Books That Celebrate, Explore, and Empower the LGBTQIA+ Experience
June isn't just about the colorful parades (though we love those too!), it's about the powerful stories that make up our diverse community. This Pride Month, we're highlighting books that do more than just sit on shelves:
From Filipino queer scholarship to global literature, memoirs, and critical works, our CLR collection invites every Benildean to read, reflect, and explore. The best part? These stories aren't just for June, they're here for you all year round.
Your next favorite read is waiting. Come explore our curated list, chat with our librarians, or borrow a book that speaks to you.
"Just about everything you wanted to know about lesbian lives."
A comprehensive guide packed with lesbian history, quotes, statistics, and resources. An essential reference that affirms visibility and diversity.
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"An unprecedented summation of critical knowledge on gay and lesbian literature."
A sweeping global and historical exploration—from Sappho to AIDS narratives.
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"A ground-breaking addition to queer studies and music scholarship."
Challenges heavy metal's hypermasculinity and spotlights queer resistance within the genre.
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"Analyzing the effects of legal doctrine on the production and reception of queer film and fiction."
A sharp, interdisciplinary exploration of how law and media intersect with queer representation.
Access via Benilde CLR"How LGBTQ claims shape international relations."
This collection unveils the global dimension of queer issues, linking LGBTQIA+ rights to diplomacy, policy, and human rights.
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"From Thailand to London, exploring identity, commerce, and HIV prevention among queer travelers."
An insightful look at the intersections of travel, identity, and global queer culture.
Access via Benilde CLR"A critique of 'new natural law' and its religious stance on gender and sexuality."
This critical examination addresses the religious and legal narratives that shape debates on LGBTQIA+ rights.
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"Each equality issue of gender, race, sexuality, disability and social class is covered in its own right."
An essential academic volume that looks at how educational systems can promote or hinder social justice.
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"Deconstructing false tolerance and cultivating safe educational spaces."
This timely book challenges educators to confront how heteronormativity and homophobia are embedded in school culture. Jones critically examines how hate language, normalized gender roles, and a "false tolerance" hinder the creation of truly inclusive learning environments.
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"From coming-out classics to inner drag queen awakenings—movies for every mood."
This witty guide serves up movie recommendations for every queer mood—from coming out to embracing your inner diva. It's a fun, feel-good companion for anyone exploring LGBTQ+ identity through the magic of film.
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"How queerness shaped—and continues to shape—American literature from the 18th century to today."
A scholarly yet accessible guide that maps the evolution of gay and lesbian literary voices in the U.S., covering genres from poetry to memoirs, eras from the 19th century to post-AIDS, and intersecting lenses such as race, gender, psychoanalysis, and transnational critique. Perfect for students and scholars exploring how queer theory and literature inform each other.
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"A global exploration of lesbian and gay experiences through anthropology."
This groundbreaking collection examines LGBTQ identities, activism, and culture from diverse international perspectives—including the U.S., Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Combining ethnography with social critique, it highlights how sexuality intersects with politics, public life, and cultural dynamics worldwide.
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"Philippine Gay Culture is a descriptive survey of popular and academic writings on and by Filipino male homosexuals, as well as a genealogy of discourses of male homosexuality and the bakla and/or gay identities that emerged in urban Philippines from the 1960s to the present."
Garcia explores the colonial roots of sexual identity in the Philippines and analyzes works by bakla writers that enrich the country's cultural and postcolonial landscape.
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"From Christian Dior to Yves Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen, many of the greatest fashion designers of the past century have been gay. Fashion and style have played an important role within the LGBTQ community, as well, even as early as the 18th century."
This book explores fashion through a queer lens, highlighting how LGBTQ culture has influenced modern fashion with contributions from leading scholars and rich illustrations.
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"This edited work explores television in all its scope and complexity in relation to queerness. With contributions from distinguished authors working in film/television studies and the study of gender/sexuality, it offers a unique contribution to both disciplines."
This volume covers queer television theory, histories, genres, and the medium's cultural politics through diverse scholarly perspectives.
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"This volume represents a fundamental change in how we conceptualize the mediation of gender, sex, and sexualities. It brings together a collection of new research that includes, but also extends beyond, comparisons between woman/man, into considerations of more complex and fluid notions of sex and identity."
Featuring cutting-edge studies, this handbook explores the intersections of media with gender norms, sexual identity, queer representation, and trans issues across global and digital contexts.
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"Cross-dressing is an important theatrical technique. It creates a new reality, provides alternatives, unleashes the imagination and enables actors to provoke otherwise repressed responses in audiences."
This cross-cultural history traces theatrical transvestism from tribal rituals and religious pageantry to the glamour drag of modern stages, featuring icons like David Bowie, Boy George, and Kabuki performers. Senelick reveals how the theater has long served as a space for gender play, subversion, and queer expression.
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