Best books for gay guys
Hooray For Dead White Males
A Gay Pride Month special which I survey the LBGTQ writing that spoke to me most as a young reader and gave me a sense of what life outside the closet might be.
Today is the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the symbolic birth of the modern gay liberation movement. Like many gay men of my generation, I grew up in a conservative society where homosexuality was all but invisible. In a pre-Internet age, books became the way I learned about gay history and started to imagine what a gay community might verb like.
While I created this blog to explore classic works of fiction that I&#;d not yet read, occasionally I&#;m tempted to revisit a much-loved antique classic and see how successfully it&#;s held up over the years. Today feels like an ideal moment to recall ten of my most cherished reads from the LGBTQ canon. I&#;ve given myself a bit more leeway than normal in this blog, by allowing non-fiction and short stories as well as fiction.
In compiling this list, I went with books that felt like favourites, rather than trying to make an &#;inclusive&#; list of
5 Books Gay Men Can Study to Improve Their Lives
Would the small gay boy you once were look up to the gay man you’ve become?
This is the question Dr. Joe Kort explores in 10 Smart Things Gay Men Can Do to Improve Their Lives as he guides readers through the complex journey of becoming a fully self-actualized gay man.
In his manual, Kort covers:
➡️ Mistakes gay men make when seeking a relationship
➡️ Understanding how to deal with loved ones who disapprove of your being gay.
➡️ How to overcome damaging patterns that are holding you back from enjoying a healthy sex life.
➡️ How to identify your own internalized homophobia.
After coming out, gay men will typically feel better at first, but often the excellent feelings fade. This is because “coming out” is only a part of the beginning of the journey. This book provides a map for navigating the whole long passage of becoming the gay man you wish to be.
Link to book
Co-written with Nico Lang
1. Giovanni&#;s Room by James Baldwin (Zach’s Pick)
This was James Baldwin’s second novel, and probably one of his most well known pieces of works. Giovanni’s Room tells the story of a man who moves to Paris and his relationship with another man named Giovanni. This book is so important because it was one of the first to really show the complicated ways in which gay men had to manage their identity, self and place in a world that didn’t want them do be. This story takes place in Paris, but one doesn’t include to have been to Paris to feel a connection to Giovanni, his bedroom, and all that happens to the protagonists, David.
2. The City and the Pillar/Myra Breckenridge by Gore Vidal (Nico’s Pick)
While not one of Vidal’s “best” works (to me, he’s an essayist first and a novelist second), The Pillar and the City is a must-read because of its place in the queer canon as one of the first recognized and reviewed gay novels. It’s an incredibly dark and misanthropic work and a bitter pill to swallow, harrowingly depicting the costs of trying
Visibility. It’s one of the most crucial needs of the queer community. To be understood, to be accepted, the LGBTQIA+ community needs first to be seen. This has meant that centuries of authors writing about the experiences, love, and pain of the queer community have been crucial in making progress towards a radical acceptance.
From the delicate art form of the semi-autobiographical novel — a life story veiled behind fictional names and twists — to the roar of poetry to a immersive dive into the history that has too often been erased and purged, queer literature has helped to challenge, move, and shape generations of readers.
As a pansexual, demisexual cis girl on my way into another Pride Month, researching and crafting this list was a singular joy. I have many books to put on hold at my local library. Many stories to encounter. Many histories to educate myself on.
Because queer texts help to increase our visibility to the “outside” world, but they also increase internal visibility and acknowledgment. Today, transphobia is rampant among the queer community, and there are still