Strike a Pose: Queer history books to read this Pride Month

Whether you’re gagging at RuPaul’s Drag Race, voguing during FX’s Pose, or crying during The Boys in the Band on Broadway, the history of queer culture is present this Pride — as it should be. Here’s what to read when you need more. 

A famed family of ballroom culture, House of Xtravaganza inspired everything from Paris is Burning to Madonna to Pose. It’s also the inspiration for Joseph Cassara’s debut novel, an intersectional triumph which was released earlier this year. (Buy it here.)

The Line of Beauty follows Nick, a wide-eyed postgrad, navigating homosexuality, privilege, and happiness in 1980s Britain. Hollinghurst, who won the Man Booker Prize for this novel, chronicles the gray area between sexual freedom and fear at the crux of the AIDS crisis. (Buy it here.)

If you start with The Line of Beauty, end on Eighty-Sixed. David Feinberg’s novel, loosely based on the author’s own life in his 20s, picks up on everyday life after the AIDS crisis is finally addressed, where fear is rampant and freedom is for the lucky few. (Buy it here.)

Fair warning: Maron Bailey favors an academic examination of ballroom culture. But don’t let that stop you from reading his first-person account of Detroit’s inner-city scene. Butch Queens Up in Pumps shows New York isn’t the only home for flourishing queer culture. (Buy it here.)

Having recently relocated to New York, Olivia Laing channels her severe isolation into an investigation of  artistic expressions of loneliness. Each chapter explores a manifestation of detachment, taking particular interest in the work of the AIDS-era artists Klaus Nomi, Andy Warhol, and David Wojnarowicz. (Buy it here.)

If The Lonely City is a primer on the world of David Wojnarowicz, then his book Close to the Knives is an immediate and painful immersion. The prolific New York artist hasn’t received the notoriety of his East Village contemporaries — Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring — but his written and visual work is unparalled. (Buy it here.)

Starting in the 1940s, Charles Kaiser conducts a decade-by-decade retelling of the gay rights movement. He’s expansive yet detailed. If you’re looking for an overview of queer culture, The Gay Metropolis should get you there. (Buy it here.)

On Drag Race, RuPaul routinely recalls his days as a Club Kid — the 1990s New York night life personalities made famous for flashy fashions and sickening soundbites. But it’s his longtime pal James St. James whose 1999 memoir (originally titled Disco Bloodbath) shows the sinister side to star power — the murder of Andrew “Angel” Melendez by Club Kid leader Michael Alig. (Buy it here.)

Susan Sontag chastises the medical world’s affinity for victim-blaming in her seminal book. She also calls out the use of metaphors to make sense of illness, focusing on cancer, AIDS, and tuberculosis. Released in 1978, her impassioned argument remains timely. (Buy it here.)

It’s the inspiration for the 1993 TV film of the same name where Lily Tomlin played a physician, treating early cases of HIV. Read And The Band Played On for an overview of the AIDS crisis, from the discovery of HIV to the indifference of politicians. (And, no, this isn’t the same story as The Boys in the Band.) (Buy it here.)

An unnamed caregiver treats several patients who have contracted AIDS. Each chapter explores the effect of one physical and emotional “gift,” or symptom. Brown humanizes illness, bringing an artistry to the academic and scientific. (Buy it here.)