Biographies
What Kind of Queen? A Royal Biography of Drag Queen and Activist José Sarria by Kyle Casey Chu and Andrew W. Shaffer
A joyous picture book biography of José Sarria, a pioneering activist, drag queen, and the first openly gay candidate to run for public office in the United States
Once upon a time, there lived a boy named José who dreamed of becoming royalty—and of a queendom where everyone would be treated fairly and with respect.
A child of immigrants from Colombia, José Sarria was born in San Francisco in 1922. With the support of his family, he grew up to discover what it means to be a queen.
He fought against evil by serving in WWII, helping to liberate a Nazi concentration camp; he inspired others to be their authentic selves by performing at San Francisco’s Black Cat Café, a haven for artists and activists; and he cared for his community through his LGBTQ+ advocacy work, including the establishment of the Imperial Court System, a global charitable organization that still thrives today.
Sarria led by example, joyfully giving back to his community while challenging the status quo. With a fairy-tale feel and radiant illustrations, this picture book biography celebrates his legacy of seeing the world not as it is but as it could be.
A Place to Dance: How Richard Lamberty Brought Change to the Ballroom by Eric Rosswood and Richard Lamberty, illus. by Vincent Chen
Who says only girls can twirl and boys must take the lead on the dance floor?
Celebrate same-gender ballroom dancing with renowned dancer Richard Lamberty as he breaks traditional gender roles, while promoting diversity and inclusivity in dance.
When dancer Richard Lamberty was a child, he loved dancing—especially ballroom dancing. But he was always jealous of the moves female dancers got to do. Intrigued by the female dancers’ different steps, Richard developed the skills to dance either role in order to compete with a male partner in the Gay Games in Europe. He then came back to the United States and cofounded April Follies, the longest-running and largest queer partner dance competition in North America.
Richard Lamberty is a two-time world champion ballroom dancer whose story inspires the LGBTQIA+ community to put on their dance shoes and do what they love.
What Ever Happened to Eddy Crane? by Kate Crane
One night when Kate Crane was twelve, her father called to say he was on his way home from his trucking business. He never showed up. Kate and her family were left stunned, with no explanation or resolution on the horizon. Twenty years later, now a journalist in New York City, Kate reopens the investigation with Baltimore’s Cold Case Unit, tracks down the retired detectives who’d worked Eddy’s case, and chases leads with old friends through her hometown’s dark alleys. Maybe she can find some answers—or at least a little solace.
Part memoir, part true crime, part psychological suspense, What Ever Happened to Eddy Crane? is a brilliantly written, emotionally resonant story of searing loss and resilience, of Baltimore, of family ghosts, and the bravery required to confront the past.
The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram by Dr. Ethelene Whitmire
On the eve of World War II, a handsome young scholar arrived in Paris. The queer, Black son of a housecleaner, who had nevertheless been decorated in the halls of Harvard and Columbia, Reed Peggram flirted with Leonard Bernstein, sat for portraits by famous artists, charmed minor royalty and became like a little brother to famed researcher and writer Jan Gay. Finally in Europe and on the same prestigious scholarship as literary luminaries Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes before him, he ignored the increasingly alarmed calls to return home to a repressive, segregated America and a constrained life as a second class citizen. And as tensions grew and gas masks were distributed in the City of Lights, Reed turned instead to the new life he’d made: with Arne, a tall and dashing Danish scholar with whom he had formed a deep bond.
Award-winning historian Ethelene Whitmire unearthed a trove of Reed’s letters when she met one of his descendants at a lecture, awed that she’d heard so little of this charismatic man and his fascinating true story of love and war. In The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram, she introduces us to an unforgettable character who fled from country to country as fighting advanced, was captured by Nazis and outwitted them in a daring escape, and risked it all in a personal fight for a life of love, freedom, beauty and dignity in a world set against him.
Finding Renée Richards: The Groundbreaking Story of Tennis’s Trans Pioneer by Julie Kliegman (August 18, 2026)
The candid, definitive biography of professional tennis’s first openly transgender player, Renée Richards, featuring never-before-seen archival photos and untold stories nearly lost to history, until now.
Fifty years ago, tennis player Renée Richards made international headlines in her fight to compete in the women’s draw of the 1977 US Open—marking the first time a trans athlete sued to participate in professional sports in the gender category with which they identify. Renée eventually won her case. Though she lost in the first round of the singles tournament, she and her tennis partner made it to the finals in doubles, losing to Martina Navratilova and her partner.
Finding Renée Richards chronicles Richards’s extraordinary life, moving from her tumultuous upbringing in Queens, New York, to her career as a successful eye surgeon; her years as a star tennis player to her role as a transgender pioneer. Now in her nineties, Renée remains a complex figure: A person who changed the sports world forever yet questions the place of trans athletes in that world today. GLAAD award-nominated sports journalist Julie Kliegman deftly probes these contradictions, drawing on intimate interviews and offering critical reflections on what is at stake for athletes, fans, and the queer community today, at a time when trans participation in sports is more hotly contested—and condemned—than ever before.
Finding Renée Richards includes a 20-page photo insert featuring never-before-seen archival images.
Essays/Memoir
Queer and How We Got Here by Hazel Newlevant
When Hazel was twelve years old, they came out as bisexual to their parents. At the time, they couldn’t have imagined who they are today: a nonbinary, transmasculine person in a loving queer relationship.
In seeking to understand their own history, Hazel takes readers on a parallel journey through queer history—from the origins of Western concepts of sexual orientation, to the synthesis of hormones, to the evolution of trans health care. They unpack the economic underpinnings of gender roles. They dive into the origins behind our concept of “coming out,” the history of “female husbands,” neopronouns, and the emergence of drag kings.
As Hazel grows and changes, so does their understanding of those who came before them, and the interweaving of both narratives gives the reader a powerful entryway into not just Hazel’s journey of self-actualization, but the queer community at large.
Devout: Losing My Faith to Find Myself by David Archuleta
A raw and powerful coming-out story from the beloved American Idol finalist traces David Archuleta’s journey from closeted Mormon teen to global pop star to openly queer man, revealing the hidden pressures of fame, the weight of religious expectations, and the courage it takes to live authentically.
At just seventeen, David Archuleta rose to national fame as the runner-up on American Idol season seven, captivating millions with his angelic voice. Behind the scenes, however, he was struggling with a truth he feared would destroy everything: he was attracted to men—and a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In Devout, David takes you inside his deeply personal journey as a closeted Mormon teen turned international pop star, torn between faith, fame, and identity. From dealing with the pressures of being on a hit television show to a domineering father who controlled every aspect of his career—even being banned from the show’s set—David reveals the emotional abuse and inner turmoil that he says plagued his childhood.
This searing memoir reflects on David’s ventures with American Idol, a tour with Demi Lovato, and a two year sabbatical as a missionary in South America, charting his path through heartbreak, estrangement, three engagements, thoughts of suicide, and finally, his courageous decision to leave the Mormon Church in order to live authentically as a queer man. Featuring never-before-seen photos, Devout is a must-read for fans of pop culture, American Idol, and anyone deconstructing their religious upbringing, or who’s ever wrestled with who they are versus who they’re told to be.
The Double Dutch Fuss by Phill Branch
Long before every moment of our lives was tracked by technology, Phill Branch was under surveillance. His father was a football-playing, weed-smoking, Army vet—the guy men wanted to be around, and women loved. Phill was different. His father treated him as if he were defective and continually searched for proof to support this belief. Phill paid greatly for his failures at boyhood, especially when he was caught playing jump rope with girls. This taught him there were standards to be met, codes that were not to be violated, and strict punishment for any deviation from a Black man’s assigned position in the world.
In this poignant, illuminating personal narrative, Branch reckons with the patriarchy and tradition of these social structures in Black America, their legacy, and how they molded and silenced him. Taking us from Newark, New Jersey, to Los Angeles, California, Branch writes unflinchingly about growing up as the queer black son of a complicated and often absent father with rigid ideas of masculinity. From early inappropriate relationships with men twice his age, to his successful rebranding at Hampton University, to the dichotomy of Hollywood—living in a world of wealthy celebrities while struggling to survive as a writer—Branch navigates his complex emotions surrounding success, perceptions of manhood, and ultimately his father.
The Double Dutch Fuss recounts growing up under the heavy burden of expectation—to be a boy, to be Black, and to be queer in ways that conform to rigid, often unforgiving norms. It is about the knotted path of becoming, while navigating the always-present fear of emotional and physical violence, and the threat of isolation for simply being who you are. Branch explores the cosmic pull between fathers and sons, and how healing wounds can open a pathway toward freedom and wholeness. His is an insightful and surprisingly humorous reflection on identity, masculinity, and the quiet, radical act of choosing to exist on your own terms.
Without Prejudice: My Life as a Gay Judge by Harvey Brownstone
This searing and unforgettable memoir chronicles the turbulent trajectory of Canada’s first openly gay judge. Harvey Brownstone recounts the astonishing obstacles he confronted and surmounted with fearless resolve, including parental rejection, poverty, depression, homophobia, institutional inertia, and professional sabotage.
Harvey Brownstone’s story is a tumultuous, sometimes hilarious, and uplifting journey from bullied child to outcast after coming out to his parents, to trailblazing lawyer, to distinguished judge.
Brownstone colorfully details his momentous and inventive judicial career marked by his numerous innovations of the justice system, particularly revolutionizing Ontario’s child support enforcement program.
In retirement, he is no longer shackled by the restraints traditionally imposed on the judiciary, and thus Brownstone provides a frank, unfiltered, and refreshing glimpse into the inner workings of the justice system, boldly delineating the strengths and weaknesses of criminal and family courts, both of which he claims are sorely in need of comprehensive reform. His remarkable story, reinventing himself from high-profile judge to highly acclaimed talk show host, is a testament to the resilience and triumph of the human spirit.
Of Floating Isles: On Growing Pains and Video Games by Kawika Guillermo
Of Floating Isles is a captivating collection of personal essays that unpack the mystifying and often intimate roles that video games play in our lives. Interweaving memoir with cultural critique, Kawika Guillermo explores the subtle yet transformative influences of video games in shaping them as a queer and mixed-race grandson of two preachers; as a traveller, immigrant, and games scholar; and as a father, caregiver, and mourner. Through a mixture of fanciful musing, rigorous inquiry, and unflinching self-reflection, Of Floating Isles reframes the gamer’s retreat from others not as social isolation, but as a quest for a different community, one where they feel seen, heard, and understood. This deep-seated longing to belong, Guillermo suggests, forms the imaginative worlds of video games and the floating isles they conjure.
By exploring their own lifelong attachment to video games, Guillermo shows how games can spark rage, confusion, and the desire to escape, but these emotions are not necessarily bad – they are the growing pains that many young people must work through. So too can games provide reflective realms to dwell, to imagine, and to build spaces for queer, trans, racialized, and neurodiverse groups. Envisioning games as forms of poetic interaction, Of Floating Isles boldly conveys their truth-telling powers: their ability to offer guidance in times of loss and hardship, and their power to reveal the oppressive mechanisms of our “real” world.
Adulting for Amateurs by Jess H. Gutierrez
In Adulting for Amateurs, Jess H. Gutierrez marvels at how—we can’t avoid the fact anymore—her cohort, the millennials, are approaching middle age. While 1998 seems like just yesterday, we are now grown-ups who feel like we’re still growing up. And at forty-two, Jess has quite a trove of stories to tell.
Jess is leaning into her geriatric millennial years and reflects on how growing up does not necessarily bestow one with maturity. When the dinner covers were lifted to reveal vertically posed sausages, hundreds of the fanciest wedding guests, including the mayor, were treated to a demure and refined Jess’s explosive guffaws. While Jess’s brothers now have wholesome families and responsible jobs, she can’t stop one-upping them, even if it gets her brother nearly fired by a potty-brained prank right before he scrubs into surgery. When Jess and her wife booked their first grown-up vacation, they discovered too late that their Hawaiian trip was to a Mormon resort and therefore completely alcohol free. So Jess and her wife bravely put on their big-girl panties—and slunk off in a makeshift escape from this cheerful teetotaler paradise.
Turns out, even as a responsible homeowner with a mortgage, three kids, and a yard of chickens, Jess might not have matured much beyond her twenties. She’s still the woman who in an earlier era survived queer-dating fails and aughts-era pop culture moments—ultimately discovering that an illegal rave cannot heal a broken heart and that vampire-romance franchises are terrible dating manuals for a budding trailer park lesbian.
Inspiration Porn: Essays by Ryan O’Connell
For years, Ryan O’Connell wished he was different. Raised in a small Southern California beach town described as “Laguna Beach with meth,” his dad had taken off for greener pastures, and his alcoholic mom packed him lunches that wouldn’t win any Top Chef: Quickfire challenges. On top of that, he had to be disabled and gay?! Luckily, Ryan always had a love for writing. There, he could “construct the narrative of my life before anyone can construct it for me.” In essays that range from the poignant to the side-splitting, Ryan takes us along as he grapples with addiction, navigates the early days of writing for online media in NYC, and uses his voice to gain entrance into the cutthroat world of Hollywood, where he becomes a sought-after writer and creator. In other essays he asks the very important question: “Are Straight People Okay?” (short answer is no), explores the battle between your IRL vs URL identity, and ruminates on the healing power of being gay and on vacation. Finally, Ryan opens up his committed relationship and becomes a slut for the first time, keeping a diary of his sexual misadventures, and bravely healing his soul through his hole.
This is Me: A Reckoning by Hayden Panetierre
Hayden Panettiere’s career in entertainment began before she was old enough to walk. From early commercials to film and television roles in hits like Remember the Titans, her career unfolded in the public eye, resulting in tremendous success by her early teens. She had become a fixture of early-2000s pop culture, earning acclaim for performances in Heroes, Nashville (which earned her two Golden Globe nominations), and beyond—while quietly carrying the weight of expectations that came with being Hollywood’s “It girl.”
Behind the image was a far more complicated reality. As Hayden entered adulthood, the industry that once felt playful grew unforgiving as she learned by experience the pressure placed on young performers, the hefty price that often comes with fame, and how quickly someone else can take control of your story. She recounts being scrutinized by tabloids, watching her body and private pain become public property, and performing storylines on-screen that echoed trauma she was living through off-camera.
In this memoir, Hayden shares a rare and intimate glimpse into her life behind closed doors, opening up about postpartum depression, addiction and recovery, trauma, domestic abuse, and loss. She holds nothing back as she reflects on the moments she calls “lifequakes”— experiences that fractured her sense of self and forced her to rebuild it from the inside out.
Say Nephew: On Boyhood, Unclehood, and Queer Mentorship by Steven Pfau
A profound and illuminating exploration of the mythology of gay uncles and the meaning of queer bonds across generations
In Say Nephew, Steven Pfau blends memoir and criticism to celebrate the gay uncles who shape our sense of queer identity, culture, and history. The most influential figure in Pfau’s gay boyhood—the mentor who set the standard for all his future mentors—was his uncle Bruce.
A charismatic storyteller with a Burt Reynolds–esque bravado (and a mustache, leather jacket, and pair of cowboy boots to match), Bruce came out in 1950s Memphis and lived in New York City through many of the defining events of the gay liberation era. Bruce was both a unique fixture in his nephew’s upbringing and a link in a long lineage of uncles, literal and figurative, who have offered various forms of queer tutelage to younger men.
But what role is the nephew supposed to play in these relationships? And who does he become once his uncles are no longer there to guide him? Both a coming-of-age story and a wide-ranging study, Say Nephew is a wholly original and expansive consideration of queer mentorship.
My Bad: A Personal History of the Queer Nineties and Beyond by Hugh Ryan
The 1990s were a decade of transformation. Globalization reshaped geopolitics, and the rise of the World Wide Web revolutionized technology forever. As society shifted from the analog to the digital at the turn of the century, LGBTQ life changed profoundly. Increased visibility arrived, but at a heavy cost.
In his most personal book yet, historian Hugh Ryan guides us through a pivotal decade for queer people and its aftershocks—from new breakthroughs in activism, to the early days of AOL chat rooms, and the eventual backlash to progress. Through the prism of his own experiences, Ryan maps how queer life transitioned from private to public in the late ’90s and early aughts, reshaping the challenges and possibilities LGBTQ people navigated in the new millennium. On a Greyhound bus headed to Burning Man and the glittery dance floors of clubs in Manhattan and Berlin, a timeless and all-too-common story emerges: how a young queer person chooses silence to protect himself—only to spend another beautiful, complicated decade undoing his shame.
Funny, stylish, and deliciously nostalgic, My Bad reckons with the gains and setbacks of a decade that reshaped queer life forever.
Conversion Therapy Dropout by Timothy Schraeder Rodriguez
A gay Christian’s behind-the-scenes account of evangelical megachurches and eight years in conversion therapy before finding wholeness and authenticity.
Timothy Schraeder Rodriguez was an invisible architect behind evangelical Christianity’s digital empire, crafting messages of belonging for some of the most influential megachurches–Hillsong Church, Elevation Church, Willow Creek–all while secretly questioning his own place within the faith.
In a desperate attempt to “fix” himself, he turned to conversion therapy, spending eight years trying to pray the gay away. And he wasn’t alone. More than 700,000 people in the US have undergone some form of conversion therapy. Even though Exodus International, the largest ex-gay organization, closed in 2013, the practice still thrives in many conservative religious communities. After years of this harmful “therapy,” Schraeder Rodriguez’s sexuality never changed. But his faith did.The more time he spent in evangelical Christianity, the more he witnessed the hypocrisy of institutions that claimed to love everyone while quietly pushing people like him into silence. But Schraeder Rodriguez wouldn’t remain silent. Instead, he forged a new path, discovering a vibrant faith beyond the constraints of non-affirming theology and finding a community that embraced his whole self.
Conversion Therapy Dropout is a behind-the-scenes look at megachurch culture, the hidden harm of non-affirming Christian spaces, and the ongoing impact of conversion therapy on gay Christians. This isn’t just a coming-out story–it’s about what happens after. About rebuilding a life outside the only world you’ve ever known. And the radical act of stepping into the light after being told your whole life to stay in the shadows. Sometimes, the greatest act of faith isn’t holding on–it’s letting go.
Big Baby by Kevin James Thornton
Growing up in the 90s in a small town in Indiana, Kevin James Thornton had little notion he would one day make a career as a comedian. Like most kids in his deeply Christian town, his free time revolved around his church community—drinking Messiah Macchiatos at the youth group cafe, bedazzling his jacket with the words “Jesus Is Lord,” and evangelizing in the streets of Spanish Harlem dressed as a sin‑themed clown. But when he started to question his sexuality, life became complicated. Kevin began to realize that the community that raised him might never truly accept him.
What follows is a winding story of self‑discovery, following Thornton from a revelatory summer in New York City to the transformative years of college—where he finds like‑minded people, a knack for performance, and first loves—all the way to adulthood, where he navigates complicated relationships, finds his way into the comedy scene, and forms a special bond with a black cat named Comet (who might just have the power to travel between dimensions). Through it all, he redefines himself again and again, realizing that few things go as planned, and that “driving off into the sunset” is never really the end of the story.
Told in his unique brand of brash but emotionally honest humor, and filled with 90s nostalgia, Big Baby is a coming-of-age tale that speaks to anyone who feels like they don’t fit in.
Autistically Me by Bradley Riches (June 9, 2026)
Bradley spoke few words until age ten, when he found his voice at his theatre school. Fast-forward a decade, and he is not only a recognizable actor, but an inspirational spokesperson for autism advocacy and awareness.
Bradley is now on a mission to share his experiences and empower others like him to celebrate their neurodivergence and thrive! In this book you will discover:
- How to get a diagnosis and why it’s important
- Autism in different genders and common co-existing conditions
- Self-acceptance exercises, such as reframing negative self-talk
- Executive functioning strategies for daily life
- Tips on understanding social cues and creating healthy relationships
- Grounding techniques to manage sensory overload
- Strategies for flourishing in education and at work
- How to build self-advocacy skills and set boundaries
- Tips for dealing with poor mental health
- And how to tap into your creative passions and find your community.
With tips, exercises and everyday strategies, cutting-edge research from charity Autistica and case studies from others neurodivergent voices, this life-changing book will empower you to celebrate your unique mind!
Unsayable by Michael Cunningham (July 21, 2026)
Go ahead. Try using language to slit the skin of mortality to see what’s on the other side.
At the age of three, Michael Cunningham began obsessively collecting the names of things: oak, Chevrolet, finch, tulip, Tupperware. . . . Each word rendered the world ever so slightly more understandable, more describable, kicking off a lifelong love affair with language—one that would, eventually, maybe inevitably, lead him to become a writer.
In Unsayable, Cunningham’s memories spill forth, and with them reflections on the craft of writing. He is fifteen, in a swimming pool at night, gazing at the first boy he ever fell in love with, who is lost in contemplative silence. He is a new college graduate, setting off for nowhere in a Dodge Dart, hoping to pull meaning (and a novel) from the expanse of America. He is on Cape Cod, regaling an elderly couple with invented tales of sexual escapades. He is in an art gallery, unwittingly having the first in a lifetime of conversations with the man he would marry. A thread ties each beautifully wrought moment to the next: what is unspoken, what won’t yield to language, what is embellished beyond recognition, what is still left to say.
Luminous, perceptive, and powerful, Unsayable is an ode to literature, a meditation on craft, and an intimate account of a life spent trying to put into words that which resists depiction. This, it turns out, is the lifeblood of the fiction writer: the impossibility of capturing the human experience, and the relentless desire to try.
Crooked Teeth by Danny Ramadan (August 18, 2026)
“Writing this memoir is a betrayal.” So begins this electrifying personal account from Danny Ramadan, a celebrated novelist who has long enjoyed the shield his fiction provides. Now, to tell the story of his life, he must revisit dark corners of his past he’d rather forget and unearth memories of a city he can no longer return to.
Starting with his family’s humble beginnings in Damascus, he takes readers on an epic, border-crossing journey: to the city’s underground network of queer safe homes; to a clandestine party at a secluded villa in Cairo; through Arab Spring uprisings across the Middle East, a reckless hoax that threatens the safety of Syria’s LGBTQ+ community, and a traumatic six-week imprisonment; to beaches and sunsets with friends in Beirut; to an arrival in Vancouver that’s not as smooth as it promised to be; and ultimately to a life of hard-won comfort and love.
What emerges is a powerful refutation of the oversimplified refugee narrative—a book that holds space for joy alongside sorrow, for nuance and complicated ambivalences. Written with fearless intimacy, Crooked Teeth is a singular achievement in which a master storyteller learns that his greatest story is his own.
Main, Middle & Gay by Patrick O’Connell (September 15, 2026)
The chef and founder of the Michelin-starred restaurant The Inn at Little Washington gives us an inside look at the tumultuous joys and struggles that have brought him to his special place at the intersection of Main, Middle, and Gay.
World-renowned chef Patrick O’Connell has been recognized as a pioneer of American cuisine; his internationally acclaimed restaurant in the Virginia countryside, the Inn at Little Washington, is Michelin-starred and a Relais & Châteaux hotel. Named for the three historic streets in the little town where O’Connell’s life and career have taken root, Main, Middle & Gay chronicles O’Connell’s winding journey through the rough-and-tumble restaurant world.
Growing up gay in the 1950s and working as a paperboy and a cook at a hamburger joint, O’Connell found his place with other misfits in the addictive restaurant scene, where he learned to be nimble and grew up fast while working long hours and late nights with colorful characters. He lived free-spirited on farms with friends and traveled Europe, teaching himself to cook along the way. When he opened his restaurant in an old abandoned garage, he had no idea it would grow to the heights it has achieved today.
In his first-ever memoir, O’Connell shows us the evolution that has led the Inn at Little Washington to become a global destination for foodies and travelers alike.
Showbiz! My Life as a Middle-Aged Man by Murray Hill (October 6, 2026)
For more than three decades, Murray Hill has been a staple of New York City’s downtown comedy scene. A trailblazing comic in a borrowed tux, the self-proclaimed “hardest working middle-aged man in show business” has turned feminist performance art into a way of life, delighting audiences around the world with his signature blend of campy humor and subversive showmanship. Much like Fred Rococo, his breakout role on HBO’s award-winning Somebody Somewhere, Murray radiates relentless positivity and an indomitable spirit as entertaining as it is inspiring.
But behind the one-liners lies a deeper truth. Growing up in a conservative, New England household where abuse ran rampant, and silence reigned, Murray took refuge in showbiz memoirs and watching old-school comedians on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show. These tales of survival, in the face of abuse and discrimination, offered him hope and the possibility of reinvention through the world of entertainment.
After leaving home for college in Boston and attending graduate school in New York, Murray began the slow process of finding and defining his identity as a newly emancipated adult, a queer artist testing the boundaries of visual and performance art, and a nightlife king living by the mantra: “If you don’t see yourself represented, go out and represent yourself.”
His evolution, however, came at a cost. He drank to escape his past, and the depression he masked with alcohol spiraled into a mental health crisis that nearly cost him his life. Lovingly supported in his recovery by his chosen family and community, Murray not only found his people but also found himself.
And If I Die Before I Wake by George M. Johnson (November 10, 2026)
George M. Johnson is no stranger to death. In this debut adult memoir, readers are invited to witness as they navigate an HIV diagnosis, alcoholism, tremendous loss, and nationwide book bans over the span of 15 years. Through the highs and lows of life in the spotlight, they have clung to family and community like never before — finding their most authentic self along the way.
Drawing inspiration from Toni Morrison, Jesmyn Ward, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, And If I Die Before I Wake explores grief, trauma, sexuality, and the Black family through the lens of transformation, healing, and hope. Poetic, grounded, and bursting with signature humor, this is New York Times-bestselling author George M. Johnson more bold, more brave, and more daring than ever.
General Interest
Fair Play: Trans Athletes and the Fight for Fairness by Katie Barnes
For decades women have been playing competitive sports, thanks in large part to the protective cover of Title IX. Since the passage of that law, the number of women participating in sports and the level of competition in high school and college and professionally, has risen dramatically. In Fair Play, award-winning journalist Katie Barnes traces the evolution of women’s sports as a pastime and a political arena where equality and fairness have been fought over for generations.
As attitudes toward gender have shifted to embrace more fluidity in recent decades, sex continues to be viewed as a static binary that is easily determined: male or female. It is on the very idea of static sex that we have built an entire sporting apparatus. Now that foundation is being hotly debated as a result of intense culture wars. Many transgender and intersex athletes, including a South African runner, a wrestler in Texas, a Connecticut track star, and a swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania, have captured the attention of law and policymakers who want to decide how and when they compete. Women’s sports, since their inception, have been seen as a separate class of competition that requires protection and rules for entry. But what are those rules and who gets to make them? Fair Play looks at all sides of the issue and presents a reasoned and much-needed solution that seeks to preserve opportunities for all going forward.
Let Us Play: Winning the Battle for Gender Diverse Athletes by Harrison Browne and Rachel Browne
The debate over the inclusion of gender diverse people in sport has become the latest battleground in the fight for basic human rights and equality. Trans and nonbinary people around the world are facing physical harm and violence—including death—at unprecedented rates. In Let Us Play, trans athlete Harrison Browne and investigative journalist Rachel Browne reveal how the opposition towards gender diverse athletes is fueled by fear and a moral panic as opposed to facts around what makes “a level playing field.”
Interweaving Harrison’s first-hand experience as a transgender athlete with exclusive accounts—from athletes, coaches, policymakers, and advocates on the front lines—Let Us Play dismantles the illusion that sports have ever been fair, that trans athletes pose a threat to women’s sports, and that gender-affirming healthcare for athletes should be prohibitive to play.
Calling for a reframing of the binaries from youth and high school levels all the way to the national leagues, Browne and Browne offer a new path forward, led by solutions proposed by gender diverse athletes themselves.
(Out) on the Road: The Radical Joy of Queer Travel by Lindsey Danis
Queer people spend around $100 billion annually on travel, and are twice as likely as the general population to hold a passport. In short, they love to travel!
Despite their lavish spending, queer travelers are often underserved. They are either overlooked when it comes to travel guides, or are encouraged to stick to a handful of “safe” destinations. This conventional wisdom doesn’t build their confidence or validate their identities. Nor does it teach them how to advocate for themselves as travelers or plan off-the-beaten-path adventures to new places. And, with the advent of anti-LGBTQ+ policies across the United States and elsewhere, travel has become more fraught than ever for queer individuals.
Weaving personal experience with data and interviews, (Out) On the Road empowers LGBTQ+ travelers to face their fears, expand their comfort zones, find community, and thrive on the road. This book provides readers with a framework for planning travel, navigating risks, and becoming self-reliant. Written in a tone that centers female and nonbinary points of view, (Out) On the Road offers a deep dive into the queer travel experience.
The LGBTQ+ Mental Health Workbook by Kiki Fehling, PhD
If you identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, or queer, and you are also struggling with a mental health issue such as trauma, depression, or anxiety, you are not alone. LGBTQ+ folks are at a greater risk for mental health challenges―often as a result of discrimination, harassment, violence, and other forms of bigotry. This workbook offers powerful and compassionate tools you can use to improve your well-being, find emotional balance, connect with a vibrant and joyful community, and thrive.
Written by a queer therapist, this evidence-based workbook outlines the core skills of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)―mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness―to improve your mental health and help you embrace who you are. You’ll learn to manage intense emotions, overcome fear and anxiety, and cultivate resilience and self-compassion. And finally, you’ll discover strategies to help you cope with stigma, challenge negative self-talk, and live a full and meaningful life as your authentic self.
This empowering workbook will help you:
- Work through difficult thoughts and feelings
- Overcome stigma, fear, and shame
- Cultivate self-acceptance and build self-worth
- Build or connect with a community
- Celebrate who you are!
Do Ask, Do Tell: Queer Life, Love and Culture Laid Bare by Lotte Jeffs, Stu Oakley
What is a black cat lesbian? Is ‘aromantic’ a sexuality or a preference? How are bisexual and pansexual different? What’s it like to be queer and religious? Does Gen Z do darkrooms? How do you navigate life as a OAQ (Old Age Queer)? What does trans euphoria feel like? Why is nightlife so central to the community? What is camp today?
As queer people themselves, authors Lotte Jeffs and Stu Oakley knew they didn’t have all the answers, because their individual experience represents a single pixel of the rainbow. Do Ask, Do Tell is an unapologetically curious journey through the dazzling spectrum of queer life that will give people – queer, straight, cis and everything in-between – the confidence to say ‘I don’t know’.
With humor, warmth, and radically open minds, Stu and Lotte tackle the questions you may have avoided asking for fear of getting it wrong. Covering everything from ageing to open relationships, darkrooms to Drag Kings, camp to carabinas, as well as the intricacies of gender and sexuality.
This insightful and provocative exploration challenges assumptions, shatters taboos, and opens up the conversation. Whether you’re seeking clarity for your cis straight self or deeper insight as a member of the community, this book is your guide to better understanding and celebrating the richness of queer life.
The Lesbian Bar Chronicles by Rachel Karp
A grassroots tour of the nation’s lesbian bars that illuminates their past, present, and hopeful future, from the co-creator of the hit podcast Cruising
Lesbian bars are so much more than a place to get a drink. For over a century, they’ve acted as community posts, political organizing grounds, and sanctuaries. Yet whereas in the 1980s there were an estimated 200 lesbian bars across the US, the current count sits at a few dozen.
In The Lesbian Bar Chronicles, author and co-creator of the hit podcast Cruising Rachel Karp embarks across the country with her wife and best friend to chronicle the stories of the remaining US lesbian bars. Recent narratives have claimed lesbian bars are dying, but Karp’s group finds many of the places they visit to be thriving, their communities sustaining themselves over decades of change and challenges.
Weaving together over 100 hours of immersive interviews with bar owners, staff, and regulars, Karp highlights places like
-Chicago spot Nobody’s Darling, where readers meet “the mayor” Shirley J, who in the 1970s was instrumental in the birth of house music
–Frankie’s in Oklahoma City, where readers attend a “family night” to learn how a lesbian bar can birth a chosen family
–Redz, a Chicana lesbian bar in East LA involved in the precedent setting court case that followed years of arrests for patrons wearing men’s clothing
A heartfelt reclamation of queer history and queer lives, Karp’s narrative examines how these beacons for community and inclusion can teach us to live openly, cultivate connection, and continue to take up space.
Queers at the Table: An Illustrated Guide to Queer Food (With Recipes) ed. by Alex D. Ketchum and Megan J. Elias
An anthology of essays, comics, and recipes that reveals the dynamic and transformative relationship between queerness and food
Food has long played an important role in queer culture. Lesbian- and queer women–run feminist restaurants, cafes, and coffeehouses have been safe spaces for queer and trans folk where gender norms can be challenged and where female authority is legitimized. During the AIDS epidemic, gay men and their allies centered food as an expression of collective care for those who needed it most. And queer and trans folk have asserted themselves in a restaurant culture largely controlled by white cisgender men.
Queers at the Table celebrates the various intersections between queers and food. In its essays, comics, and recipes, the book shows how this shared culture fosters connections, defies norms, honours legacies, and creates community. Taylor Hartson and Tristian Lee write about a queer farming community in which queerness is part of a broad network of living things to be enjoyed and shared; Danielle Kydd writes about food security issues as faced by LGBTQ2S+ folk; and Blue Delliquanti’s comic on urban foraging in Minneapolis demonstrates the role of a queer friend group in a local ecosystem.
In full color throughout, Queers at the Table is a diverse and enriching anthology that reveals the myriad nurturing ways that queerness informs food production and restaurant culture and how food empowers, transforms, and unites queer and trans folk.
The Fight of Our Lives: AIDS in America by David Levithan and Gabriel Duckels
A thoughtful, poignant look at the AIDS crisis in the United States that includes primary source interviews, history, medical research, and cultural touchpoints.
The AIDS crisis in America is complex and composed of countless individual stories of grief, love, and advocacy. Its history shows the power of youth activism, how creativity and community can be vehicles for social change, and how bigotry and misinformation led to inequality in care.
The early days of the AIDS crisis saw LGBTQ+ and other marginalized communities making strides in the fight for equality. As many people in positions of power were slow to act or actively didn’t pay attention until their own communities were affected, the fight for equality turned into a fight for their lives. Grassroots efforts filled in gaps where mainstream medicine and politics failed, and over time, a cultural shift of awareness emerged, which led to more research and more treatments. And while the disease has transitioned from a death sentence to one that people can live full lives with, there are still people dying of HIV/AIDS today because they can’t access the care they need. The fight may have begun decades ago, but is not yet over.
Award-winning author David Levithan and University of Cambridge PhD Gabriel Duckels detail a brief history of the epidemic, touching on key moments and figures, such as Ryan White, ACT UP, Larry Kramer and Anthony Fauci, Pedro Zamora from MTV’s The Real World, and the Names Quilt. Threaded throughout are poems, essays, and other creative works, in addition to first-person interviews and narratives. The most important takeaway is that we must remember. We need to know what happened and why. Our voices are powerful, and they can make a difference.
Uncanny Valley Girls: Essays on Horror, Survival, and Love by Zefyr Lisowski
This is how it worked: first I loved them, and then I loved myself.
At twenty-seven, poet Zefyr Lisowski found herself in the place she feared most: a locked psych ward. While inside, she turned to horror movies—her deepest, most constant comfort.
Rather than disturb, scary movies have always provided solace and connection for Lisowski, as they do many others—offering a vision of a world filled equally with beauty and pain, and a reason to reach out to others and hold them tight. After all, as Lisowski argues, what terrifies us most about these movies is our own uncanny reflection—and at the root of that fear, a desperate desire to love and be loved.
In these wide-ranging essays, Lisowski weaves theory and memoir into nuanced critiques of films such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Saint Maud. From fears about sickness and disability, to trans narratives and the predator/victim complex, to the struggle to live in a world that wants you dead, she explores horror’s reciprocal impact on our culture and—by extension—our lives. Through it all, Lisowski lays bare her own complex biography—spanning from a trans childhood in the South to the sweaty dancefloors of Brooklyn—and the family, friends, and lovers that have bloomed with her into the present.
Spawning Season: An Experiment in Queer Parenthood by Joseph Osmundson
Since grade school, Joseph Osmundson dreamed of being pregnant. As he grew into the queer scientist he is today, the economic precarity of academia and the warming planet led to his decision not to reproduce. That is, until a lesbian couple he had known since college came to him with a proposition: would Joe be a bio-dad and would he co-parent alongside them?
Soon everything was falling into place. But when the two partners communicated their need for a child to reflect their own racial backgrounds, Joe’s whiteness exposed fault lines in their parenting journey. Spawning Season is a genre-bending memoir that treats the scientific as integral to the personal and that builds an entire species of the grief we carry in our bodies. In exploratory prose that builds on the work of Donna Haraway and José Esteban Muñoz, Osmundson considers the ethics of child-rearing in the 21st century, the brutal wonder of caregiving, and the joys and intricacies of building family beyond biology.
The Can-Do Mindset by Candace Parker
Candace Parker is a living legend. Her storied career includes three WNBA titles, two Olympic gold medals, and countless MVP Awards. Her career accolades are endless and her impact on the WNBA beyond measure, but Candace is even more inspiring off the court. A proud wife and mother of three, whose love story resonated with the LGBTQ+ community around the world, Candace is fiercely purpose-driven, paving the way for the WNBA’s rise in American culture, and for female basketballers to have the impact and platform that used to be reserved for the NBA. But this success didn’t happen by accident. From the start, Candace turned her childhood nickname, Can-Do, into a daily mantra that helped her overcome enormous physical and mental hurdles while embracing her vulnerability. In her first-ever book, Candace breaks down the ultimate recipe for success, drawn from the experiences that made her a better person and player. CAN-DO becomes an acronym to live by:
Learn from and lean on your Community
Show up as Authentically you
Realize that Negativity is a part of life
Embrace the excitement of the everyday Dash
And fight for Opportunity for yourself and others.
It’s how Candace has succeeded on the court and off, and it can help readers do so, too. Told through personal stories, The Can-Do Mindset is for Candace’s countless fans who want to see behind the curtain of her meteoric career and life, and for all of us who could learn from an icon who lives bravely, unapologetically, and guided by purpose.
Queer Saints: A Radical Guide to Magic, Miracles, and Modern Intercession by Antonio Pagliarulo
Everyone has patron saints, even the marginalized who may feel abandoned and removed from the tradition of saint veneration. Antonio Pagliarulo, author of The Evil Eye, grew up among Italian immigrants, practitioners of folk magic and saint veneration. A lifelong lover of saints, he seeks to bring their blessings to those who have long felt cut off from these traditions. Queer Saints is not only a compendium of queer people who have lived extraordinary lives, accomplished extraordinary feats, and who now dwell comfortably in the spirit realm; it is also a spiritual gateway that invites you to explore more deeply the power of folk magic and its practices, of co-creation, allyship, and mystical solidarity.
Saints derive from many spiritual and religious traditions, not just Roman Catholicism. No canonization process is required for folk saints, also known as unofficial saints. Pagliarulo offers readers a wide range of saints that includes the traditional, such as Mary Magdalene, Francis of Assisi, and Hildegard of Bingen, as well as re-envisioned saints specifically for a queer constituency. These include Saint David Bowie, Saint Freddie Mercury, Saint Alexander McQueen, Saint Moms Mabley, and Saint André Leon Talley. Pagliarulo offers practical information on how to venerate them―from building altars to making offerings. Whether queer themselves, or people whose allyship or achievements are embraced by the queer community, queer saints are a new and needed paradigm for those seeking new paths to meaning.
Both a primer on magical practice and a guide to radical transcendence and transformation, Queer Saints makes change and self-empowerment accessible to readers of all faiths and belief systems by spotlighting the transformative impact queer saints have had on our world and their burgeoning influence on our spiritual future.
Queer & Christian: Reclaiming the Bible, Our Faith, and Our Place at the Table by Brendan Robertson
Celebrate queer faith and take your rightful place at God’s table with Brandan Robertson, the “TikTok Pastor,” Biblical scholar, and social activist
For too long, the Bible has been weaponized to exclude LGBTQ+ individuals, despite Jesus’ radical message of inclusion. In Queer & Christian, Brandan Robertson envisions a faith where all are unequivocally embraced.
Ostracized at school, Brandan thought he had finally found his community when he joined the local church. But he soon realized that they were as intolerant as his peers at school had been―if not more so. After agonizing years of repressing his true identity, he discovered that God’s table had always had a place for him. Jesus’ love knows no bounds, embracing everyone unconditionally.
Queer & Christian is a joyful celebration of queer faith and an unyielding reclamation of the Bible. Dive into pages that offer:
-Compelling, evidence-based counterarguments to the “clobber verses” often used to condemn queerness
-Celebrations of queer saints within the Bible―more numerous than you might believe!
-Responses to commonly asked questions by queer folks and allies who’re feeling lost within the Christian faith
Brandan Robertson stands as a beacon of love, hope, and unwavering support for anyone ready to reclaim their faith from the clutches of intolerance.
Mighty Real: A History of LGBTQ Music, 1969-2000 by Barry Walters
The definitive history of LGBTQ music, from Stonewall to RuPaul, and its impact on culture and American life
From the underground dancefloors of the Seventies to the global charts of the Nineties, LGBTQ artists and audiences shaped music’s sound, style, and spirit. In Mighty Real, veteran journalist Barry Walters chronicles its LGBTQ history from the Velvet Underground to the 21st century’s dawn as he honors the artists who redefined gender, defied tradition, and dared to challenge sexual norms with the help of a record business that wasn’t as straight as commonly believed.
Drawing on his decades as a New York- and San Francisco-based music critic, Walters examines how LGBTQ musicians, music industry executives, and fans reshaped the mainstream. He connects the dots between David Bowie’s dazzling reinventions, Grace Jones’s androgynous glamor, Prince’s boundary-shattering sexuality, and the radical candor of the Indigo Girls to prove they’re all doing the same thing: fighting oppression.
With exuberance, insight, and encyclopedic knowledge, Walters brings to life the songs and society that filled dancefloors, bedrooms, and streets as he uncovers yesteryear’s coded LGBTQ messages that paved the way for today’s unabashedly queer hits. Mighty Real is a masterful love letter to the music that liberated generations, and it’s written in a page-turning, personal way that blurs distinctions between chronicle and memoir. This is the rare and revolutionary music history told to help you laugh, cry, and then rally against lingering inequality.
Trans Cinema by Laura Horak
An exciting introduction to cinema by the trans creators who are innovating filmmaking to imagine a more inclusive world.
Since the 1990s, a largely underground upwelling of trans creativity has helped new trans identities, communities, and political movements come together. In Trans Cinema, Laura Horak provides an entryway to the wildly diverse and creative cinema made by trans creators, including those who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Overlooked until now, this rich collection of media ranges in genre from romantic comedies to horror films and asks essential questions about how to be human and how to craft a livable life in a world on fire.
Using the fundamentals of film studies, Horak reveals the innovative approaches taken by trans and gender-nonconforming artists to explore how we relate to other people, what it’s like to have a body, and how we survive in an oppressive society. These filmmakers tackle the challenging paradox of representing trans lives when greater visibility is associated with ever-increasing levels of harm. In the process, they produce art that emphasizes trans survival and resilience and imagines a more expansive world for trans communities.
Lost and Found: A Compassionate Guide to Homeownership by Mercury Stardust (September 15, 2026)
The trans handy ma’am is back … and this time she’s buying a house and taking her loyal audience along on the journey
Buying your first home can be an intimidating process filled with questions and uncertainties—how do you know you’re working with a trustworthy lender? What are closing costs and how much should you budget for them? Can you actually afford to fix a fixer-upper?
In this successor to the #1 New York Times bestseller Safe and Sound, Mercury Stardust demystifies the path to homeownership and sets you up for homeowning success. Learn about the ups and downs of the house hunting process—from putting in an offer to going through inspections and closing—and then join Mercury as she tackles her first year with a fixer-upper that needs to be renovated and updated.
With DIY projects and guides for renovating and maintaining every part of your new house, as well as with tips for weather-proofing and maintaining outdoor spaces like a deck or garden, Lost and Found will empower you to create your dream home. Mercury reveals the good, the bad, and the ugly, including all the emotional highs and lows when things break, emergencies arise, and the unexpected inevitably happens.
We’re Here, We’re Queer!: A History of LGBTQ+ Activism by David Roberts (October 6, 2026)
This illustrated history of LGBTQ+ activism brings to life stories of resistance, friendship, love, fear, division, unity, and astonishing perseverance in the face of discrimination and oppression. From the secret slang adopted by gay Londoners in the 1960s to decades of sit-ins and marches, from the Stonewall uprising to the dazzling history of drag, this is a wide-ranging and inclusive account of a multifaceted movement that continues to this day. Evocative prose puts readers deeply into key moments and showcases the words and personalities of figures from queer history, including Harvey Milk, Julian Hows, Carla Toney, Crystal LaBeija, We’wha, Vincent Jones, Marsha P. Johnson, Alan Turing, Sylvia Rivera, and many more.
Masterful and joyful artwork by beloved author-illustrator David Roberts makes this a keepsake book for queer families and anyone who values the history of this struggle. David Roberts includes hundreds of portraits, giving faces AND voices to often overlooked heroes. He includes a personal introduction and fact-filled timelines; back matter includes a bibliography and an afterword from This Book Is Gay author Juno Dawson.
