36 Free LGBTQ+ Publications for Pride Month

Books, poetry, short stories, histories, zines, and other resources to explore LGBTQ+ literature, art, history, and culture throughout June

In honor of Pride month and in light of the many book bans currently being enacted in schools and libraries across the country**, I’ve compiled a list of 36 LGBTQ+ publications that are freely available online, plus a list of other online resources that I came across while researching this list. Most of them I haven’t read yet, but I’m excited to read them all*** (and the ones I have read - Carmilla and Leaves of Grass - I can definitely recommend). From public domain classics to webcomics to online archives of zines and oral histories, this list takes full advantage of the creative and archival work done by an army of artists, scholars, and volunteers. 

I strove to include as much variety as possible in both identity representation and genre. The list contains short stories, memoirs, novels, comics, novellas, poetry, zines, histories, and more. Its fiction draws from literary fiction, fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, contemporary fiction, romance, horror, satire and folktale. There is representation from a variety of identities: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, queer, asexual, two-spirit, and - as terms of self-definition have shifted over time and censorship being what it was when much of public domain literature was written - more ambiguous identities, not to mention a variety of races and nationalities. 

So, please take this opportunity to enjoy LGBTQ+ literature this month. As long as we have the internet, queer art and culture can never be fully hidden or taken away. Happy reading!

** Use this link to get past paywalls while archiving the page for future viewers 

*** I may post reviews in this newsletter as I do read them.

List of 36 Free LGBTQ+ Publications (in no particular order):

1. Stone Butch Blues (Leslie Feinberg)

   • A 1993 historical fiction novel, inspired by Leslie Feinberg’s experiences growing up as a butch lesbian in 1970s America. Realistic portrayals of bigotry, activism, and queer love make this a staple of LGBTQ+ literature. The author worked up to a few days before her death to edit the 20th Anniversary edition and make it free on her website. 

2. Iolaus: An Anthology of Friendship (Edward Carpenter)

   • A 1902 anthology of verse and prose dedicated to relationships between men, celebrating stories of male friendship and unions throughout history. 

3. Bertram Cope’s Year (Henry Blake Fuller)

   • One of several contenders on this list for the “first American homosexual novel” with a publication date of 1919, this book follows a young English instructor who becomes the object of desire of an older woman, two older men, and three young women, while the young man himself is most attached to his college friend, now roommate. The text isn’t explicit about whether characters’ relationship desires are social, emotional, sexual, or romantic, but a homosexual relationship between the two younger men is strongly implied. The novel also includes musings on social expectations for men and women. 

4. Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers (Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett)

   • A 2017 collection of 25 science fiction and fantasy short stories from transgender writers. Draws from many genres and sub-genres (horror, dystopian, alternate reality, mythical past, speculative fiction, cyberpunk, and traditional science fiction and fantasy) to present a variety of transgender experiences and sexualities, including several sapphic stories. Released under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike License. 

5. Mixed Up! A Zine About Mixed Race Queer + Feminist Experience (Edited by Lee Naught, Lil Lefkowitz, & Lior Hadar)

   • A 2013 collection of poetry, essays, and art from 30 mixed race, queer, and feminist perspectives. 

6. Lolly Willowes (Sylvia Townsend Warner)

   • A 1926 satyrical novel with fantasy elements about "a middle-aged spinster who moves to a country village to escape her controlling relatives and takes up the practice of witchcraft”. In addition to this inspiring feminist asexual representation, this novel was also the very first pick for the Book of the Month Book Club. (Yes, the very same one that floods your BookTok ads. The business goes all the way back to 1926!) 

7. Carmilla (J. Sheridan Le Fanu)

   • An obvious pick for fans of Dracula Daily, this 1872 horror novella features a homoerotic relationship between an isolated young woman, Laura, and her predatory vampire friend, Carmilla. There are two different tumblr book club subscriptions on Substack for this novel: Carmilla Quarterly and Carmilla Weekly. Also check out the 2014 YouTube web series inspired by the novella. For more works of gay Victorian vampire fiction, try The Vampyre (1819) by John William Polidori or Sardia: A Story of Love (1891) by Cora Linn Daniels. 

8. Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania (Bayard Taylor)

   • An 1870 novel about a wealthy young farmer, Joseph Aster, who, although engaged to a young woman, develops a strong friendship with Philip Held, the man who cares for him during a train crash. Joseph’s  marriage is revealed to be cold and corrupt. His wife soon dies of arsenic poisoning and Joseph is suspected of murdering her, but Philip launches an investigation to clear his name. Although the novel ends on a bittersweet heterosexual note, it has been regarded by some as “America’s first homosexual novel” due to the strong attachment between the two male leads and their praise of this friendship as meeting needs that cannot be met within the patterns of society. 

9. Mademoiselle de Maupin (Théophile Gautier)

   • An 1897 romance novel following the love triangle between a man, his mistress, and the titular La Maupin, a woman disguised as a man. Originally based on the true history of the cross-dressing, swashbuckling opera singer Julie d’Aubigny, Mademoiselle Maupin, the novel diverged significantly as it was written. It turned into a tale of sexual intrigue and philosophical musings, with a dash of humor and literary elegance. 

10. The Girl Who Was a Boy (Romanian folktale, adapted by Paul B. Sturtevant)

    • A gender-affirming fairytale, first collected as a Romanian folktale, then translated in 1894 into French, then into English in 1901 as part of Andrew Lang and Leonora Blanche Allenye’s Violet Fairy Book, and finally adapted for the 21st century in 2019 with modernized and gender-affirming language. Not to give too much away, the story involves an evil emperor, a prince in disguise, a talking horse, a hermit’s curse, and a happy ending. The modern translator, Paul B. Sturtevant, further discusses the tale in this article.

11. On a Sunbeam (Tillie Walden)

    • A science fiction webcomic, launched in 2016, about Mia, the new member of a spaceship crew dedicated to finding and restoring broken-down structures. As Mia gets to know the crew, she reveals her search for lost love. Includes sapphic romance, a non-binary character, and found family **IN SPAACEE**. 

12. LGBTQ America (NPS)

    • From the US National Parks Service, a 2016 non-fiction report on LGBTQ history in America, written and peer-reviewed by experts. It treats LGBTQ history as an American heritage to be preserved and shared. Sections include: Preserving LGBTQ History (collecting, preserving, and excavating LGBTQ heritage), Inclusive Stories (intersectional narratives from Bisexual, Native American, Transgender, Asian Pacific American, Latina/o, and African American viewpoints), LGBTQ Themes (how LGBTQ history and heritage connects with Community, Business, Love, Civil Rights, Landmarks, Military Service, Religion, Health, Art, and Sports), Places (LGBTQ history in San Francisco, New York City, Miami, Reno, and Chicago), and Legacy (how LGBTQ sites and stories are preserved, interpreted, and taught). 

13. The Poems of Sappho (translated by John Myers O’Hara) 

    • This 1910 edition is the most popular of several English translations of Sappho’s poetry available on Project Gutenberg. Sappho was an ancient Greek lyric poet whose name and origin on the island of Lesbos originated the terms sapphic and lesbian to describe relationships between women. In addition to romantic and erotic elements, her work includes many odes to nature and to ancient Greek deities. There is also a public domain biography of Sappho titled Sappho and Her Influence (1924) by David M. Robinson. 

14. The Satyricon (Gaius Petronius, translated by W.C. Firebaugh)

    • The Satyricon is a work of satire, first written in Latin in the late first century AD. As The Guardian puts it, “The Satyricon, only fragments of which survive, relates the adventures of the narrator, Encolpius, and his shifty friend Ascyltos as they vie for the love of Giton, Encolpius's lusty adolescent slave who is constantly prey to more or less welcome sexual advances.” Wikipedia describes it as “contain[ing] a mixture of prose and verse; serious and comic elements; and erotic and decadent passages.” Although not designed to appeal to today’s sensibilities, the story offers humor and a bawdy glimpse into the homosexual practices of ancient Rome. It is known for being referenced in the works of Oscar Wilde, Gore Vidal, and other figures of gay literature.

15. I, Mary MacLane: A Diary of Human Days (Mary MacLane)

    • The 1917 autobiography of Canadian-American writer Mary MacLane, a vocal feminist activist and openly bisexual woman. Scandalous and fiery, the book openly discusses MacLane’s feminism and sapphic relationships, as well as her life experiences in New York, Boston, in World War I and returning to her hometown, Butte, Montana. 

16. The Female Husband (Henry Fielding)

    • "The Female Husband: Or, The Surprising History of Mrs. Mary, Alias Mr. George Hamilton, Who was convicted of having married a Young Woman of Wells and lived with her as her Husband - Taken From Her own Mouth since her Confinement” is a 1746 penny-dreadful-style pamphlet that, loosely based on real events, tells the tale of a trans man who falls afoul of the law, not only for “impersonating” another gender, but for marrying multiple women under deceitful pretense. 

17. Whym Chow: Flame of Love (Michael Field)

    • A 1914 poetry collection from lesbian authors Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper, writing together under the pen name Michael Field. Their poetic work includes passionate love poems to each other. This particular volume is named after Whym Chow, a beloved pet dog that they owned together. 

18. Two-Spirited People of Manitoba Oral Histories (The University of Winnipeg) 

    • A collection of ten oral history interviews with two-spirited people from Manitoba, collected in 2018 by Two-Spirited People of Manitoba, Inc., the University of Winnipeg Archives, and the Oral History Centre at the University of Winnipeg. Topics include experiences at Two-Spirit gatherings, rites of passage, the experience of being Two-Spirited, community responses to Two-Spirited people, and what interviewees expect for Two-Spirited people of the future. 

19. An Anglo-American Alliance: A Serio-Comic Romance and Forecast of the Future (Gregory Casparian)

    • The first lesbian science fiction novel, published in 1906. Set in the far future of 1960, the world is beginning to form its first world government through the Anglo-American federation. Two young women meet at a ladies’ seminary and become secretly romantically involved. Thanks to the technology of the future, one of the woman seeks a sex-change operation, that allows them to marry and live happily ever after. Also, there are aliens! discovered on other planets, but they aren’t part of the central plot line. 

20. Moby Dick (Herman Melville)

    • In addition to its story of Captain Ahab’s obsessive pursuit of the great white whale and the author’s many digressions on whaling, this 1851 novel features the homosocial relationships of sailors, including the implied sexual relationship between the narrator, Ishmael, and his bedmate, Queequeg. You may have already signed up for Whale Weekly or Moby Dick Summer to communally enjoy this hefty piece of classic literature. Allow me to also recommend this weekly webcomic adaptation, launched in 2021, which plays up that good queer content. 

21. Leaves of Grass (Walt Whitman)

    • An 1855 poetry collection with themes of life, humanity, nature, philosophy, and sensuality. Known for its unusual poetic form, which does not follow any standard rules for meter, line length, or rhyme, managing to be both prosy and lyrical at the same time. Romantic and sexual imagery are present throughout the collection. The “Calamus” section of the book contains poems that are believed to reference Whitman’s relationships with men.

22. The Incredibly True Adventures of a Kid and His Starship (Jemez Terry aka Vermicious Knid)

    • A personal zine, created in 2002, recounting the sexual misadventures of a trans boy getting it on in nature, plus musings on self-expression through the titular starship, an aggressively bumper-stickered car named Vermes, all presented in a poetic collage format. 

23. Queer & Trans Futurisms: A BIPOC Visions Zine (The students of Queer and Trans of Color Visions - Spring 2021 course at University of Colorado - Boulder)

    • A 2021 zine created by students to present information on a variety of topics theorized by trans and queer BIPOC visionaries, topics at the intersection of LGBTQ+ identity, activism, and decolonization. Topics include decolonization, abolition, trans and two-spirit liberation, anti-pink washing and homonationalism, disability justice, pleasure politics, mutual aid, and trans abolitionist visions. 

24. Heartless (Emily Griggs)

    • For vampire fans who have already read Dracula (1897), Carmilla (1872), and Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819), get your queer vampire fix with the Heartless webcomic, launched in 2014. As the author describes it, “Heartless is an action/adventure webcomic … about vampires, self-discovery, more vampires, the struggle against oppression, and very pretty dresses. The entire main cast is LGBTQIA+ with an explicitly asexual protagonist”. It follows Clara Adams as she is transformed into a vampire and embroiled in an inter-vampire conflict for control of Victorian London.  

25. On a Grey Thread (Elsa Gidlow)

    • The first volume of openly lesbian love poetry published in North America, with a publication date of 1923, expressing both Gidlow's desires and her political ideology. 

26. The Trial of Oscar Wilde (1906)

    • The earliest publication, outside of censored newspaper reports, chronicling the complicated trial of author Oscar Wilde for ‘acts of gross indecency’ with other men. This 1906 account contains Wilde’s famous defense of ’the love that dare not speak its name’. Even prior to this trial, many of Oscar Wilde’s novels and plays were known for their homosexual allusions, particularly The Picture of Dorian Gray, which is still widely read today, including as a Substack bookclub this June.

27. The Fox (D. H. Lawrence)

    • A 1923 novella following two women living on a farm together, believing that they will never marry. A fox raids their poultry but always seems to elude the women. One of the women becomes entranced with the fox and soon with a young man who comes to stay with the two women. Although the nature of the relationship between the two women is ambiguous, a lesbian or bisexual reading of the novella is very possible. Other themes of the work include gender roles, sexuality, femininity, and the pity of war. 

28. My Adventures in Trousers (Theodore Hoffman)

    • A 1902 newspaper interview with a trans bellboy, Theodore Hoffman, who faced personal and political conflict, as well as jail time when he ran afoul of anti-crossdressing laws of the time. The introduction is derisive and misgendering, but the majority of the article is told in Theodore’s own words and includes reflections on his relationship to gender and his love of being a bellhop. Thanks to Eli Erlick for drawing attention to this story on tumblr. 

29. O Human Star (Blue Delliquanti)

    • A science fiction webcomic, launched in 2012, following the two lives of Al Sterling, inventor of the modern robot. After his death, his mind is put into a synthetic body and he has the opportunity to see the robotic future that his inventions have created. The webcomic explores questions of gender, humanity, and love through gay, trans, and non-human characters. 

30. Out of the Closets and Into the Libraries (The Bangarang Collective)

    • A 2005 zine that presents LGBTQ history as a “collection of radical queer moments” from The Gay Liberation Front to the Stonewall Riots to the Combahee River Collective, and other lesser known moments in queer history and activism. 

31. Lavender Woman (Independent Voices on JSTOR)

    • A collection of 26 issues of Lavender Woman, a Chicago lesbian and feminist newspaper from the 70s. Contents include thought-piece articles, personal essays, art, poetry, letters, book reviews, announcements, advice, interviews, and more. 

32. Imre: A Memorandum (Edward Prime-Stevenson)

    • A 1906 novel following two men who meet at a cafe in Budapest and forge a romantic relationship. Its depiction of its gay relationship is frank rather than implied and it is the first American homosexual novel with a happy, affirmative ending. 

33. An Italian Garden: A Book of Songs (Agnes Mary Frances Robinson)

    • An 1897 collection of poetry on themes of love and nature, referencing the poet’s relationships with her husband and the traveling companion of her youth, Violet Paget. 

34. Transgender History in the United States (Genny Beemyn)

    • A promotional chapter of the 2014 non-fiction book Trans Bodies, Trans Selves edited by Laury Erickson-Schroth. This chapter gives a history of gender non-conformity in the United States, with several examples of interesting individuals, ideologies, and cultural practices as they developed over time. Highlights include non-binary gender in Native American Cultures, the development of drag communities, the rise of sexology and gender affirming medical treatment, and transgender activism. 

35. Two-Spirit: Conversations with Young Two-Spirit, Trans and Queer Indigenous People in Toronto (Marie Laing) 

    • A zine presenting MA research on how young trans, queer, and two-spirit Indigenous people use the word two-spirit, based on interviews conducted in Toronto in 1990. The author, themself a queer indigenous person, received a spectrum of responses to their query. The both quote liberally from these responses (including reproducing art created by respondents) and analyze common themes within the responses: two-spirit as an umbrella term, a way to express gender and sexuality, a community role with attendant gifts and responsibilities, a way to claim space and power, a spiritual state of embodying both male and female spirits, or a question to be asked rather than answered. 

36. A True History (Lucian)

    • This book, written by a Hellenized Syrian named Lucian of Samosata around 125 AD, is believed to be the first ever work of science fiction and one of the earliest novels in Western civilization. In a parody of epic travel narratives like The Odyssey, Lucian and his companions sail to the end of the world and are caught up in a whirlwind that takes them to the Moon. There, they find themselves caught up in a war between the king of the Moon and the king of the Sun over colonization of the Morning Star (Venus). Lucian describes the curious customs of the denizens of the Moon - all of whom are men, who marry each other and reproduce by carrying their children in the calf of the leg instead of the belly. For his efforts in fighting on behalf of the Moon, the king of the Moon offers Lucian his son’s hand in marriage, but Lucian turns him down in order to follow the call of adventure, returning with his crew to earth and meeting with a variety of other fantastical peoples along the way, including a society of fish people living inside the belly of a whale. 

Further Reading:

Here are links to more resources for LGBTQ+ literature and history that I came across while researching this list. They are arranged in QLGBTA+ order. Many of the links cross categories, but I’ve categorized them as best as I can based on their primary topics or what I was researching when I came across them. Many of them have links to public domain writings.

If a title published prior to 1927 (and therefore in the public domain) doesn’t have a link, try searching for it on The Online Books Page, Project Gutenberg, The Internet Archive, Hathi Trust, FadedPage, or Google Books. In some cases, you can also find audiobook versions on Librivox. For books published later, try your local library (don’t forget to ask about ebooks!) or bookstore. To avoid using Amazon, I like to use Thriftbooks for used books and Bookshop.org for new ones.

Links:

Queer (& General LGBTQ+):

• 13 Legally Free Digital Queer Books for Your Quarantine Needs (Casey, Autostraddle) 

  • A list of 13 free digital queer books and webcomics, with charming descriptions of each. Some of the links are out of date, mainly from webcomics being taken down after being published, but you can still seek these stories out at your local bookstore or library.

• Queer Life & Literature in the 19th Century (USF Libraries - Tampa Special Collection, ArcGIS Storymaps) 

  • A multimedia analysis of queer life and literature in the 19th century with spotlights on The Diaries of Dr. Ellis Hughes, Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, Joseph and His Friend, The Goblin Market, Swinburne’s Poems and Ballads, Carmilla, Sappho’s influence, An Italian Garden, Michael Field, Queer Erotica, Love’s Coming of Age, hellenistic revival, Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, Dracula, and the 19th Century’s influence on queer literature today. 

• LGBTQ Literature: 1890 - 1969 (Margaret Sonser Breen, Salem Press) 

  • Essay presenting an overview of LGBTQ Literature of the late 1800s and early 1900s, with their connections to social movements and the literature of other time periods. Part of a series of essays “On LGBTQ Literature”. 

• LGBT Literature Index (Wikipedia) 

  • Index of Wikipedia articles relating to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Literature and Community.  

• List of LGBT-Themed Speculative Fiction (Wikipedia) 

  • Wikipedia’s list of notable science fiction novels, short stories, and anthologies with LGBTQ+ characters or themes. Entries include a description of the LGBTQ+ content and are sortable by title, author, and year. The earliest is Lucian’s True History at 125 - 180 CE and the most recent is All The White Spaces from 2022. 

• Recommended LGBTQ+ Literature (JCLARKMEDIA.COM - LGBTQ+ Literature & Film) 

  • An extensive list of LGBTQ+ literature from throughout history, with links to public domain works and further resources where available. Includes explicitly queer works, works by queer authors, and works about sexual liberation and/or with homoerotic subtext. Categorized by genre and time period. 

• Love That Dare Not… (Librivox) 

  • An article featuring 10 public domain audiobooks relating to the “love that dare not speak its name”, LGBT relationships.

• QZAP - Queer Zine Archive 

  • A collection of over 500 digitized queer zines and other ephemera from the 1970s through 2010s. 

• Read a F*cking Zine: 50 Zines by Queer People of Color (Daniela Capistrano, Autostraddle) 

  • A list of 50 zines by queer people of color, some freely available on the internet and others for purchase. If nothing else, go take a look at all the cool covers. 

• LGBT Zine Collection (Independent Voices, Reveal Digital, JSTOR)

  • A collection of 34 digitized multi-issue LGBT zines, from the ‘50s through the ‘90s, with a short accompanying article praising their role in the LGBTQ civil rights movement. 

• GLBT Historical Society Collection (Internet Archive) 

  • A collection of public domain documents relating to GLBT history, including zines, newsletters, poetry, music, posters, programs, photos, videos, book lists, fliers, art, interviews, oral histories, radio broadcasts, and more. 

• Queer Futurities Issue of Research on Diversity in Youth Literature (Vol. 2, Iss. 1, 2019; St. Catherine University) 

  • A journal issue of Research on Diversity in Youth Literature focused on Queer Futurities, with articles discussing This One Summer, horror movies, innocence and hope, Steven Universe, and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. 

• GLBTQ Archives (Wik Wikholm) 

  • An online encyclopedia of queer works, events, and people in the arts, literature, social sciences, and history, with 35 additional in-depth essays and interviews. 

• Pride of Place: England’s LGBTQ Heritage (Historic England) 

  • A collection of articles telling the history of significant LGBTQ landmarks across England. Articles on a crowdsourced map of LGBTQ sites, identity, love, home, society, workplaces, laws, activism, architecture, landmarks, and scholarship as they relate to LGBTQ histories, as well as an article highlighting trans and GNC histories in England. 

Lesbian:

• 7 Lesbian and Bi Books Written Before the Well of Loneliness (Book Riot) 

  • A list and description of 7 sapphic books written before The Well of Loneliness, often cited as the first lesbian novel. 

• Lesbian Herstory Archives (NYC)

  • A collection of digitized audio interviews and oral histories from lesbians and other sapphic women, with some transcripts and visual media, collected at the Pratt Institute School of Information in Brooklyn, mainly in the 70s and 80s. 

Gay:

• Public Domain Books About Gay Men (Project Gutenberg) 

  • A short subject catalogue of public domain books about gay men from Project Gutenberg

• Gay History and Literature (Rictor Norton) 

  • Essays on Gay History and Literature, mainly in England, but across multiple time periods, with heavy reference to primary sources. I came across it through its “Gay Love Letters Through the Centuries Project” which quotes and analyzes love letters between men from ancient Rome through 1960, including famous figures such as Oscar Wilde, Lord Byron, and Walt Whitman. 

• William Dorsey Swann (Wikipedia)

  • The Wikipedia entry for William Dorsey Swann, a formerly-enslaved gay black man who is the first person known to self-identify as a "drag queen” and who acted as an activist for the queer community through organizing drag balls, for which he was arrested several times. 

Bisexual:

• Bisexual Stories: An Annotated Bi-Bliography (Robyn Nochs) 

  • A list of books (including fiction, non-fiction, poetry and short stories) that deal with bisexuality and/or bisexual characters, categorized by genre and by whether they deal with men, women, transgender people, or a mixture. Most have a sentence or two of content description.

• FIRE!!: Devoted to Younger Negro Artists (1926) Magazine 

  • A literary magazine of the Harlem renaissance "devoted to younger negro artists" which ended after its first 1926 issue. The story “Smoke, Lilies and Jade” by Richard Bruce is narrated through stream-of-consciousness by a bisexual man, with musings on his life and sexuality. Although intended as a novel, "Smoke, Lilies and Jade” was never completed and is now considered a short story. 

Transgender, Nonbinary, and Two-Spirit:

• Female Husbands by Jen Manion Review - A Trans History (The Guardian) 

  • A review of Female Husbands by Jen Manion, a book that collects and analyzes newspaper narratives of trans-masculine people from 18th and 19th centuries in Britain. Manion uses these stories to discuss gender norms of the time and the ubiquity of people re-constructing their gender throughout history. 

• Charles Hamilton (Wikipedia) 

  • Wikipedia entry for Charles Hamilton, a trans man who became well-known in newspaper reports of the 1700s for a court case prosecuting his vagrancy and deceitful sexuality. He inspired Henry Fielding’s pamphlet The Female Husband, included in the list above. 

• The Findings of C2C: Two Spirit & Queer / Trans People of Color - Calls to Action 2019 (The University of Winnipeg) 

  • The findings of the University of Winnipeg’s 2017 C2C conference, inviting Two-Spirited, Queer & Trans People of Color and their allies to discuss gender and sexual diversity in racialized contexts. After stating the urgency of action to address marginalization, discrimination, and violence, the report presents specific point-by-point calls to action in the categories of Community, Education, Government, Arts & Culture, and Relationships. 

• An Introduction to the Health of Two-Spirit People: Historical, Contemporary and Emergent Issues (Sarah Hunt, National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health, Canada) 

  • An introduction issues related to the health of Two-Spirit people in Canada, with chapters discussing Two-Spirit roles and identities, the impact of colonization on gender and sexual identity, social determinants of health (particularly discrimination, systemic invisibility, urbanity, and mobility), a literature review of health status among Two-Spirit people (focusing on violence, mental health, substance use, suicide, and HIV/AIDS), Two-Spirit youth health (perspectives, maltreatment, homelessness, and exploitation), and resiliency (building community, reclaiming identity, and acknowledgment within health discourse).  

• The Forgotten Trans History of the Wild West (Sabrina Imbler, Atlas Obscure) 

  • An article spotlighting the stories of several cross-dressing and gender non-conforming individuals from the Wild West of the late 1800s and early 1900s (as the article points out, the term transgender didn’t exist yet, so we don’t know whether these people would have applied it to themselves). 

• Frances Thompson (Wikipedia) 

  • The Wikipedia entry for Frances Thompson, a formerly enslaved black transgender woman who is believed to be the first transgender woman to testify before the US Congress, as she alongside four other black women to describe the terror, threats, coercion, rape, arson, theft, and deaths they experienced during the Memphis Riots of 1866. 

Asexual and Aromantic:

• Free/Online Aromantic & Asexual Fiction (Penny Stirling Speculation, WordPress) 

  • A list of free-to-read online fiction (prose stories, poems, comics, and podcasts) with asexual and/or aromantic spectrum characters. For the ones the collator has read, there are reviews. Otherwise there are links, short descriptions of the work, and markers for different types of character representation - asexual, aromantic, a-spectrum - and author self-identification. 

• The New Asexual Bookshelf (AVEN - The Asexual Visibility & Education Network) 

  • A forum thread collection of book titles with subjects or characters relating to asexuality, organized by genre. 

• The Spinster and Her Enemies: Feminism and Sexuality 1880-1930 (Shiela Jeffreys, GoogleBooks) 

  • A book exploring how narratives and politics of the late 1800s and early 1900s constructed “the spinster” as a figure connected variously with purity, activism, celibacy (and asexuality), lesbianism, and personal failure, all in connection to the gender roles and expectations assigned to women at the time. 

+ (Miscellaneous):

• Gender, Sexism, and the Middle Ages (The Public Medievalist) 

  • A collection of articles on sex and gender in the middle ages, with articles on myths about the time period, sexual assault, ladyhood, transgender historical figures and fairy tale characters, womanly voices and literature, the legacy of noblewomen, significant women figures (like the Virgin Mary and Garsenda of Provence, Alijt Bake), Viking conceptions of gender and sexuality, medieval manhood, werewolves as a metaphor for domestic abusers, eunuchs, and modern museum representations. A handful of these articles relate to LGBTQ+ issues and all relate to the societal construction of gender in medieval times and the present. 

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