Tag Archives: When Brooklyn Was Queer

Happy LGBT History Month!

Happy LGBT History Month! We are, of course, celebrating as we celebrate everything over here – with books! Specifically, with both fiction and nonfiction that pay tribute to LGBT history.

Fiction

Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian

It’s 1989 in New York City, and for three teens, the world is changing.

Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city with his mother to live with his stepfather and stepbrother. He’s terrified that someone will guess the truth he can barely acknowledge about himself. Reza knows he’s gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media’s images of men dying of AIDS.

Judy is an aspiring fashion designer who worships her uncle Stephen, a gay man with AIDS who devotes his time to activism as a member of ACT UP. Judy has never imagined finding romance…until she falls for Reza and they start dating.

Art is Judy’s best friend, their school’s only out and proud teen. He’ll never be who his conservative parents want him to be, so he rebels by documenting the AIDS crisis through his photographs.

As Reza and Art grow closer, Reza struggles to find a way out of his deception that won’t break Judy’s heart—and destroy the most meaningful friendship he’s ever known.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N

Continue reading Happy LGBT History Month!

Fave Five: Nonfiction About Queer NYC

When Brooklyn Was Queer by Hugh Ryan

Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies: Performance, Race, and Sexuality in the Harlem Renaissance by James F. Wilson

And the Category Is…: Inside New York’s Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community by Ricky Tucker

Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World 1890-1940 by George Chauncey

Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City by Elyssa Maxx Goodman