By James Parrott, Collections & Technical Services Manager
“We are powerful because we have survived.” — Audre Lorde
Pride began as a protest. In the 56 years since the Stonewall Riots sparked the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, there have been important milestones—moments of joy and progress. But Pride has never been just about celebration. It’s also been about resistance, remembering, and survival.
For those who lived through the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, or who have watched the waves of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation come and go (and come again), it’s clear that progress is rarely a straight line. This year, especially, the road ahead can feel uncertain. Books are being banned. Health care for trans youth is threatened. Hard-won rights face new challenges.
And yet—Pride endures. Every year, in cities large and small, LGBTQ+ people and allies come together. We gather not only to celebrate who we are, but to stand for each other, to remember where we’ve been, and to imagine where we’re going.
This June, take heart in the stories that have carried us this far. Check out books that speak with LGBTQ+ voices—past and present, fiction and nonfiction. There is power in seeing ourselves on the shelf. There is power in the knowledge that we are not alone.
From Stonewall to now, Pride has always been a promise: that we will keep going. That we will always be here–still proud.
The Lilac People by Milo Todd
In 1932 Berlin, Bertie, a trans man, spends carefree nights at the Eldorado Club. Everything changes when Hitler rises to power. Bertie barely escapes with his girlfriend, Sofie. They take on the identities of an elderly couple and live in isolation. At the end of the war, Bertie and Sofie find a young trans man, still dressed in concentration camp clothes. They vow to protect him from the Allied forces who are arresting queer prisoners.
The Loves of my Life by Edmund White
The esteemed author, who died June 3, 2025, at the age of 85, writes about his sexual experiences of over seventy years of being unabashedly gay and in love with love in all its forms. He paints an indelible portrait of queer history in America and abroad in a way only someone who has lived through it can. Written with White’s signature honesty, irreverence, and wit, The Loves of My Life is the culmination of a legend’s life and work.
Making Room by Carl Siciliano
Carl Siciliano met Ali Forney – a Black nonbinary teenager – in 1994 while working at a center for homeless youth. Forney was the heart of the community, known for laughter, loyalty, and an unshakeable faith that “my God will love me for who I am.” Then Forney was murdered, exposing the brutality of a city marked by gentrification, housing, insecurity, and the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic. Written with heart and profound insight, Making Room brings to life an untold chapter of LGTBQ history and testifies to the power of community, solidarity, and the human spirit.
Marsha by Tourmaline
The first definitive biography of the revolutionary activist Mar P. Johnson, an important figure in LGBTQ+ history. The book takes readers into Marsha’s childhood as she struggles with gender identity in the 1950s, to her involvement in the Stonewall Riots and her activism for trans rights through the 70s to the AIDs crisis, and finally it explores her unresolved death.
English