If Pride Month only means sparkling parties and parades to you and you are in general quite unaware of the LGBTQ+ community’s long struggle to gain acceptance and inclusion, you really need to make an effort to be more aware.
Pride Month is indeed a celebration of how far the LGBTQ community has come despite the lingering injustices its members have endured for the longest time.
It is on all of us to make a regular and normal life possible for the community. Being aware via well-researched books can be one such first step in this direction.
Shulph Ink makes a concerted effort to spotlight books that go beyond light reading and have the potential to make an impact. We stand with the LGBTQ+ community and with everyone in the quest for knowledge.
Shulph Picks:
Civil Rights Stories: LGBTQ+ Rights by Louise Spilsbury
Civil Rights explores chronologically the LGBTQ+ movements through history. Choosing select “moments and movements,” Spilsbury discourses upon the bias, violence, and injustice borne by the LGBTQ+ peoples, and suggests methods to ease their trauma and move to a more just world. Despite relying on historical facts, the author keeps the storytelling alive; it won’t be a heavy read for most readers.
The book touches amply upon ancient attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community, the modern struggles such as HIV/AIDS, transgender rights, legal sanctions against intersex marriages, and the accomplishments of the early LGBTQ+ organisations. This rich, systematic timeline facilitates readers’ understanding of the big fight the LGBTQ+ people have had to fight for the attainment of their most basic human rights.
The most beautiful aspect of this book is that Spilsbury has written it for readers of all age groups—which is perhaps why details related to death and violence have been included with a particular sensitivity. The fact that Spilsbury is essentially a children’s book author makes it easy to understand the focus in this book. It’s been illustrated by Toby Newsome.
Our Children Are Your Students: LGBTQ Families Speak Out by Tara Goldstein
LGBTQ students face an unfair world in general and educational institutes are no exception. This remarkable book by Goldstein landscapes a substantial discussion about “the various tactics that LGBTQ families use to work with schools that don’t anticipate the arrival of their families and children.” It also includes a verbatim theatre script called Out at School which is based on interviews conducted with 37 LGBTQ families about their experiences in school.
Goldstein’s book can be a strong guide for any schools’ staff and teachers who are interested in making the educational environment a nurturing and inclusive space for everyone. All of the information provided in the book is thoroughly researched and also quite interesting to read since the stories have been penned in an artistic way. It highlights the routine challenges faced by the community and their families. The Canadian educational system lies at the center of the book; however, the information provided can be as practical and important for educational institutes anywhere in the world.
Empowering the voices of LGBTQ families, Tara Goldstein and her team of researchers have done a beautiful job at bringing these issues to light.
The Queering of Corporate America: How Big Business Went from LGBTQ Adversary to Ally by Carlos A. Ball
A professor of Law at the Rutgers University School of Law (Newark), Carlos A. Ball has written extensively on issues related to LGBT rights. And this book is highly recommended for anyone interested in understanding the influence an Employee Resource Group can have on a business or industry. And for anyone interested in understanding the role small, mid-level, and large companies can play in encouraging social change and restructurings for the advancement of human society.
Ball’s main genius lies in his effective storytelling that makes it easy for the reader to chronologically understand the vital shift in corporate America’s association with its customer base, its employees, and with American laws and policies in general.
Profoundly engaging, the book demonstrating with well-researched facts and examples the impact big businesses can make to promote LGBTQ equality, becoming a barricade against homophobic and exclusionary laws and practices.
International LGBT Rights Movement: A History by Laura Belmonte
A well-researched history of the LGBT rights movement, written by the Dean of the Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, this volume can easily be counted amongst one of the most authoritative books on the queer struggle for human rights from a transcontinental standpoint. This persuasive history tells us why and how we need to continue advocating for LGBTQ+ rights across the world. It suggests ways in which we can ensure full inclusion and equity for all of the LGBTQ community.
Belmonte does a splendid job covering all the main movements, moments, and trends in relation to the community’s struggle for their rights.
From Prejudice to Pride: A History of LGBTQ+ Movement by Amy Lamé
Authored by a renowned London-based American broadcaster, activist, and performer, this one is an extremely useful book on the subject and it clearly takes into account that there is still a lot of misinformation and ignorance about the LGBTQ+ lives. It provides vital information and guidance about the LGBT movement—even though it is not the entire history of the movement.
It is a good introduction to the movement that can be especially helpful for the young readers. It makes sure that young people are conscious of the shocks and pains experienced by LGBTQ+ people in the past, and the fight they have had to fight to get where we are today. It's an exceptional way of demonstrating how far we have come and the fights that still need to be fought.
The book is recommended for anyone who is 12+ years and mostly focuses on the community in the United Kingdom and United States but pays some attention to the state in other countries such as India, Jamaica, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Algeria, where the community still goes through a lot of unfairness and injustice.
This remarkable text speaks against crimes against the community who have been persecuted for the simple act of falling in love. To make the narration interesting, Lamé includes brief profiles of important people in LGBTQ+ history such as Alan Turing, Harvey Milk, and Oscar Wilde. Lamé’s main stance throughout her narration is that same-sex longing has always existed and will always exist.
Written by
Bella Nome
Writer and Content Manager at Shulph