Books from LGBTQ writers that I have learned from and been inspired by

Growing up in a culture of homophobia and transphobia has meant that I have been in the process of unlearning the dominant social norms about people in the LGBTQ community. 

There have been some pivotal and more visceral moments since I first began to challenge myself to resist heteronormative bullshit. I remember attending the public hearings in the early 1990s, when The Network was fighting to get sexual orientation as part of the City’s anti-discrimination ordinance. I remember feeling a deep contrast being those in the LGBTQ community – many of whom shared stories about being discriminated against – to those who practiced heteronormativity, and how ignorant and hateful they were. 

A second pivotal moment was attending my cousin’s Tiffany’s funeral. Tiffany was part of the LGBTQ community, even though she not out to many in the family. She was a softball coach and played softball for years, until she died suddenly from causes that were never determined. At her funeral, several dozen of her fellow softball players and closest friends spoke beautifully about what kind of person Tiffany was to them and how she touched all of their lives. Some family members were clearly uncomfortable and even angry at the display of affection and intimacy that these women shared towards Tiffany. I was so grateful to Tiffany’s friends for their moving tribute, but was also angry with some in my family who were either in denial about who Tiffany was or visibly disgusted by who she was.

Lastly, in 2011, the GVSU LGBT Resource Center had invited those of us who were involved in the Grand Rapids People’s History Project, to produce a documentary on the history of the LGBTQ community in Grand Rapids. I spent months reading about LGBTQ history, going through stacks of archived documents, newspapers and video tapes. We did interviews with nearly 80 people and heard powerful stories, then used those stories and the archival material to create a feature length documentary, A People’s History of the LGBTQ Community in Grand Rapids. 

I continue to want to learn, listen and read books from LGBTQ writers, particularly from those who identify as queer, since that usual means they embrace an anti-racist, anti-Colonialist and anti-Capitalist framework. The list of books that are included here are books that are certainly more queer-centered and resist any sort of reformist or assimilationist strategy. Not only do I resonate with what these writer have to say, I am deeply challenged by what they have to say and I encourage you to be challenged as well. 

• Transgender History, by Susan Stryker
• Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman
• Why are Faggots so Afraid of Faggots? Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform, edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
• Homocons: The Rise of the Gay Right, by Richard Goldstein
• Smash the Church, Smash the State: The Early Years of Gay Liberation, edited by Tommi Avicolli Mecca
• That’s Revolting: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation, edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
• Queer America: A People’s GLBT History of the United States, by Vicki Eaklor
• Gay Power: An American Revolution, by David Eisenbach
• Against Equality: Queer Critiques of Gay Marriage, edited by Ryan Conrad
• Against Equality: Prisons Will Not Protect You, edited by Ryan Conrad
• Against Equality: Don’t Ask to Fight Their Wars, edited by Ryan Conrad
• Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law, by Dean Spade
• Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex, edited by Eric A Stanley and Nat Smith
• Queering Anarchism: Addressing and Undressing Power and Desire, edited by C.B. Daring, J Rogue, Deric Shannon and Abbey Volcano
• A Queer History of the United States, by Michael Bronski
• Surviving the Future: Abolitionist Queer Strategies, edited by Scott Branson, Raven Hudson and Bry Reed
• Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary, Toshio Meronek and Miss Major