One’s sexuality is the basis of becoming, thus a society respectful of sexuality brings forth a society of thriving, production, collectivism, activism, and creation. Much to the uprising of the LGBTQ community, the Supreme Court of India, in 2023, rejected the same-sex marriage act, however, the court did claim to grant several other rights to the LGBTQ community, including protection against discrimination, the right to choose a partner, the right to intimate association, and the right to adopt children. Yet, on hearing and reading stories of the queer community we learn these rights are often, continually violated in India.
The mental health of the LGBTQ community in India remains legally and emotionally wounded and stretched. They’re dynamic, young, and constantly under strife due to the immense scrutiny, and scalding offered to them, what they’re permitted, what they aren’t, how to present themselves at the hands of civic bodies, families, friends workplaces, and what India provides as permissible and what still remains a party to rejection is all an uphill battle fought by them on routine across courts, colleges, and living rooms.
But, there’s solace in knowing, that books are healers and friends, and give community to whoever you may be, books give courage and a sense of kindness. As a reader, I’m always looking for books and concepts that will pull me apart from myself, back into myself, and give me humour, joy and empathy with those, not me. While, as a feminist writer, I may pronoun myself she/ her and engage in monogamous, heterosexual relationships, the understanding of sexuality through movies and books and how it shapes society, people and community has helped me advocate and march for them, and navigate life across countries, rule books and citizenship.
So here’s my list of top ten LGBTQ books, many have been adapted to movies, for whoever may need them:
On Earth, We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong
I love anything Ocean Vuong writes, he’s a fellow poet and his words slip on his skin. This book has been written by the Vietnamese poet in first person, ‘Little Dog’, his lovemaking with Trevor, his extension of writing is sometimes hard to grasp yet worth reading every word of the alphabet. He makes homosexuality beautiful and consuming to the reader, not as kitschy, but as naturally as possible, just how he frames every page, the politics of sexuality and countries of residence, his words written to his mother, Rose, and his grandmother, Lan, feel like he’s speaking to my Grandma in a letter. I’ve been inspired a lot in my writing by Ocean, he remains a favourite across genres of words.
Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin
James Baldwin is one of my favourite writers to read from the Civil Rights Movement, his words are strong, calling, they shake you in your focus, whether they be of the racial strife he fought through or his work on sexuality and labour. Baldwin bravely calls on the human consciousness, refusing to let us sit without looking into ourselves. The story is of David and Giovanni’s relationship, David’s struggles with himself on what he should be vs what society wants of him, symbolism with paintings of men and women, roses to adorn, how he can’t get himself to give to Giovanni what he gives to him, is it society or his own holding. While he’s got critiqued for it by friends, for copping out of real issues of black history, as if a white man is sat on his shoulders telling him what to write, this early book is one of his most excellent works.
I’ll Give You The Sun, Jandy Nelson
I love young adult fiction, I'm an honest enthusiast for those melt-in-your-mouth beach reads. I love how Jandy has been brave with her writing and played with how she wrote the story of the twins, Noah and Brian. One was a cool art freak and the other was navigating life in baggy clothes, how to fit in, their closeness, their perspectives through time, them falling apart, their poetic speaks, Noah falling in love with the boy next door, Brian, his neighbour and his years of figuring how to tell of his sexuality and his loneliness in this tight bubble. This book, while may not be a literary monument, it brings to close quarters the story of siblings, home, falling apart with age and how we then sit in reminiscence. Matters of sexuality are closely tied to our familial bonds, thus books speaking through that prism are always wondrous.
A Little Life, Hanya Yanigahara
I have a few very close friends who I’ve been very close friends with since I was little. Our friendship has taken turns, stomps, and downfalls and is made from the best memories from all our years. How friends grow, ideologically, socially, and economically and in terms of where we belong, detours and takes turns and tragedies and ties to bring it back together. This is all felt and seen in Hanya Yanigahara’s work of excellent fiction. It’s not about gay men or homosexuality but one of the characters has alliances with men, and that through the book contests his sexuality and the impact it has on their evolving friendships.
How We Fight For Our Lives, Saeed Jones
I love black storytelling, it feels honest, truthful, and revealing. This is Saeed Jones’ story of self-discovery, coming of age, and growing up black, gay, and young in the South. I love how Saeed traces back the voice of his sexuality to his early years and the sense of isolation and doom that draws on him as he finds his way through a heteronormative world. His growing up in a single-parent family, with a Buddhist mother, and how race, sexuality, and identity play an important role in placing us in this complex, systemically disjointed world. This is great for anyone young finding their way into their sexual preferences.
Sister Outsider, Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde, another powerful voice, a black lesbian mother poet, and writer, moves me with the strength of every word she waxes on paper. While all her work is drenched in her identity, this work in particular, fifteen essays between the years of 1967 to 1984 explore race, gender, and sexuality and her poetry to illuminate and give power to minority writers and women who sit on the outside, empowering them to move within, with power and grace. She claims herself a sister to them yet an outsider, claiming the erotic as feminine power, moving women of her colour and from the margins to challenge norms set by white feminism, reclaiming power over their bodies and lives, forming bonds with others. Every woman should read Audre Lorde, she is a must despite your sexuality or status.
Call Me By Your Name, Andre Aciman
I love the movie, the romance, the deep need to be in Italy with this book, and the young innocence of Elio lusting after a writer at their Italian family-run villa. While the movie is beautiful, the writing is even better, how Aciman described the budding romance, the gentle oozing of Elio’s and the older man’s sexuality and senses, the penetration of peach, passion, obsession, and love. It makes heartbreak visceral, you can feel the young boy’s heart fall to your palms, it’s what good writing does, it leaves you desperate and wanting to partake. While Elio enjoys women, it’s his particular fascination with a man that leaves us tongue-tied and wanting Aciman to keep going for as long, it gives homosexuality the freshness, and beauty, we love.
Middlesex, Jefferey Eugenides
Honestly, as a glance, reader, scroller of everything I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book. Through Jeffrey Eugenides, we are introduced to Calliope Stephanides, a girl who discovers that she is intersex. I’ve worked with young kids who at a very early age began feeling like they didn’t belong in their body and got sex changed, changing their identity and names. It's an interesting book because Callie grows up a girl, with first love, growing into adolescence, then slowly realizing she wasn’t Callie or a man, she was somewhere in the middle, thus the name Middlesex, she then transitions surgically and with all else slowly into Cal. A lot of people when finding their sexuality are often confused, unsure if they're rebelling or finding their true selves, unsure if this is where they belong and what they want sexually and romantically. This book is just great for an honest breeze into a young girl finding her physical, and sexual freedom and her journey of self-discovery, as is the theme with many LGBTQ books, towards it.
Calypso, David Sedaris
If I were a man, I’d be David Sedaris. I love his brash, straightforward writing, his cynicism, it’s almost like he’s always gently reprimanding us. I love this book, like all of his books. I wanted to be him, write like him, experience the world like him, be misanthropic, Greek and poke homosexuality like a pie, just like him. I can’t write more about this book of essays exploring middle age, mortality, the beauty of observation, except just take a stab at them yourselves and find immense joy we forget, because we’re not him.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Emily M Danforth: Last on this list of the many, many books you’ll find under this genre, this beauty by Emily M Danforth. This is also a fabulous movie. It’s a young Cameron Post, coming into her sexuality, living with her Aunt since her parents have died and her aunt trying to ‘fix her’. None of this is new, but the beauty of the lomographic photos and descriptives this book is written with or the movie is made with, make you just ponder, there’s no agenda to her writing, just a journey telling of a young girl, sent to gay-curing camps where sons of pastors are found along. I love YA fiction because it’s so real, believable, and mushy. I almost want to be young again and grow up with the characters I read. This book, with all the unsensational rule-breaking, invites you right in!
