expansive that it includes not only our own suffering, but also that of others.” To heal the wounds of those who have been subject to a “systematic withholding of love” on account of their differences, the path must be one of welcome, warmth, and compassion.
Aimee Jodoin is deputy editor at Foreword Reviews. You can follow her on Twitter @aimeebeajo.
Aimee Jodoin
