Rainbow History
June 8, 2023
Do you know why Pride Month is held in June? On June 28th of 1969, police raided a gay club in Greenwich Village, New York City, called The Stonewall Inn. Instead of passively watching the raid, patrons of the club fought back and sparked what’s now known as the Stonewall Uprising. The uprising lasted over six days after the Stonewall raid and started the modern fight for gay rights.
Unfamiliar with this event? Want to learn more? Take time this June to learn about LGBTQIA+ history by reading a book from this list!
The Stonewall Reader by The New York Public Library; foreword by Edmund White; edited with an introduction by Jason Baumann
Because I mentioned the Stonewall Uprising in my introduction, The Stonewall Reader must be first on the list. 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, and the NYPL organized this anthology to coincide with an exhibition about Stonewall and gay liberation they showcased that year. This book is a collection of first-person accounts, diaries, literature from the time, and much more to showcase how life was five year before the uprising, the uprising itself, and five years after.
The Gay Revolution: the story of the struggle by Lilian Faderman
This 2015 Booklist’s Editors’ Choice – Best Social Sciences Books award winner is still an impactful book in 2023. Faderman, a prominent queer history scholar, digs deep into media and legislative archives to construct a comprehensive picture of the struggle for rights in the gay community. The sweeping and engaging narrative she presents starts during World War II and ends at the turn of the millennium.
Reclaiming Two-Spirits: sexuality, spiritual renewal, and sovereignty in Native America by Gregory Smithers
Queerness is a facet of every society, including native societies. Smithers draws on written sources, archaeological evidence, art, and oral storytelling to create a sweeping history of indigenous traditions of gender and sexuality. He also depicts how despite centuries of colonialism, Two-Spirit people are reclaiming their place in native nations.
Before We Were Trans: a new history of gender by Kit Heyam
Taking a global look at the history of gender non-conformity, Heyam examines the stories of people from antiquity to the present who defied categorization. These stories cover a wide variety of perspectives that are often left out of the trans narrative.
How to Survive a Plague by David France
Candid and moving, this definitive history of the battle against the AIDS epidemic shares the stories of gay activities who resolved to make their life battles purposeful. Covering things through a mix of memoir and reportage, France covers the spread of the disease, the ACT UP movement, and the drug that revolutionized treatment.
The Engagement: America's quarter-century struggle over same-sex marriage by Sasha Issenberg
Depending on your age, you may remember the day (June 26th, 2015) the Supreme Court ruled that bans on gay marriage were unconstitutional. The road to this decision is much longer than people know. Issenberg takes us back to Hawaii in the 1990s when that state’s supreme court began grappling with the issue and traces the fight for marriage equality from there.
Bad Gays: a homosexual history by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller
Based on the hugely popular podcast series of the same name, this book seeks to identify the queer people whose sexuality and dastardly deeds have been overlooked. The authors of this book subvert the notion of gay icons and queer heroes in search of what can be learned through queer villains and baddies.
The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. The United States of America by Eric Cervini
You might not have learned about the Lavender Scare in the 1950s, which happened in tandem with McCarthyism, in high school history class. In short, if government employees were found to be gay, they were dismissed under the guise of being easily manipulated by a foreign power (particularly Russia). This book covers the life of Frank Kameny, his humiliating dismissal from the Defense Department, and the group he founded that protested the systematic persecution of gay federal employees.
A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski
Accessible and comprehensive, this text examines how American culture has shaped the queer experience, while outlining how queer people were pivotal in creating and shaping this country. Covering centuries of history through primary documents and other literature, this book is brimming with often unknown or ignored facets of American history. Thought-provoking, this book argues this history should be important to both the queer community and American at large.