Books on lgbtq acceptance
Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome Emilie Nantel to reveal the cover of her upcoming speculative bi f/f YA, Load Game, releasing September 18, 2025! Here’s the story:
Vera Young can time travel through her selfies.
For a disaster bi with a huge admiration on her bestie Soph and an affinity for trouble, that new authority is a be unfaithful code for animation. Consequences are a thing of the past.
Punched the sleazy quarterback and got suspended? Save game. Load game. Procure out scot-free.
Want the satisfaction of getting revenge on the mean girls bullying you, but still want to be a good person? Humiliate them in front of everyone, rewind, and enjoy! It doesn’t enumerate if it didn’t happen!
Whatever life throws at her, Vera’s got this.
But some things you can’t control, not even with all the time travel in the world: Riverview High’s rumor mill; a death that’s a fixed aim in time; and the crumbling principles of the space-time continuum, to label a few.
Turns out, there’s a lot of consequences to a no-consequences life.
For teen readers at an age of firsts of all kinds, where mistakes, what-ifs, grief and guilt are so challenging to cope with. Load Game deals with the hardship
10 essential non-fiction books to learn about LGBTQ history and culture
In the existence TV show RuPaul’s Queenly Race, the act of deftly insulting your competitors is called "reading". And reading, as the catchphrase goes, is fundamental.
But reading is vital to the LGBTQ experience – and not just on reality television. Queer people have always told their stories as a way to render themselves visible; in doing so, they give desire to others that they may one day be safe to tell theirs.
These 10 non-fiction titles are a great way to begin to know LGBTQ people’s experiences. The library, as RuPaul also says, is open.
An inclusive account of the clash for queer freedom and equality, We Are Everywhere is a beautifully designed photographic journey from queer activism’s roots in late 19th Century Europe, through the Stonewall riots and up to present day politics.
From the curators of popular Instagram account @lgbt_history, which champions unheard voices in gender non-conforming narratives, We Are Everywhere offers an immersive history lesson control from the diverse team of people who got us here.
The Argonauts is a love story, explaining writer Maggie Nels
Books for kids and adults to develop a better ally of the LGBTQ community
Celebrating and reading LGBTQ stories doesn't stop at the end of Self-acceptance Month.
With the broad variety of books on LGBTQ literature that exist today, whether they're written by an storyteller of the LGBTQ community or simply have LGBTQ characters, these books are helping others understand about the society, the history of the gay rights movement and, importantly, how to be an ally.
"There's no better way to learn empathy and be an ally," said Alvin Orloff, manager of Mutt Eared Books in San Francisco's historic Castro District. "[Reading is] an enjoyable way to be an ally and to put yourself in someone else's shoes."
"GMA" spoke with Orloff and Lenix Pecikonis of Lavender Library in Sacramento, California, a volunteer-run lending library archive and community territory, who shared a list of books to help adults and children change into LGBTQ allies.
"Kids often ask really poignant questions that as adults and as parents, we might not always be completely ready to answer," added Pecikonis. "Books often provide us a way to share and provide information i
Coming out as bi in my mid- and after time 20s, I felt behind. My first same-sex admiration, on Zoe Saldana as Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy, completely blindsided me, as did the queer crushes that followed. After insisting for years that I was vertical, I had no playbook for coming out to my friends and family—or to my long-term boyfriend/girlfriend. It was shameful to be as old as I was and still discovering (big) things about myself. I should’ve famous sooner. I was foolish. I was completely alone.
That tirade played in my head for years. Luckily, I’ve since learned that none of it is true. Therapy helped. So did queer content, in the form of TV shows, movies and, of course, books.
Part of my shame stemmed from the fact that I hadn’t engaged with any gay content before that first crush. I’d called myself an ally for years, and had done my best to support my queer friends, but as an overworked grad scholar dealing with a sexuality crisis, I didn’t perceive where to start on my own self-acceptance journey. For the first two years, admitting I was bi was hard enough; committing to queer TV or books felt too visible and real. I needed to work through my internalized biphobia first.
Because of
4 Must-Read Books On Queer Experiences
[Have a book to add to this list? Let us know through the end of June.]
On the Bookshelf: Biography of X by Catherine Lacey [Macmillan]
Recommended By: Melanie Elyse Brewster, Professor of Counseling Psychology
Why: A literary darling among critics and readers alike, Biography of X “is a parafictional novel about a version of the U.S. that reacts differently to queer women than our current country,” explains Brewster, whose latest research includes insight on workplace experiences for gender diverse people. “It’s akin to Handmaid's Tale, but 100% better.”
On the Bookshelf: One Teacher in Ten in the New Millennium by Kevin Jennings (M.A. ’94) [Penguin Random House]
Recommended By: Thomas Rock, Associate Vice President & Chief Scholar Affairs Officer Division of Student Affairs
Why: A critical voice at the intersection of education and Diverse rights, Jennings has made “transformational” contributions to the field — such as establishing the first gay-straight alliance in his prior years as a mentor and later the Gay-Lesbia