Please join us in celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual (LGBTQIA+) Pride Month, June 1-30! Pride Month is celebrated every June to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising.

The Stonewall Uprising began on June 28, 1969, and lasted for six days, as LGBTQIA+ protestors pushed back against police raids targeting gay bars, notably the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in New York City. As news of the Stonewall raid circulated throughout the city, thousands of protestors congregated around the Stonewall Inn on the evening of June 28. The protests persisted the following week, with another surge of intense clashes erupting the following Wednesday.

"Many new activists consider the Stonewall Uprising the birth of the gay liberation movement. Certainly it was the birth of gay pride of a massive scale."

- The Gay Crusaders, by Kay Tobin & Randy Wicker. New York: Paperback Library, 1972.

After the Stonewall Uprising, the following timeline of events led up to this commemorative month:

  • June 28, 1970: One year after the Stonewall Uprising, the first Pride march in New York City was held.
  • 1994: A group of educational organizations in the United States declared October as LGBT History Month.
  • 1995: The General Assembly of the National Education Association passed a resolution recognizing LGBT History Month among a list of commemorative months. This month also honored National Coming Out Day on October 11 and the first “March on Washington” in 1979.

While the narrative above explores the history of Pride Month, below is a curated list of library books that explore the historical roots and other contemporary issues of the LGBTQIA+ community. For books and sources focusing on health disparities and equity, go to the Diversity and Inclusion guide linked below.

Global Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History coverGlobal Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History by Howard Chiang

ISBN: 9780684325538
Publication Date: 2019
This encyclopedia provides a global view of the history of LGBTQ, covering significant figures and events worldwide. Wide-ranging in scope, this encyclopedia complements courses in a variety of disciplines, including history, literature, psychology, sociology, and others.

 

Stonewall Strong: Gay Men's Heroic Fight for Resilience, Good Health, and a Strong Community coverStonewall Strong: Gay Men's Heroic Fight for Resilience, Good Health, and a Strong Community by John-Manuel Andriote

ISBN: 9781442258235
Publication Date: 2017
Andriote deftly weaves together research data and lived experience to show that supporting gay men's resilience is the key to helping them avoid the snares that await too many who lack the emotional tools they need to face the traumas that disproportionately afflict gay men. He frames pivotal moments in recent history as manifestations of gay men's resilience, from the years of secrecy and subversion before the 1969 Stonewall riots, through the coming of age, heartbreak and politically emboldening AIDS years, and pushing onward to legal marriage equality.

 

Queer Data: Using Gender, Sex and Sexuality Data for Action coverQueer Data: Using Gender, Sex and Sexuality Data for Action by Kevin Guyan

ISBN: 9781350230729
Publication Date: 2022
This book is the first to look at queer data - defined as data relating to gender, sex, sexual orientation, and trans identity/history. The author shows us how current data practices reflect an incomplete account of LGBTQ lives and helps us understand how data biases are used to delegitimize the everyday experiences of queer people.

 

LGBT Milwaukee coverLGBT Milwaukee by Michail Takach

ISBN: 9781467117289
Publication Date: 2016
For a Rust Belt city with German Protestant roots, Milwaukee was an unlikely place for gay and lesbian culture to bloom before the Stonewall Riots. However, Milwaukee eventually had as many known LGBTQ+ gathering places as Minneapolis or Chicago, ranging from the back rooms of bars in the 1960s to the video bars of the 1980s to the openly gay bars and Pride Festivals of today. Over the past 75 years, LGBTQ+ people have experienced tremendous social change in America. Milwaukee is a shining example of how a city of traditional values embraced its brothers and sisters to make the city a safe place for them to live.
 

Fleeing Homophobia: Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Asylum coverFleeing Homophobia: Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Asylum by Thomas Spijkerboer (Editor)

ISBN: 9780415628174
Publication Date: 2013
This book considers the position of LGBTI asylum seekers in European asylum law. It identifies and analyzes the main legal issues arising about LGBTI people seeking asylum, including the underestimation of the relevance of criminalization of sexual orientation as well as the large-scale violence against trans people in countries of origin by some European states; the requirement to seek State protection against violence even when they originate from countries where sexual orientation or gender identity is criminalized, or where the authorities are homophobic; the particular hurdles faced during credibility assessment on account of persisting stereotypes; and queer families and refugee law.
 

Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity coverBlack on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton

ISBN: 9781517901738
Publication Date: 2017
Christine Jorgensen was America's first prominent transgender person in the postwar era. Her celebrity, however, has obscured other mid-century trans narratives--ones lived by African Americans such as Lucy Hicks Anderson and James McHarris. Their erasure from trans history masks the profound ways race has figured prominently in the construction and representation of transgender subjects. 

 

Representing the Rainbow in Young Adult Literature coverRepresenting the Rainbow in Young Adult Literature: LGBTQ+ Content Since 1969 by Christine A. Jenkins; Michael Cart

ISBN: 9781442278066
Publication Date: 2018
Discussions of gender and sexuality have become part of mainstream conversations. They are being reflected in the work of more and more fiction writers, particularly in literature aimed at young adult audiences. But young readers, regardless of their sexual orientation, don't always know what books offer well-rounded portrayals of queer characters and situations. Fortunately, finding positive role models in fiction that features LGBTQ+ themes has become less problematic, though not without its challenges. This book provides an overview of this literary landscape.

 

Queer: A Graphic History coverQueer: A Graphic History by Meg John Barker; Jules Scheele (Illustrator)

ISBN: 9781785780714
Publication Date: 2016
Activist-academic Meg-John Barker and cartoonist Jules Scheele illuminate the histories of queer thought and LGBTQ+ action in this non-fiction graphic novel. From identity politics and gender roles to privilege and exclusion, this book explores how we came to view sex, gender and sexuality in the ways that we do, how these ideas get tangled up with our culture, and our understanding of biology, psychology, and sexology and how these views have been disputed and challenged.

 

Sexuality, Subjectivity, and LGBTQ Militancy in the United States coverSexuality, Subjectivity, and LGBTQ Militancy in the United States by Guillaume Marche

ISBN: 9789048528646
Publication Date: 2019
As LGBTQ movements in Western Europe, North America and other regions of the world are becoming increasingly successful at awarding LGBTQ people rights, what becomes of the deeper social transformation that these movements initially aimed to achieve? The United States is a paradigmatic model for LGBTQ movements in other countries. This book focuses on the transformations of the U.S. LGBTQ movement since the 1980s, highlighting the relationship between its institutionalization and the disappearance of sexuality from its most visible claims so that its growing visibility and legitimation since the 1990s have paradoxically led to a decrease in grassroots militancy.