Pride month is almost upon us, and with it comes one eternal question that plagues the minds of many: “What do I read/watch to celebrate this occasion?” If you find this question on your mind, dear reader, you’re in luck! Compiled here today is a short, but varied, list of queer media that you may not have seen or heard of before. From novels, to movies, to documentaries. Some more well-known and others more on the fringes, here is your list of queer media that you should check out this pride month!
Books:
- Notes of a Crocodile (1994)(fiction)
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- A 1994 novel by Taiwanese author Qiu Miaojin, Notes of a Crocodile is a very prominent novel in Taiwanese literature, considered to be one of the most important lesbian novels of its time. The novel is told in a series of diaries and uses the metaphor of a crocodile to represent the homosexual living in a heterosexual society.
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- Black on both sides (2017)(nonfiction)
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- Black on both sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by author C. Riley Snorton follows the history of transgender people, specifically through the lens of African American people. The resulting book is a rich and complicated history of the lives of black transgender Americans. Including their friends, families, and the communities they inhabited and thrived in.
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- Wide Open Desert (2023)(nonfiction)
- Wide open desert: a queer history of New Mexico steps away from the more urban populated areas where many queer people live and into the warm, expansive, and lesser-known queer spaces of the American South west. Author Jordan Biro Walters draws from a variety of different sources in order to paint a colorful and intricate portrait of the queer people, communities, and cultures existing within New Mexico.
- You Exist Too Much (2020)(realistic fiction)
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- The debut novel of Arab-American author Zaina Afarat, You exist too much spans the lengths of DC in America, to Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine in the Middle East, as you follow the narrator’s life living as a young queer woman, grappling with the ups and downs of self-discovery, identity, and culture.
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- Are you this? Or are you this? (2021)(memoir)
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- Are you this? Or are you this? A Story of Identity and Worth is a memoir written by author Madain Al Jazerah, focusing on his life and experiences as a queer person of color. Struggling to break free of the many boxes that we are placed into as people. What does it mean to love and embrace all of the different facets of who you are?
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- Guapa (2016)(realistic fiction)
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- A debut novel by author Saleem Haddad, Guapa follows the main character Rasa, as he comes of age in the Middle East. The story is set over the course of 24 hours as he attempts to track down his best friend who has been arrested. All as his aspirations, relationships, and political future are put on the line.
Movies/documentaries:
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- One of the premier queer documentaries of 80’s New York City, Paris is Burning is a classic and beautiful documentation of the queer drag/ballroom scene. As well as its many inhabitants, who carved out small, colorful, and hopeful spaces of queer liberation.
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- A funny, dramatic movie of two men: Ben and George, who after almost 4 decades are finally able to be wed. Only for them to be separated as George loses his job. The two are forced to sell their apartment and live apart from one another as they try to regain their footing, and tensions grow within their families and their hosts.
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- Shinjuku Boys by Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams follows 3 transmasculine men working in the New Marilyn Club in Tokyo as hosts and gives an intimate look into their personal lives, romantic and sexual relationships, as well as their relationships with gender, queerness, and what it means to live authentically.
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- Flee is an award-winning animated documentary that follows the life of Amin Nawabi as he recounts his complicated life story as a child refugee. Nawabi speaks about the painful realities he has faced, traveling from place to place, running and hiding, and trying to build a stable life for himself, all in a story of his past that he has never spoken about before.
- The Watermelon Woman follows a black lesbian woman who, as an aspiring filmmaker, attempts to track down an obscure black actress named Fae Richards. Billed as ‘The Watermelon Woman.’ The film makes a sharp critique of the erasure of black women within film history, and the damning roles that they are regulated to.
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- Two gay, unpopular high school best friends PJ and Josie build a girl’s fight club to help other unpopular girls protect themselves at school, but soon find themselves far in over their heads as they are caught in the middle of fights against groups of popular kids who have been bullying them.
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- A romantic drama about a farmer named Johnny, who lives in Yorkshire with his grandmother and ailing grandfather on their lonely family farm. His situation changes, however, when a new farmhand is hired to assist him, a Romanian migrant worker named Gheorghe. The two bond over their work and their quiet lives in the British countryside, broaching what it would mean for them to be in a relationship. Described by Mx. Knight as a ‘Brokeback mountain without the sad parts.’
Queer media is everywhere. Regardless of the month or time of year, stories and works of art by people from all different communities and walks of life are out there, waiting for you to discover them. With this list, I tried to put an emphasis on Middle Eastern creators and other creators of color, but the items here are still only a handful out of the mountains of incredible works being made and put out into the world. In an age of trends and algorithms, smaller lesser known works tend to get ignored and brushed aside in favor of things with more popularity or marketability. My hope is that as pride month rolls around, or really any time, you search for things that stray from your comfort zone, things that may not have piqued your interest before. Above all, I hope you discover new things to enjoy and love.
