A richly detailed biography of the late, great Black WWII hero and queer icon, Josephine Baker. Prior to the war, Baker was the highest paid female performer in Europe. After being banned from the stage by the Nazis, she became a key spy in the Resistance.

Not only did author Gad Beck survive being a homosexual Jew in Nazi Germany, he also spent the duration of the war smuggling food and supplies to Jews in hiding, and even helped smuggle people to safety. In this Lambda Literary Award-nominated memoir, Beck details his remarkable acts of bravery and Nazi treatment of the gay community in WWII.

Late Gay Rights icon, Edie Windsor describes gay life in 1950s and 1960s New York City and her longtime activism toward marriage equality in this celebrated memoir. Windsor became famous for suing the US government seeking federal recognition for her marriage to her partner of forty years, resulting in a landmark victory for queer rights.

This is not just a history of an island in New York: it’s a comprehensive yet accessible chronicle of this queer enclave’s influence on art, literature, and culture. Fast-paced and richly detailed, Fire Island is an accessible and thorough work about this historically vital space for queer America.

Read about the late, legendary gay activist and politician, Harvey Milk, in this engaging biography. Charismatic and charming, Milk’s life and tragic assassination at a young age propelled him into fame as one of the most influential men and queer individuals of the twentieth century.

In this award-winning historical fiction mystery, former Pinkerton detective, Alma Rosales, a bisexual, biracial woman of Mexican decent, goes undercover in drag to infiltrate a Washington State smuggling ring and track down stolen drugs. But her habit of living a double life is threatening to catch up with her in more ways than one.

A re-imagining of the life of London’s eighteenth century notorious thief and jailbreaker, Jack Sheppard. When a trans professor discovers a stash of papers titled “Confessions of the Fox,” a first-person account of Jack’s secretive past in London’s underworld–including a time spent as part of a thriving queer subculture–is uncovered.

Clementine, a Nebraska native and 72-year-old queer woman, has left her life of crime back in America but becomes entangled in the Paris underground resistance during World War II. Now a successful perfumer, Clem can’t resist the chance to steal the diary (and formulas) of a legendary perfumer out from under the Nazi’s noses.

An NPR Best Book of the Year following two male slaves, Sam and Isaiah, who become lovers while growing up together on a Southern plantation. Though their community tries to protect Sam and Isaiah from harm, they’re placed in jeopardy when fellow slave, Amos, aims to get into the plantation owner’s good graces by becoming a preacher and sewing seeds of discord.

Set during the Trojan War in a fantastical version of Ancient Greece, this award-winning novel centers on Patroclus, a young exiled prince who follows his lover Achilles into battle. Readers will get caught up in the drama of Greek deities interfering in the mortal realm as well as the action packed story and well-developed characters.

A groundbreaking look at how American culture has shaped the queer experience, while arguing that LGBTQ+ people were both a part of, and pivotal in creating our country and history. This book is not so much about queer history as it is about all American history, and why this history matters to both LGBTQ+ people and non-queer folks equally.

Part revisionist history, part historical biography, Bad Gays is based on the hugely popular podcast series of the same name. This book subverts the notion of gay icons and queer heroes and asks what we can learn about LGBTQ+ history, sexuality, and identity through its villains and baddies.

Meet the leaders and activists on the front lines of the LGBTQ+ movement, from the 1960s to the present, through stunning interviews and compelling black and white photographs compiled and presented by OUTWORDS, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the stories of LGBTQ+ people.

Learn your gAyBCs with this collection of witty, readable shorts on pop culture moments, iconic figures, ongoing challenges in the LGBTQ+ community and more. Here to entertain, throw some shade, and bring some joy, this carefully curated perspective serves as a reminder that queer culture isn't just what we have been, but what we are.

In the years since Stonewall, the world has witnessed an outpouring of research, critical inquiry, and re-interpretation of gay life and culture. This book draws on groundbreaking new material to present a comprehensive survey of all things gay, stretching back to ancient Sumeria and ranging to the present day.

A globetrotting exploration of how the human rights frontier around sexual orientation and gender identity has come to divide—and describe—the world in an entirely new way. While same-sex marriage and gender transition is celebrated in some parts of the world, laws are being strengthened to criminalize homosexuality and gender nonconformity in others.

Long before Stonewall and Gay Pride, there was such a thing as gay culture, and it was recognized throughout Europe and America. Graham Robb examines how homosexuals were treated by society in the nineteenth century, and finds a tale of surprising tolerance.

Sexuality researcher Jane Fleishman shares the stories of nine fearless elders in the LGBTQ+ community who came of age around the time of Stonewall. In candid interviews, they lay bare their struggles, their strengths, their activism, and their sexual liberation in the context of the political movements of the 1960s, 1970s, and today.

Through the lens of protest, power, and pride, We Are Everywhere is an essential introduction–told through stunning photographs and thoroughly researched narrative–to the history of the modern queer liberation movement.

Author Julia Shaw probes the science and culture of attraction beyond the binary. From the history of the Kinsey scale to asylum seekers defending their bisexuality in a court of law, there is more to explore than most have ever realized. Shaw draws on her own original research, and her own experience in this personal and scientific manifesto.

A timely second edition of the classic text on transgender history, with a new introduction and updated material throughout covering American transgender history from the mid-twentieth century to today. Covering major movements, writings, and events, this informational text also includes brief biographies of key players, transgenderism in popular culture, and more.

By the time Rock Hudson's 1985 death alerted America to the danger of the AIDS epidemic, the disease had spread across the nation as the greatest health crisis of the 20th century. Shilts weaves the disparate threads of how this epidemic spread so far before being taken seriously into a coherent story, pinning down every evasion and contradiction of the AIDS crisis.

In Whipping Girl, Julia Serano, a trans woman, shares her powerful experiences and observations–both pre- and post-transition–to reveal the ways in which fear, suspicion, and dismissiveness toward femininity shape our societal attitudes toward trans women, as well as gender and sexuality as a whole.