Queeries for Queerios

A place where (queer) questions can be asked and (queer) answers might be found

[diqg]

It is vital that marginalized people see themselves in the media that they consume. Positive representations can empower individuals and communities, help people understand and articulate their identities, and allow others outside the community to learn about and accept diverse identities. This bibliography was created to help libraries build more diverse and inclusive collections, for nonbinary folks to locate resources for and by their community, and for allies to increase their understanding and advocacy.

This is an excellent list of non-binary gender representation in media, made by Charlie McNabb and available via the American Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table (GLBTRT). It includes fiction, non-fiction, age-appropriate materials, film, television, web resources, and more.

[neutrois]

Extensive list - bookmark this one!

[geekandmisandry]

I just read some Judith Butler out loud to my husband and he had NO idea what I was saying. As much as I do enjoy reading Butler she represents a lot of the problems with academic writing.

I understand that not all books and papers can cater to the laymen, sometimes prior knowledge is simply required for context.

But there is still a great amount of work that is written BY academics FOR academics and I think that is a little tragic. Books and papers should have a level lf accessibility that isn’t hindered by a lack of not having a thesaurus for a brain. Your writing should not be so dense, when you are talking about social issues, that the very people you speak of can’t understand your work.

If you have something important to say then it is imperative that you work hard on making sure that people are ABLE to hear it.

[likeworriedfire]

I’ve thought a lot about things like this (mostly regarding radical thoughts & the way radical folks, who have secondary education, express those thoughts to people who, often times, do not have secondary education), so it’s cool to read other peoples’ thoughts on it, too

[limpxwrist-deactivated20170913]

Why is this expected of humanities but not other disciplines? Besides the fact that there are numerous resources ( i used wikipedia to help me understand Butler) to help people grasp the, yes, oftentimes complex jargon and syntax used by subsets in the humanities (every discipline has its specialized language), to say that every bit of writing about social issues needs to be immediately comprehensible is to strip certain thinkers of useful tools.

I say this as a student of a discipline with a lot of this, French literature, but I don’t see this as a problem. Derrida, for instance, is often held up as the paragon of unnecessarily difficult academic writing, but that is part of his goal. Deliberate paradox and confusion is one of the methods he uses, to good end in my view. Should techniques like this be off limits?

Besides this, the idea that those at the margins cannot understand theory is something I distrust. Theory, like any language whether it is scientific language or types of prose & poetry is a skill that can in my view be learned by anyone. Should poetry be criticized for having artifice and complexity?

[writeswrongs]

“my stupid fucking boyfriend doesn’t understand this feminist text he gave literally zero fucks about learning and I, geekandmisandry, found this to be an attack on my humanity. Fuck u, judith butler. I’m going back to complimenting this piece of shit I’m dating for shaving once.”

[lainathewitch]

Her husband is nonbinary and just uses he/him pronouns. And you know, lack of access to academic theory because of how confusing it is is something a lot of undereducated and folks with certain mental health issues constantly bring up. But please continue to make a fool of yourself.

Accessibility matters.  Also calling people stupid, kind of ableist.

[radiosandanime-deactivated20180]

I’m just enjoying the notion that secondary education is requisite to understand things written at an “academic” level. Me and my public school education are perfectly capable of digesting and dissecting feminist theory and treatises thankyouverymuch.

[lainathewitch]

Its not a requisite but not every school is the same. Not everyone got the same kinds of education in this country. Not everyone reacts the same to education. Not everyone is given the same opportunities in the same school. 

I mean i’m a smart lady and i struggle with comprehension sometimes due to my mental health issues. Sometimes i can stare at a page for an hour because my brain just isn’t working correctly right then, or i’ve been triggered all to hell.

There’s lots of reasons to make it more accessible. And yes people do ask folks from other disciplines to put things in layman’s terms *all the time*.

When i worked in tech, non tech folks would always ask for simplified explanations for things, while they weren’t perfect they did help non tech people understand better. This is literally a thing non experts in a field that interacts with the public asks of experts.

If you can’t explain what you are working on to people in layman’s terms then you are just bad at explaining yourself. That’s all.

If you walked into a doctors office and they just threw medical jargon at you and wouldn’t tell you your state of health in layman’s terms you would think that doctor was being an asshole and lording his/her knowledge over you or trying to talk over your head to confuse you. And you would be right to think that.

Hell people even demand layman’s explanations of quantum physics, while this can lead to some misunderstandings its better than telling people they cant ever understand it and to just learn metric fucktons of math. That would just piss people off.

So yeah. Accessibility matters. It matters for the disabled and undereducated. 

[radiosandanime-deactivated20180]

Sorry if I implied that accessibility and speaking to your audience weren’t important, it wasn’t intentional. I just took slight issue with the implication made by the first couple of posters that only people with secondary education could possess radical thinking or understand and appreciate academia.

I work on radios for a fire department. Explaining to firemen why “the radio don’t work” is a literal every-day part of my job. Believe me, I greatly appreciate the need and ability to take complex concepts and communicate them to non-technical people without talking down to them. 

[lainathewitch]

I understand. Its just that even within academia there is the complaint that things are over-complicated deliberately for the sake of appearing smart. So this issue is really multi level because its getting so bad its even confusing academics and social justice theory isn’t immune to this kind of stuff.

[queeriesforqueerios]

10 Photos of 19th and 20th Century Drag Kings That Are Totally Inspiring | SheWired

So much dapper fashion inspiration from these 19th and 20th century male impersonators.

[joyousfeminism]

José Esteban Muñoz, Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity

[niaking]

For the past 3 months, co-editor Elena Rose and I have been working on Queer & Trans Artists of Color, Volume Two, featuring:

Mimi Thi Nguyen

Lexi Adsit

Vivek Shraya

Indira Allegra

Tina Takemoto

Mattie Brice

Amir Rabiyah

Juba Kalamka

and 9 other brilliant queer and trans POC artists!

The last fundraiser only raised half of what I was trying to raise, so I am trying to raise the rest now (enough now to pay each of the artists $100 for contributing their time and wisdom to being in this book). Please support queer and trans artists of color by DONATING TODAY!

Anyone who donates $50 or more will have their name on the acknowledgements page of the book. Any money raised above the goal will be put towards having a launch party for the book in Oakland in a wheelchair-accessible location.

The book should be finished by fall of 2016. Follow me on Twitter for updates!

[diversityinya]

YA Books About Transgender Characters

There haven’t been a lot of young adult books published about transgender characters. This list is not meant to be a “best of” list — it is simply a list of the titles that we are aware of, and we are sure there are more we aren’t aware of. This list is limited to titles published specifically for a young adult audience, which means titles published for adults that teens might still enjoy aren’t included.

I am J by Cris Beam (Little, Brown)

One in Every Crowd by Ivan E. Coyote (Arsenal Pulp)

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills (Flux)

Happy Families by Tanita S. Davis (Knopf)

f2m: the boy within by Hazel Edwards and Ryan Kennedy (Ford Street Publishing, Australia)

Being Emily by Rachel Gold (Bella Books)

Jumpstart the World by Catherine Ryan Hyde (Knopf)

Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher (Delacorte)

Luna by Julie Anne Peters (Little, Brown)

Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger (Simon & Schuster)

Do you have a favorite YA book about a transgender character? Please tell us why you loved it!

[flanneryogonner]

Found from various places online:

The Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

Angela Y. Davis - Are Prisons Obsolete?

Angela Y. Davis - Race, Women, and Class

The Communist Manifesto - Marx and Engels

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde

Three Guineas by Virginia Woolf

Critical Race Theory: An Introduction by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic

The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America- Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki

Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism - bell hooks

Feminism is for Everybody - bell hooks

outlaw culture - bell hooks

Faces at the Bottom of the Well - Derrick Bell

Sex, Power, and Consent - Anastasia Powell

I am Your Sister - Audre Lorde

Patricia Hill Collins - Black Feminist Thought

Gender Trouble - Judith Butler

Four books by Frantz Fanon

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston

Medical Apartheid - Harriet Washington

Fear of a Queer Planet: Queer Politics and Social Theory  - edited by Michael Warner

Colonialism/Postcolonialism - Ania Loomba

Discipline and Punish - Michel Foucault

The Gloria Anzaldua Reader

Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? by Mark Fisher

This Bridge Called by Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color by Cherríe Moraga & Gloria Anzaldúa

What is Cultural Studies? - John Storey 

Cultural Theory and Popular Culture - John Storey 

The Disability Studies Reader 

Michel Foucault - Interviews and Other Writings 

Michel Foucault - The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3 

Michel Foucault - The Archeology of Knowledge 

This blog also has a lot more. 

(Sorry they aren’t organized very well.)

[morrigan-disapproves]

in other news i finished reading the dark wife and it was really good, and you should also read it. to recap: it is a lesbian retelling of the hades/persephone myth (with zeus as the villian). reasons it is lovely:

lets persephone make the choices and be the…

[will-work-for-progress]

11 Trans Artists Of Color You Should Know In 2013

[originalplumbing]

Art has been an important site of resistance and identity making for trans people of color. We’ve used the medium to share our stories, document our lives and express our humanity. Fortunately for us, we are living in a media moment that thirsts to understand the trans experience.

[queerbookclub]

Queer books out in January 2015. Know any others? [image description: the covers of ten books, listed below]

How To Grow Up: A Memoir by Michelle Tea

Gaming At the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture by Adrienne Shaw

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson

Alex As Well by Alyssa Brugman

Ofelia: A Love and Rockets Book by Gilbert Hernandez

A Harvest of Ripe Figs by Shira Glassman

The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley by Shaun David Hutchinson

The Truth About Twinkie Pie by Kat Yeh

Don’t Let Him Know by Sandip Roy

[queerbookclub]

diversify your queer reads: 2014 books featuring queer people of color

Earlier this year, author K Tempest Bradford challenged readers to try a year of books that aren’t written by straight, white, cis men. Some see challenges like this as limiting our reading choices - but in a culture where white, straight, cis narratives continue to dominate, intentionally diversifying the stories we read is an exercise in expansion.

As in the past two years, I put together this list of publications from 2014 with the help of resources like the Lambda Literary Foundation and Sistahs On The Shelf, as well as reviewers around tumblr, goodreads and elsewhere. It has grown thanks to the efforts of small presses like Kórima Press and biyuti publishing. These are all books that feature the voices of queer people of color and/or QPOC protagonists.

Annual disclaimer: There’s no way this list is exhaustive. These are also not personal recommendations, just every title I could find. If I was unsure about a book’s contents (that is, if I was unsure if the qpoc characters were prominent, or if I thought the book might be exploitative), I tried to give weight to who the author is (i.e. I was more likely to include books I know were written by people of color). Of course, I’ll happily add books to the list if you have any suggestions that fit the theme - only books about QPOC, and only works published in 2014. Here’s everything I found, arranged by genre: Fiction

Otros Valos by Jamie Berrout

The Rules by S. Renee Bess

Love Enough by Dionne Brand

Yabo by Alexis De Veaux

The Girl with the Treasure Chest by V.A. Fearon

For Today I am a Boy by Kim Fu

Souljah by John R. Gordon

Niya 2 by Fabiola Joseph

Rapture by Myesha D. Jenkins

Prairie Ostrich by Tamai Kobayashi

The Paths of Marriage by Mala Kuma

Part the Hawser Limn the Sea by Dan Lopez

Last Words of Montmartre by Qiu Miaojin

Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab by Shani Mootoo

The Walk-In Closet by Abdi Nazemian

A Lesbian in God’s House by Phenomenon

She of the Mountains by Vivek Sharya

Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror

Skin Deep Magic by Craig Laurence Gidney

The Beast of Callaire by Saruuh Kelsey

Love in the Gilded Age by Saruuh Kelsey

Sacred Fire by Tanai Walker

Desire at Dawn by Fiona Zedde

Romance

Desire: Gay Passionate Short Stories by Orville Lloyd Douglas

Let The Love Be by Sheree L. Greer

How Can An Angel Take My Heart, Part II: The Armanèe by Regina Knox

Pieces of Her by A.C. Mims

Les Tales: Tempted to Touch by Skyy, Nikki Rashan and Fiona Zedde

Surrender: Two Hearts & A Rainbow Series by Monique BT Thomas

Treasure by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Safe Haven by B.L. Wilson

When She Says Yes by Fiona Zedde

Poetry

Difficult Fruit by Lauren Alleyne

i just want freedom by b. binaohan

The New Testament by Jericho Brown

The Cha Cha Files: A Chapina Poética by Maya Chinchilla

Floating Brilliant Gone by Franny Choi

Make Love to Rage by Morgan Robyn Collado

Under My Skin by Orville Lloyd Douglas

Prime: Poetry & Conversation by Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Saeed Jones, Rickey Laurentiis, Phillip B. Williams and L. Lamar Wilson

The Possibilities of Mud by Joe Jiménez

Prelude to Bruise by Saeed Jones

Don’t Go Back To Sleep by Timothy Liu

Naming Ceremony by Chip Livingston

I Look For You In Other Truths by Ramon Loyola

Amorcito Maricón by Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano

Haiti Glass by Lenell Moise

This Way to the Sugar by Hieu Minh Nguyen

Everybody’s Bread by Claudia Rodriguez

Language Arts by Cedar Sigo

[insert] boy by danez smith

The Fateful Apple by Venus Thrash

Drama

Bird in the Hand by Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas

BOOTYCANDY by Robert O’Hara

A Boiz Life: A play in one act by E.J. Loveson

The Beast of Times by Adelina Anthony

Jotos del Barrio by Jesús Alonzo

Memoir/Bio

The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood by Richard Blanco

Fire Shut Up in my Bones by Charles M. Blow

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

Memoirs of a GayShe by Garland G. Guidry

A Cup of Water Under My Bed by Daisy Hernandez

The Transsexual from Tobago by Dominique Jackson

Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith edited by Alethia Jones & Virginia Eubanks with Barbara Smith

Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More by Janet Mock

My Life is No Accident by Tenika Watson and Jennifer Daelyn 

Nonfiction/Queer Studies

Willful Subjects by Sara Ahmed

James Baldwin: The Last Interview and Other Conversations

Under Bright Lights: Gay Manila and the Global Scene by Bobby Benedicto

Gender on the Edge: Transgender, Gay, and Other Pacific Islanders edited by Niko Besnier & Kalissa Alexeyeff

decolonizing trans/gender 101 by b. binaohan

The Queer Caribbean Speaks Interviews with Writers, Artists, and Activists by Kofi Omoniyi Sylvanus Campbell

Firelight of a Different Colour: The Life and Times of Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing by Nigel Collett

Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS by Martin Duberman

Underserved Women of Color, Voice, and Resistance Claiming a Seat at the Table edited by Sonja M. Brown Givens & Keisha Edwards Tassie

Black and Gay in the UK: An Anthology edited by John R. Gordon & Rikki Beadle-Blair

A View from the Bottom: Asian American Masculinity and Sexual Representation by Nguyen Tan Hoang

Black Queer Identity Matrix: Towards An Integrated Queer of Color Framework by Sheena C. Howard

Queer & Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of Our Lives by Nia King

Island Bodies: Transgressive Sexualities in the Caribbean Imagination by Rosamond S. King

Namibia’s Rainbow Project: Gay Rights in an African Nation by Robert Lorway

Queen for a Day: Transformistas, Beauty Queens, and the Performance of Femininity in Venezuela by Marcia Ochoa

Unbought and Unbossed: Transgressive Black Women, Sexuality, and Representation by Trimika Melancon

Queer Beirut by Sofian Merabet

In the Life and In the Spirit: Homoerotic Spirituality in African American Literature by Marlon Rachquel Moore

Sensational Flesh: Race, Power, and Masochism by Amber Jamilla Musser

Imperial Blues: Geographies of Race and Sex in Jazz Age New York by Fiona I. B. Ngô

Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings by Juana María Rodríguez

The Avowal of Difference: Queer Latino American Narratives by Ben. Sifuentes-Jauregui

Black Gay Genius: Answering Joseph Beam’s Call edited by Charles Stephens & Steven G. Fullwood

Queer Masculinities in Latin American Cinema: Male Bodies and Narrative Representations by Gustavo Subero

The Queerness of Native American Literature by Lisa Tatonetti

Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism within US Slave Culture by Vincent Woodard

Young Adult

The Voices in Between by Charlene Challenger

The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan & Maureen Johnson

The Sowing by Steven Dos Santos

Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis

Moon at Nine by Deborah Ellis

Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan

Climbing the Date Palm by Shira Glassman

Always Leaving by Gene Grant

Pukawiss the Outcast by Jay Jordan Hawke

Guardian by Alex London

Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Children’s Lit

Tell Your Story, Tell A Dream Birthday Cake by Angela Bermudez & Flor Bermudez

Comics/Graphic Novels

Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It by Anne Ishii, Chip Kidd & Graham Kolbeins

100 Crushes by Elisha Lim

More and More of You by Takeshi Matsu

Cruising Diaries by Brontez Purnell & Janelle Hessig

Snackies by Nick Sumida

Fishermans Lodge by Gengoroh Tagame

[queerbookclub]

Queer books out in October 2015. Know any others? [image description: the covers of ten books, listed below]

Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson

What We Left Behind by Robin Talley

A Taste for Brown Bodies: Gay Modernity and Cosmopolitan Desire by Hiram Pérez

I Will Say This Exactly One Time: Essays by D. Gilson

Never Coming Home by Tyler Vile

Bitch Planet Volume 1: Extraordinary Machine by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro

Weird Girl and What’s His Name by Meagan Brothers

Snapshots of a Girl by Beldan Sezen

An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes by Randy Ribay

[trans-homura]

The Switch - A Fantastic Transgender Comedy

Yesterday, Sü came out as a trans woman. Today, she’s unemployed and sleeping on her ex’s couch. A transgender fantasy-comedy series.

Hey its a show about trans women played by a trans woman 

[agentshilonglang]

As well as a Kickstarter fund to get this on television, with broadcasting in both Canada and possibly the United States! It’s also produced by a queer trans independent filmmaker, Amy Fox, and has only 52 days left to raise $50,000 CAD.

Those who can support through reblogs and/or donations, please go ahead! The link above is a clickthrough straight to the Kickstarter. Backers get cool prizes like copies of the screenplay, 8 x 11” prints of the lead actress Julie Vu from her photo shoots, download links the the ENTIRE first season, and more.

[dapperqueer]

$4000 to go!!!

[bookmad-deactivated20151003]

Do you have any good Queer YA books you could recommend? ( especially lesbian or trans ones?)

lesbian and gay representation:

keeping you a secret by julie anne peters

annie on my mind by nancy garden

empress of the world by sara ryan

will grayson, will grayson by john green and david levithan

the mortal instruments series by cassandra clare

the modern faerie tales trilogy by holly black

the gemma doyle trilogy by libba bray (mostly implied, but there is some major presentation in the last book of the trilogy)

trans representation:

luna by julie anne peters

anyone who knows of more should reblog this post and add to the list because i’m frustrated by the fact that i don’t know of more than this. i’ve read 400 books, and this is all i can think of.

[carchive1]

Signal boost! Also some book list links—

malindalo’s list of YA Novels About Lesbians and Bisexual Girls and Autostraddle’s 20 Best Young Adult Novels for Queer Girls.

And The Hub’s Guide to YA Novels with LGBTQ Characters.  At the bottom of the post there is a link to more book lists and also check out the comment section for even more recs.

Also epicreads list of 25 Must-Read YA Books Featuring Gay Protagonists.

[nitatyndall-deactivated20200510]

Lesbian:

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

The Summer I Wasn’t Me

If You Could Be Mine

Everything Leads to You

Ask the Passengers

Great

Otherbound

Lies We Tell Ourselves

Silhouette of a Sparrow

Wildthorn

Trans representation:

(I’ve heard Luna actually is really problematic so yeah you may want to look into that)

I Am J

Parrotfish

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children

Hope that helps!

[ya-pride]

Oooh yay I like posts like this! First of all, I totally agree with everything that’s been said above. Second of all, we have a super long list of LGBTQ+ YA on our website BUT it is not very well done, and we are working on getting up a wiki with all these (and more) separated by genre & more accurate orientation/identity. Third of all, here are some of my favorites: 

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual etc.: 

Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr (particularly in Ink Exchange and Radiant Shadows) 

Far From You by Tess Sharpe

Ash by Malinda Lo

The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan 

(actually tbh pretty much everything by David Levithan) 

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Trans*: 

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills is a definite must. 

Being Emily by Rachel Gold 

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

And I haven’t read it but I’ve heard that Beauty Queens by Libba Bray is pretty great. 

[bisexual-books]

This list is sorely missing bisexuality.  Here is some Bi YA:

Frenemy of the People by Nora Olson Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis  Adaptation and Inheritance by Malinda Low Pantomime and Shadowplay by Laura Lam Love In the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block Bi-Normal by M.G. Higgins Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith Coda by Emma Trevayne Boyfriends With Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez

I’d also add Sparks by S.J. Adams as a bi-friendly lesbian book.  

[fuckyeahlgbtqartists]

In his unique and engaging voice, the acclaimed actor of stage and screen shares the emotional story of his complicated relationship with his father and the deeply buried family secrets that shaped his life and career.

A beloved star of stage, television, and film—“one of the most fun people in show business” (Timemagazine)—Alan Cumming is a successful artist whose diversity and fearlessness is unparalleled. His success masks a painful childhood growing up under the heavy rule of an emotionally and physically abusive father—a relationship that tormented him long into adulthood.

When television producers in the UK approached him to appear on a popular celebrity genealogy show in 2010, Alan enthusiastically agreed. He hoped the show would solve a family mystery involving his maternal grandfather, a celebrated WWII hero who disappeared in the Far East. But as the truth of his family ancestors revealed itself, Alan learned far more than he bargained for about himself, his past, and his own father.

With ribald humor, wit, and incredible insight, Alan seamlessly moves back and forth in time, integrating stories from his childhood in Scotland and his experiences today as a film, television, and theater star. At times suspenseful, deeply moving, and wickedly funny, Not My Father’s Son will make readers laugh even as it breaks their hearts.

(source)

[mollymwetta]

This is a list I made for YALSA’s The Hub on the wide range of YA literature featuring LGBTQ characters. See the full post and a downloadable pdf here. 

[deanwinchested]

[born-for-fame]

lgbt books for teens, part one