LGBTQ+ History Month is an annual, month-long observance held every October in the United States to celebrate the achievements, history, and civil rights movements of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. For more titles, check out the full list of titles in our Sexuality Studies collection.
Whose Beloved Community?: The Intersections of Black and LGBTQ Civil Rights
Edited by Dwight A. McBride, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, and Justin A. Joyce
Martin Luther King Jr.’s idea of “the beloved community” focused on the hoped-for new relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed after the success of a nonviolent movement. But the vision excluded, and sometimes still excludes, LGBTQIA+ people and Black women.
Expansive and interdisciplinary, Whose Beloved Community? begins the process of advancing toward truly inclusive communities that are more honest, more complex, and more loving.
“Queer for Fear: Horror Film and The Queer Spectator” by Heather O. Petrocelli
In “Queer for Fear: Horror Film and the Queer Spectator,” Heather O. Petrocelli analyzes data from queer survey participants and queer oral-history narrators to examine the relationships between horror, camp, and queerness.
Tengo Sed: An Anthology of Works Celebrating Black Voices, Identities, and Personhood
Edited by Yndia Lorick-Wilmot and Natasha Gordon-Chipembere
Since 2015, the Tengo Sed (“I am thirsty”) Writers’ Retreats have brought together African-descended people of diverse backgrounds and across disciplines to create works in an emancipatory space of knowledge and community. For editors Yndia Lorick-Wilmot and Natasha Gordon-Chipembere, Tengo Sed is the manifestation of the bonds created within the context of global community-making, allowing for these perspectives to come to life.
Singular and inspirational, Tengo Sed centers storytelling, self-making, and artistic practice, and contributes to ongoing dialogues on Black identity, liberation, and creative sovereignty.
Women, Gender, and Families of Color
“‘I Am a Lesbian’: Black Queer Subjectivities in The Watermelon Woman and Pariah” by Stephanie Andrea Allen
Stephanie Andrea Allen addresses the ways in which Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman and Dee Rees’s Pariah expand the archive of Black lesbian filmic representations by focusing on the ways in which Black lesbian identities are validated, embraced, and complicated by Black women in the United States. At the same time, these films reveal the unique challenges that Black lesbian filmmakers face from the film industry, as well as from their own communities.
For the Love of Labor: The Life of Pauline Newman
Cathryn J. Prince
From her start as one of the youngest activists in US history, Pauline Newman helped shape the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU) into a dominant force in industrial America. Cathryn J. Prince tells the story of a self-educated Jewish immigrant who dedicated herself to a legion of causes and lifelong battles against sexism and classism.
Engaging and panoramic, For the Love of Labor is the first major biography of an important figure in labor and women’s history.
Journal of Appalachian Studies
“Taking PRIDE in One’s Community: How Local Rural Pride Events Nurture Queer Futurity, An Interview with Travis A. Rountree” by Jessica Cory
Based on an interview with Western Carolina University faculty member and community organizer Travis A. Rountree, this piece examines the importance of Pride events in rural Appalachian communities, the steps required for hosting such events, and the necessity of community support.
Queer, Women of Color, and Critical Approaches to Feminist Mentorship and Pedagogy
Edited by Leandra H. Hernández, Stevie M. Munz, and Jessica Pauly
Feminist mentorship remains in short supply within communication studies and feminist and gender studies. A diverse group of contributors from the undergraduate level to senior scholars use Black feminist, Chicana feminist, and queer lenses to explore feminist mentorship examples in both pedagogical and relationship-building contexts.
Enriching and hopeful, Queer, Women of Color, and Critical Approaches to Feminist Mentorship and Pedagogy is a much-needed challenge to traditional forms of mentorship.
“Queer Up! Application of Queer Representation in Art Education” by Meng-Jung Yang and Kevin Hsieh
Authors Meng-Jung Yang and Kevin Hsieh focus on the importance of gender representation in child-oriented media and support for LGBTQ+ students in the classroom. This article describes the ways in which K–12 art teachers can create a space for queer students to feel welcome, offering guidance for teachers to advocate for diversity and foster an open, supportive environment.