Essential LGBTQ+ Reads for Pride Month: A Literary Celebration of Queer Identity and Resilience

Summer reads you won't want to miss, including books for young adults and kids

Published: June 12, 2025 | Last Updated: June 12, 2025

As Pride Month unfolds, Pride Source celebrates the voices, stories and icons that illuminate the rich tapestry of queer experiences. This curated selection honors the resilience and complexity of LGBTQ+ lives through literature. From Ocean Vuong's poignant exploration of connection in “The Emperor of Gladness” to the vibrant legacy captured in “David Hockney” by Norman Rosenthal, these works offer diverse narratives across the spectrum of queer life. Each book, whether delving into historical movements, speculative fiction or a fan-service book that celebrates Cher, has the power to not only entertain but also empower and inspire.

‘The Emperor of Gladness,’ Ocean Voung

With “The Emperor of Gladness,” Ocean Vuong returns not just as a poet, but as a seer of queer emotion. In his latest work, we meet Hai, a 19-year-old depressed Vietnamese American on the brink of ending his life. Before he does, he hears a voice belonging to an older woman with dementia, named Grazina. The two bond instantly, marking the beginning of what queer readers will recognize as the foundation of a chosen family — one formed by shared ache and unexpected grace.

Halfway in, the book had already wrecked me in the best way — equal parts laughter and heartbreak. A brilliant flash of dry wit from Grazina — a thoughtful spitfire — lands when she tells Hai, an aspiring writer: “You wanna be a writer and you want to jump off a bridge? That’s pretty much the same thing, no?” What’s remarkable here isn’t just Vuong’s mastery of language — it’s the way he uses it to build a kind of sanctuary. Reading this feels less like consuming literature and more like being held.

‘David Hockney,’ Norman Rosenthal

The most comprehensive book on David Hockney — a trailblazer of the white gay male experience in 1970s Los Angeles — arrives just in time for Pride Month. For nearly seven decades, the legendary British artist has invited us into his vibrant world, depicting desire, identity and freedom through his unmistakably bold art. Coming out in the 1960s London when homosexuality was still illegal, Hockney’s early “gay” graffiti-like paintings — crafted as a student at London's Royal College of Art — boldly captured men in showers, pools and intimate moments rarely seen in mainstream art.

Published by Thames & Hudson alongside the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s major 2025 David Hockney exhibition, this lavish, large-format volume offers a vivid survey of his life and work, from Bradford to California, and later Yorkshire and Normandy.

Featuring contributions from top art historians and critics like Sir Norman Rosenthal and Sir Simon Schama, the book delves deep into Hockney’s signature styles and themes — still lifes, portraits, landscapes and his fearless embrace of new tech, like the iPad. “His perspective reveals an entire world, his own, but one that immediately becomes ours too, shared among us all,” writes Fondation Louis Vuitton owner Bernard Arnault. Compiled with Hockney’s full involvement, this is arguably the definitive celebration of a gay icon whose creativity and queerness transformed the art world forever. Fittingly for our times, the book’s back cover reminds us: “Do remember, they can’t cancel the spring.”

‘What Is Queer Food? How We Served a Revolution,’ John Birdsall

When you think of queer liberation, does delicious food come to mind? It might now, thanks to John Birdsall, whose James Beard Award–winning writing has helped redefine food journalism. In “What Is Queer Food?,” Birdsall brings both scholarly depth and sensual appreciation to the table. The book opens with diaristic reflections on his pilgrimage to Lil Deb’s Oasis — a queer tiki bar in upstate New York — in search of “shelter from history” and to “roll the taste of queer deliverance across my tongue.” As Birdsall traces the long history of queer people creating magic around the table, what unfolds is a rich exploration of how cooking, serving and eating together have sustained LGBTQ+ communities through both feast and famine, in sync with our political gains and setbacks. The book profiles often-overlooked queer culinary pioneers — many of them women and people of color — while Birdsall’s personal reflections on the search for belonging through the shared experience of dining provide the perfect emotional seasoning.

‘Paper Doll,’ Dylan Mulvaney

Known to millions through her “Days of Girlhood” series, actress and social media star Dylan Mulvaney’s memoir trades viral soundbites for something even more personal — and, in this challenging political era for trans people, important. The book, endorsed by Glennon Doyle and Jonathan Van Ness, moves between stage lights and quiet, aching moments: her early days in musical theater, the messiness of navigating girlhood under a microscope, the joy (and sometimes pain) of being visible as a trans public figure under relentless right-wing scrutiny.

Honest in a way that resists turning survival into spectacle, “Paper Doll” isn’t a guidebook or a grand statement about being transgender — it’s more like a diary left open on the kitchen table. My copy arrived with a limited-edition bath bomb from Lush, created in partnership with Mulvaney to celebrate the release. Also inside: Lush’s How to Be a Trans Ally Guide — a quietly radical inclusion in an era of DEI rollbacks and rising anti-trans discrimination.

‘Ballroom: A History, A Movement, A Celebration,’ Michael Roberson with Mikelle Street

Far more than a history lesson, this gorgeously illustrated volume pulses with the same electric energy you'd feel walking into a ball at 2 a.m. Through meticulous research, Roberson — a theologian and pioneering voice in the House and Ball community — traces ballroom’s evolution beginning in the 1880s, from underground necessity to global phenomenon, all without losing sight of its revolutionary core: creating family where none existed and beauty where society denied it. An afterword by “Pose” star Dominique Jackson further deepens the narrative.

“Today, as the very fabric of our democracy is being tested, the legacy and importance of the Ballroom community matters even more,” Roberson writes. That quote appears beside a photo of a memorial for O'Shae Sibley, a young Black man whose final moments included voguing to a Beyoncé song at a Brooklyn gas station — where he was fatally stabbed in 2023 by a 17-year-old. The book doesn't shy away from the ongoing struggles — economic marginalization, HIV/AIDS, violence against trans women of color — that remain inextricably linked to ballroom’s story. What elevates this work beyond documentation is Roberson’s insistence that ballroom isn't just about fierce performances, but about the sacred space between oppression and liberation where queer and trans people of color have always found a way to not just survive, but thrive spectacularly.

‘I Got You Babe: A Celebration of Cher,’ Annie Zaleski

You won’t find chapters titled “The Many Wigs of Cher” or “Barbie Who? The Cher Doll” in Cher’s own memoir, but Annie Zaleski has us covered. Commissioned to write Cher’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction essay, Zaleski brings the same reverence — and fabulous detail — to this fan-fueled tribute to our forever goddess.

Of course, the gays get their due. There’s an entire chapter on “Burlesque” (justice!) and another on Cher as a drag icon, spotlighting that moment in 2018 when “RuPaul’s Drag Race” honored her — though, as Zaleski notes, Cher was folding drag into her performances long before it was trending. “The Gay Icon” chapter almost says it all, but in case it doesn’t, Zaleski includes a quote from Cher as told to me when I interviewed her in 2018: “I don’t know how that happens. I mean, how does it happen? I have no idea! It’s just like, we made a pact and we’re a group and that’s it.”

‘Tramps Like Us,’ Joe Westmoreland

In this time capsule of queer life in 1980s New York, Joe Westmoreland delivers a blunt, unvarnished narrative that’s as authentic as it is devastating. “Tramps Like Us” captures a moment when finding your people often meant risking everything else — a worn snapshot of the downtown underground, where freedom and danger danced in equal measure.

Originally published in 2001 by a small press, the book vanished almost as quickly as it appeared. In 2023, Westmoreland mailed a beat-up copy to editor Jackson Howard, setting in motion its long-overdue return. After years of cult status, “Tramps” is finally back in print. Part memoir, part fever dream, this slice of autofiction follows a young gay man named Joe as he searches for meaning across 1970s and ’80s America — from San Francisco to New Orleans to pre-AIDS New York. Along the way: sex, drugs, disco, drag queens and deep bonds forged amid a tumultuous era for queer life.

‘Pioneer Summer,’ Kateryna Sylvanova and Elena Malisova (Translator: Anne O. Fisher)

Maybe you’ve heard of “Pioneer Summer” thanks to TikTok, where it went viral — or because it was so popular it was banned by Putin’s regime, catalyzing one of Russia’s largest-ever crackdowns on LGBTQ+ representation. Originally published in 2021 and now available in English for the first time, this groundbreaking Ukrainian novel reimagines Soviet rural life through a defiantly queer lens.

Set in a remote agricultural collective in 1980s Soviet Ukraine, the story follows 16-year-old Yurka, sent to a youth summer program. There, he meets Volodya, who is slightly older and entirely unlike anyone Yurka has known. What begins as a cautious friendship deepens into an unspoken but undeniable attraction, leading to quiet acts of rebellion in a world where queer desire is policed.

“Pioneer Summer” captures the ache of youth, identity and forbidden longing within an oppressive system. A rare historical novel that still feels tragically current.

‘A/S/L,’ Jeanne Thornton

Remember dial-up internet? The sacred ritual of waiting for parents to go to bed before logging onto AOL chat rooms where you could be anyone — or more importantly, yourself? Thornton's nostalgic yet razor-sharp novel captures that liminal moment in the late ’90s when the internet offered queer and questioning youth unprecedented freedom to experiment with identity. Following three teenagers in different parts of the country whose lives intersect on the internet as they create a videogame together, “A/S/L” (that's “age/sex/location” for any Gen Z readers) captures both the liberation and limitations of digital connection.

This work of historical fiction (yes, the ’90s are now historical — I'm crying too) illuminates the origins of our current digital queer spaces, reminding us that long before Instagram activism or TikTok coming out videos, LGBTQ+ people were finding each other through glowing screens and creating community one painfully slow and noisy connection at a time.

‘Outrage,’ Ellen Jones

British writer and activist Ellen Jones, honored as Stonewall’s Young Campaigner of the Year by Sir Ian McKellen, refuses easy answers or pearl-clutching condemnation in exposing the discrimination queer people continue to face in all facets of life — from marriage to mental health, education to aging, and beyond. Through moving personal accounts, Jones builds a compelling case for accountability models that center transformation rather than exile. For anyone who's ever found themselves frozen at the keyboard, terrified of saying the wrong thing or staying silent in the face of genuine harm, this book offers not answers but something more valuable: a framework for thinking about the difference between punitive performance and genuine community care.

‘A Language of Limbs,’ Dylan Hardcastl

Set against the backdrop of 1970s Australia during the Gay Liberation Movement, “A Language of Limbs” is a gorgeous, aching “what if” love story. Told through a poetic, sliding-doors narrative, the novel follows two women whose lives nearly intersect over decades: in hospital rooms, at protests and in quiet, near-intimate moments that pulse with what could’ve been. Hardcastle explores queer longing, community and the quiet power of choice with such emotional clarity, it’s no surprise the book has already been optioned by Sony’s Curio Pictures, with the author set to showrun. A celebration of queer resilience and romantic possibility, it’s the rare sapphic novel that’s both tender and revolutionary.

‘Queer Lens: A History of Photography,’ edited by Paul Martineau and Ryan Linkof

“Queer Lens” is the first wide-ranging exhibition and catalog to center the contributions of queer artists within the history of photography. This sweeping volume unfolds over a century of queer visual culture, revealing photography's transformative role in constructing and recording LGBTQ+ identities. Published by the J. Paul Getty Museum to accompany a major exhibition at the Getty Center from June 17 to Sept. 28, the book features nearly 300 images — including intimate portraits, street protests, snapshots of queer kinship and experimental self-imaging — alongside essays from leading curators, critics and artists. The collection traverses history, media and geography to investigate how queerness has both shaped and been shaped by the camera, examining themes such as visibility, performance, subversion and self-fashioning.

With contributions from Martineau, Linkof and other prominent voices, this richly illustrated, large-format hardcover offers a vital and timely survey of photography as both an artistic and political tool for queer communities worldwide.

‘The Many Passions of Michael Hardwick: Sex and the Supreme Court in the Age of AIDS,’ Martin Padget

Martin Padgett's meticulous research and novelistic pacing turn what could have been a dry legal history into a page-turning portrait of both a man and a moment. The Bowers v. Hardwick case — which upheld Georgia's sodomy laws in 1986 — has long been discussed in constitutional terms, but Padgett gives us the human being behind the case name. Through interviews with Hardwick's friends, lovers and family, we meet a complicated, charismatic man who became an accidental activist when police literally invaded his bedroom.

Padgett situates the case within the raging inferno of the AIDS crisis, showing how legal discrimination and medical disaster created a perfect storm of oppression. The heartbreaking irony that emerges is how a case about the right to privacy became a public spectacle that forced Hardwick to become the face of a revolution he never asked to lead. For younger readers who've only known a post-Lawrence v. Texas world where sodomy laws are unconstitutional, this book is an essential reminder of how recently our basic rights hung in the balance — and how easily they could again.

‘Disappoint Me,’ Nicola Dinan

In “Disappoint Me,” Nicola Dinan delivers a piercing, tender portrait of love in your 30s — the decade where life feels like it’s supposed to be settled, even when nothing is. Fresh off a messy breakup, Max, a sharp-witted trans woman, is hesitant to embrace the stable relationship offered by Vincent, a charming lawyer with a penchant for baking and baggage of his own. As Max grapples with questions of self-worth and belonging — especially within the context of Vincent’s conservative Chinese family — Vincent finds himself haunted by a long-ago romance in Thailand that mirrors his present more than he’s ready to admit.

Dinan's storytelling is both stylish and searing, echoing the emotional intimacy of Sally Rooney and the fearless insight of Torrey Peters. “Disappoint Me” is a story about who we were, who we are and who we’re allowed to become in the eyes of others — and ourselves.

Young Adult and Children's Summer Book List
From picture books celebrating queer families and Indigenous traditions to young adult novels exploring identity and friendship, these new books reflect the breadth of LGBTQ+ experiences across different ages, cultures and communities. Whether you're shopping for a young reader or looking to expand your own library, these titles center queer joy, authentic representation and the power of finding your place in the world.
‘It’s Pride, Baby!,' Allen R. Wells (Ages 3-5)
This joyful picture book from debut author Allen R. Wells and illustrator Dia Valle follows a family with two gay dads preparing for Black Gay Pride Day in Washington, D.C. From getting dressed in colorful outfits to celebrating with neighbors and enjoying fireworks on the National Mall, the story captures the community spirit and visibility that makes Pride celebrations so meaningful for LGBTQ+ families, offering young readers a vibrant representation of queer joy and Black LGBTQ+ pride.
‘Raven’s Ribbons,’ Tasha Spillet (Ages 4-8)
This picture book from Cree author Tasha Spillett and illustrator Daniel Ramirez, a descendant of the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan, celebrates gender expression and Indigenous tradition through young Raven, who loves round dances and dreams of wearing the beautiful ribbon skirts he sees swirling around him. When Raven asks his grandmother if boys can wear ribbon skirts, her loving response challenges gender norms within their community, creating a heartwarming story about acceptance, identity and finding your place in cultural traditions that will resonate with queer readers and families seeking inclusive Indigenous stories.
‘You-ology: a Puberty Guide for Every Body,’ Melisa Holmes et al (Ages 12-18)
This comprehensive puberty guide written by three pediatric doctors and published by the American Academy of Pediatrics stands out for its inclusive approach to adolescent development, particularly in Chapter 12, which addresses the experiences of trans and nonbinary young people who may feel distress during puberty. The book provides practical information about puberty blockers, binding and tucking, making it a valuable resource for LGBTQ+ teens and their families seeking medically accurate guidance about transition options during the teenage years.
Benny Ramirez and the Nearly Departed,’ José Pablo Iriarte (YA)
This middle-grade novel from nonbinary author José Pablo Iriarte follows young Cuban American Benny Ramírez, who discovers he can see the ghost of his egocentric abuelo after moving into his late grandfather's Miami mansion. Filled with humor and authentic family dynamics, the story explores themes of self-discovery and finding your own path as Benny navigates a performing arts school while his famous musician grandfather tries to earn his way into the afterlife by helping his grandson succeed.