June is LGBTQ2 Pride Month, chosen to commemorate the Stonewall riots which took place in June 1969. It also marks the beginning of worldwide parades and events which take place throughout the summer, marking the impact that LGBTQ2 people have had on their communities and the world.
To sum up the significance of Pride Month with a handful of books would be impossible, but we’ll try anyway. Here are a handful of inspiring, bold, and necessary voices.
Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age (Douglas & McIntyre) is the personal memoir of Darrel J. McLeod and his experience growing up in Smith, Alberta. Surrounded by his family and their Cree culture, Darrel grows up with the stories told by his mother – of their heritage, and of the hurt she and her sisters experienced in residential schools. His rooted childhood unmoors itself when his mother becomes unstable and he is forced to move from home to home amidst violence and chaos. During this whirlwind of change, his sibling’s gender transition provokes Darrel to question his own sexual identity. The resultant work is a portrait of family trauma, shared history, and the things that bind them together.
Lorimer Shenher openly shares his gender journey in the memoir This One Looks Like a Boy: My Gender Journey to Life as a Man (Greystone Books). Growing up in a girl’s body, Lorimer experienced gender dysphoria as a child, began experimenting with his sexuality as a teenager, and later, as an adult, struggled with the denial of his true identity – resulting in the acceptance of himself as trans, Lorimer undergoes gender reassignment surgery in his fifties. In addition to his grappling with identity, Lorimer shares his experience of working as the first detective assigned to the case of serial killer Robert Pickton, his struggles with alcohol, and his move from Calgary to Vancouver.
Swelling with Pride: Queer Conception and Adoption Stories (Caitlin Press, Dagger Editions) edited by Sara Graefe is a collection of stories from queer families and their journeys to parenthood. More than twenty-five queer creative non-fiction writers share the myriad ways in which becoming a parent is a challenge for LGBTQ2 folks in a predominantly hetero, cis world. From at home DIY procedures to expensive medical interventions to adoption processes, these stories shed light on the all-too common difficulties of becoming a queer parent. In the face of infertility, systemic homophobia, and grief, these candid tales voice the challenges faced by those in the queer community hoping to become a parent, but they’re also a celebration of the joy of family building.
Part memoir, part cultural commentary, Double Melancholy: Art, Beauty, and the Making of a Brown Queer Man (Arsenal Pulp Press) by C.E. Gatchalian is an exploration of what it means to experience melancholy as part of the life-long negotiation of identity. A queer Filipino-Canadian boy finds solace in art: literature and music keeps him company, despite the dominance of white, heteronormative representation. What becomes of the complicated relationship between art and identity, belonging and oppression, is an examination of how art can both enrich, belittle, and colonize our lives.
The concept for Death Threat (Arsenal Pulp Press) came from author Vivek Shraya’s receiving of transphobic hate mail from a stranger. Rather than hiding them, writer and musician Vivek instead shares the letters, as well as her responses, alongside poignant illustrations by celebrated artist Ness Lee. Its publication an act of resistance in itself, Death Threat combines satire and surrealism to paint a portrait of the violent harassment that so often plagues queer artists, and the dangerous pitfalls of virtual anonymity and digital openness.