Explore: LGBTQ

Tagged LGBTQ

Empathy Versus Misinformation Wrap-Up

Thank you to everyone who came out to our Empathy Versus Misinformation: Transgender Youth series of panels. There has been a lot of interest in transgender youth in the media, and yet so few easy ways to access reliable answers to…

Empathy Versus Misinformation: Transgender Youth Panel Series

Lately, transgender and gender non-conforming youth have been a hot topic across the nation. Many people feel confused, even panicked, and it can be hard to tell what claims being made are even true. We've assembled a panel of…

Dena's Favorite Books of 2021

It's that time of year again for my annual list of favorite books from the Philbrick Hall Fiction Department at Parkway Central Library ! Welcome to the tenth anniversary of this yearly list and the second year of pandemic reading!…

The Rainbow Connection Fall Booklist

The Rainbow Connection is an LGBTQ+ group of library staff across all job classes that serve to support each other and the Queer communities in Philadelphia. Below are the books that we loved reading so far this fall and would love to…

Transgender Awareness Week 2021

Transgender Awareness Week , held annually from November 15 – 19, helps to raise the visibility of transgender people and address issues members of the community face. The week is capped off on November 20 with Transgender Day of…

More Than Stonewall: LGBTQ Historical Nonfiction

All October we'll be talking about LGBTQ History on the Free Library's blog! So far we've discussed LGBTQ Historical Young Adult Fiction and LGBTQ History Told Through Comics and Graphic Novels . This week, we turn our…

LGBTQ History Told Through Comics and Graphic Novels

A panel from Hazel Newlevant's exposé of queer uprisings found within Be Gay, Do Comics!. All October we'll be talking about LGBTQ History on the Free Library's blog! Last week we discussed LGBTQ Historical Young…

We Were Always Here: LGBTQ Historical Young Adult Fiction

October is LGBTQ History Month ! A lot of straight and/or cisgender people like to treat gay people like we didn't exist until Ellen Degeneres came out as a lesbian in 1997 ; and as if transgender people didn't exist until…

Nourishing Literacy | The Rainbow Pantry... from Scratch!

Inspired by June’s Pride month and our LGBTQIA+ community members, we are celebrating the Rainbow Pantry again! Check out previous blog posts for more ideas on keeping and using colorful kitchen staples. This round, we are…

LGBTQ+ Middle Grade and YA ebooks and Audiobooks

Here are five ebook and audiobook titles about identity, acceptance, love, and loss to consider this month as we celebrate those journeys with our friends, families, and ourselves. King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callander…

Re-Creating Our World: Join Us for the One Book, One Philadelphia Finale

Eight weeks of programs diving into The Tradition , Jericho Brown’s collection of poetry and the One Book, One Philadelphia 2021 title , have gone by in the blink of an eye. We read, we wrote, we danced, we made music and art, and…

Celebrate Pride Month with the Free Library!

Each June the Free Library celebrates LGBTQ+ Pride Month with programs, resources, reading lists, and posts that lift up LGBTQ+ voices and stories—and 2021 is no different. Kick off your summer with Free Library of Pride as we…

Celebrating Trans Day of Visibility with the Field Teen Center

March 31 is International Trans Day of Visibility , which honors the trans community and celebrates transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming people. The annual celebration was created in 2010 by Rachel Crandall, a co-founder of…

Digital Media Spotlight: Pride Month Streaming Film Fest!

Celebrate Pride Month by attending your very own film fest of curated LGBTQIA+ cinema, streaming through our Digital Media portal ! Kanopy There are hundreds of LGBTQAI+ featured films and videos currently streaming , with categories…

Queer Comics About Sports!

I never would have pegged myself as someone who wanted to read about "the sports", but there are some sweet and dramatic comics and graphic novels that have changed my mind about that in the past few years. If you too are…

Add These Books by Young LGBQTIA Authors to Your Pride Reading List!

You can still participate in Pride Month even if you cannot go to a pride parade. There are even ways of participating that avoid pinkwashing or whitewashing of the pride movement. While PRIDE may seem like the furthest thing from your…

The Free Library of Pride Goes Virtual Throughout June 2020!

Though it’s hard to imagine LGBTQ+ Pride month in Philadelphia without being able to gather in person as a community to celebrate, the Free Library is marching online and taking the celebration virtual this year with a month of…

Banned Books Week | LGBTQ+ Tween and Children's Edition

Another year, another Banned Books Week ! Each year the American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles a list of the Most Challenged Books in order to "inform the public about censorship in…

Conversations About Queer and Trans Literature with Author Kacen Callender

In part 2 of interviews conducted around the Trans Writers, Kids, and Books event (you can find our interview with Kyle Lukoff from before the event in an earlier blog post), this time we speak with Lambda and Stonewall Award-winning…

Conversations About Queer and Trans Literature with Picture Book Author Kyle Lukoff

We’re having a really exciting Author Event on the evening of Thursday, July 25 where the topics of discussion will be Trans Writers, Kids, and Books ! Lambda and Stonewall Award-winning author Kacen Callender ( Hurricane Child ,…

Chronicling Resistance: The Exhibition

The roots of activism in Philadelphia run deep, and local archives hold innumerable stories of resistance. But many of these stories — those that center historically marginalized peoples — have been diminished, erased,…

Alice Dunbar-Nelson

Free Library resources in support of the Rosenbach's Digital Exhibition: "I Am an American!" The Authorship and Activism of Alice Dunbar-Nelson

LGBTQ - Romance

Fun and fabulous recent romances that feature LGBTQ+ heroes and heroines! There's everything here to make you smile (and maybe cry) complete with a guaranteed happy ending. Just a note: a significant majority of romances with gay male…

LGBTQ - Fiction

A selection of genre fiction featuring LGBTQ+ characters, including fantasy, historical, horror, paranormal, mystery, thrillers, science fiction, and more!

LGBTQ Middle Grade Books

Books featuring LGBTQ characters and voices within children's fiction.

LGBTQ Picture Books

Books for children of LGBTQ parents, or for little brothers and sisters of LGBTQ teens.

LGBTQ Teens - Resources for Parents and Families

Resources for Parents and Families of LGBTQ Teens.

LGBTQ Teens - Nonfiction

Information on bullying, safety, coming out, and other important topics relevant to LGBTQ teens.

LGBTQ - Film and Television

LGBTQ Documentaries, Film, and Television

LGBTQ - Stonewall Book Awards

The Stonewall Book Awards are given annually to English-language works of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience and include the Stonewall Book Awards – Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s…

LGBTQ - Nonfiction

A selection of informational nonfiction titles.

LGBTQ - Biographies and Autobiographies

Biographies and Autobiographies of important and influential members of LGBTQ community.

Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan | Mad Honey

In conversation with Jo Piazza A “quite prescient and worthwhile” writer who “understands her characters inside and out” ( The New York Times Book Review ), Jodi Picoult has authored many No. 1 bestsellers that are renowned for…

Hugh Ryan | The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison

In conversation with Sayeeda Rashid, Director of the Center for Gender Resources and Sexual Education at Haverford College Hugh Ryan is the author of When Brooklyn Was Queer , a “boisterous, motley … entertaining and insightful” ( The…

Raquel Salas Rivera | antes que isla es volcán / before island is volcano

Introduced by Denice Frohman In conversation with Cynthia Dewi Oka The 2018–19 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, Raquel Salas Rivera is the author of five full-length books of poetry. These poetry collections include lo terciario/the…

Hanya Yanagihara | To Paradise

In conversation with Andy Kahan, Ruth W. and A. Morris Williams, Jr. director of author events “A wrenching portrait of the enduring grace of friendship” (NPR), Hanya Yanagihara’s bestselling novel A Little Life is a story of tragedy…

Rumaan Alam | Leave the World Behind

In conversation with Carmen Maria Machado Rumaan Alam is the author of the New York Times instant bestseller Leave the World Behind , “a genuine thriller, a brilliant distillation of our anxious age, and a work of high literary…

William di Canzio | Alec

In conversation with Wendy Moffat, Professor of English and Curley Chair of Global Education at Dickinson College and author of the prize-winning biography, A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E.M. Forster A professor in the…

Sarah Schulman | Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987–1993

In conversation with Jason Villemez, editor of the Philadelphia Gay News A decades-long activist for LGBTQ+ rights and women’s empowerment, Sarah Schulman is the author of more than twenty novels, nonfiction books, screenplays, and…

Elias Rodriques | All the Water I’ve Seen is Running

In conversation with Rachel Ossip Co-sponsored by n+1 and Blue Stoop Elias Rodriques currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania and in the fall of 2021 will start as an assistant professor of African American literature at…

Brontez Purnell | 100 Boyfriends

In conversation with Kaitlyn Greenidge Brontez Purnell is the author of Since I Laid My Burden Down , a debut novel about growing up gay in 1980s Alabama that “not only holds its own as queer literature, but also expands upon it” ( San…

Melissa Broder | Milk Fed

In conversation with Nomi Eve, author of Henna House and The Family Orchard , Director of the Creative Writing MFA program, Drexel University. Melissa Broder is the author of The Pisces , a darkly erotic yet tender tale of academia,…

Salamishah Tillet | In Search of The Color Purple: The Story of an American Masterpiece

In conversation with Errin Haines, founding member and editor at large at The 19th, a new, nonprofit newsroom focused on the intersection of women, politics and policy. Salamishah Tillet is the author of Sites of Slavery , an…

Veronica Chambers | Finish the Fight!: The Brave and Revolutionary Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote

In conversation with: Rachelle Baker, illustrator; Jennifer Harlan, writer; Steffi Walthall, illustrator Veronica Chambers is the editor for Narrative Projects at The New York Times and a co-author of "Finish the Fight!" She joined The…

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio | The Undocumented Americans

In conversation with Andrea González-Ramírez, Senior Writer at GEN and an Ida B. Wells fellow at Type Investigations. Read Ms. González-Ramírez's interview with Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. Originally from Ecuador, Karla Cornejo…

Seanan McGuire | Middlegame and Imaginary Numbers

One of contemporary sci-fi/fantasy’s most popular writers, Seanan McGuire won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards for the Wayward Children series of books. Also the author of, among other books, the October Day series and the InCryptid…

Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez | Legendary Children: The First Decade of Rupaul’s Drag Race and the Last Century of Queer Life

The creators of the immensely popular eponymous blog Tom and Lorenzo , Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez entertain millions of readers a month with their singular perspective on fashion and pop culture. They are frequent guests on…

Jennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus Khan | Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus

In conversation with Dr. Jen Ashton, Chief Medical Correspondent for ABC News and author of The Self-Care Solution: A Year of Becoming Happier, Healthier, and Fitter--One Month at a Time A professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia…

Garth Greenwell | Cleanness

In conversation with Carmen Maria Machado, most recently author of In the Dream House “A subtle observer of human interactions” with “an inborn ability to cast a spell” ( New York Times ), Garth Greenwell is the author of What Belongs…

André Aciman | Find Me

In conversation with writer and film critic Gary Kramer André Aciman is the author of the nationwide bestseller Call Me by Your Name , a novel that chronicles the bittersweet love story of a teenage boy and the young academic staying at…

Saeed Jones | How We Fight for Our Lives with Clifford Thompson | What It Is: Race, Family, and One Thinking Black Man’s Blues

Saeed Jones is the author of the “hard and glaring and brilliant” ( NPR Book Review ) poetry collection Prelude to Bruise , winner of the 2015 Stonewall Book Award/Barbara Gittings Literature Award. He is also the co-host of BuzzFeed’s…