This reading list was compiled by Shea Haney, Inside Learning Associate at Cengage, with the help of Nicole Robinson, Product Manager, K12 CTE.
How colorful is your summer reading list? With June being LGBTQIA+ Pride month, it’s the perfect opportunity to put a little rainbow in your reading. Why? Because your LGBTQIA+ students need you.
According to GLSEN, an organization that supports LGBTQIA+ students, in 2019 84% of trans students felt unsafe at school, 86% of LGBTQIA+ students were harassed or assaulted at school and 2 in 5 LGBTQIA+ students of color were bullied or harassed based on their race or ethnicity. While conditions may improve as students head to college, many still feel unsafe. That’s where you come in.
Your support of an LGBTQIA+ student can empower them to be themselves, make them feel safer at school and let them know someone cares. There are so many ways that you can support your LGBTQIA+ students. What better place to begin your exploration than in your summer reading?
If you’re not sure where to start, don’t worry. We made a list! Brighten up your June with some LGBTQIA+ fiction, nonfiction, historical nonfiction, children’s books, poetry and a few Cengage staff picks!
LGBTQIA+ Pride Month Book List
Fiction
Giovanni’s Room (James Baldwin)
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (Ocean Vuong)
Rubyfruit Jungle (Rita Mae Brown)
Call Me by Your Name (André Aciman) *You can also view the 2017 film adaptation
Romance in Marseille (Claude Mckay)
Torch Song Trilogy (Harvey Fierstein)
All My Mother’s Lovers (Ilana Masad)
The Paying Guests (Sarah Waters)
Under the Rainbow (Celia Laskey)
Non-fiction
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (Audre Lorde)
Unbound: Transgender Men and the Remaking of Identity (Arlene Stein)
Stonewall: The Definitive Story of the Lgbtq Rights Uprising That Changed America (Martin Duberman)
We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation (Matthew Riemer and Leighton Brown)
Legendary Children (Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez)
The Deviant’s War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America (Eric Cervini)
Memoirs
Fairest (Meredith Talusan)
Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family (Garrard Conley) *You can also view the 2018 film adaptation
In the Dream House (Carmen Maria Machado)
Sissy: A Coming-Of-Gender Story (Jacob Tobia)
Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America (R. Eric Thomas)
Mama’s Boy (Dustin Lance Black)
Poetry
Love Speaks Its Name (A collection of gay love poems from several famous authors)
Stung with Love (Sappho)
Children’s Books
Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag (Rob Sanders)
My Awesome Brother: A children’s book about transgender acceptance (Lise Frances)
Pink Is for Boys (Robb Pearlman)
Julián Is a Mermaid (Jessica Love)
I Am Jazz (Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings)
Staff Picks
The Vanishing Half (Brit Bennett)
You and Your Gender Identity: A Guide to Discovery (Dara Hoffman-Fox)
Nimona (Noelle Stevenson)
How to Survive a Plague: The Story of How Activists and Scientists Tamed AIDS (David France)
My Life in Transition and Super Late Bloomer(Julia Kaye)
To find out how your peers are fostering inclusivity in their courses, download our ebook.
