What makes the University of London exceptional is our rich diversity crossing populations, religions, locations, gender and racial identities. As part of LGBTQ+ Pride month, we are sharing a few books available via the Online Library, which cover some of the global spectrum of life experiences within the LGBTQ+ community.
1.“Noël Coward Screenplays : In Which We Serve, Brief Encounter, the Astonished Heart” by P Noël Coward and Barry Day
Read it here in E-Book Central
Read the words, laugh and cry with this compendium of the best works of one of the most glamourous glorious gays of history and certainly one of the most playful playwrights…the notorious Noël Coward.
2. “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf
A day in Mrs. Dalloway’s world shares an inside view of not only British Society but a quite secluded lesbian life between the wars in Virginia Woolf’s famous 1920s classic.
3. “Gay Bar: The Fabulous, True Story of a Daring Woman and Her Boys in the 1950s” by Will Fellows and Helen Branson
Read it here in Project MUSE (open access)
Vivacious, unconventional, candid, and straight, Helen Branson operated a gay bar in Los Angeles in the 1950s—America’s most anti-gay decade. After years of fending off drunken passes as an entertainer in cocktail bars, this divorced grandmother preferred the wit, variety, and fun she found among homosexual men (review courtesy of Project Muse).
4. “Transgender Emergence : Therapeutic Guidelines for Working with Gender-Variant People and Their Families”, by Arlene Istar Lev, and Valerie Jowett
Read it here in E-Book Central
This book is a insightful guide for anyone wanting to support and better understand the challenges of Gender-Variant folks.
5. “Queer Turkey: Transnational Poetics of Desire” by Ralph J. Poole
Read it here in JSTOR (open access)
Follow the author as he explores the secret worlds of Turkey’s gay subculture from hammam to the club scene and it’s embrace of international homo- literati such as James Baldwin.
6. “An Iranian gay photographer's journey of survival”, by Mariam, A. (2023) Global Voices Online, Singer Island: Newstex.
Read it here in International Newsstream (ProQuest)
Follow the true story of Ashkan Shabani. Shabani was very brave to share his story in this article, where the author candidly confides with readers the joys and struggles behind his long term gay relationship and bravely reveals the abuse he experienced within his family of origin.
7. Queer Voices in Hip Hop: Cultures, Communities, and Contemporary Performance by Lauron J. Kehrer
Read it here in JSTOR (open access)
Long dubbed the “King of Misogynistic Music”, Hip Hop and Rap’ s secret subsocieties are exposed to bring document stories of the awakening or conscious recognition of a homosexual representation in Hip Hop and Rap culture from Le1F’s performance on David Letterman to Lil Nas X ever changing and fluid choice of sexuality. This book opens up a world of thought and recognition for all genders and sexualities represented within Rap culture in front of or behind the scenes.
8. Queer African Cinemas, by Green-Simms (2022) 1st edn, Duke University Press, Durham.
Read it here in Project MUSE (open access)
Through charting the films made by and about gay Africans from the turn of the century through till current times, the author presents a strong case of the changing dynamic of independent film with the iconic Hollywood screenplay’s heroic struggles being replaced by more vulnerable and true to life human experiences.
9. Envisioning global LGBT human rights : (neo)colonialism, neoliberalism, resistance and hope by Nancy Nicol (01/01/2018)
Read it here in JSTOR (open access)
Based on a unique project, combining both research, first hand writings and documentary filmmaking. This book is brimming with private reflections and public experiences of current sexual politics in India, the Caribbean and Africa as it follows the SOGI issues through to the United Nations.
10. Horrigan, Patrick E (01/01/1999). Widescreen dreams : growing up gay at the movies
Read it here in JSTOR (open access)
Trail along Horrigan’s life journey from childhood to his openly gay male adult life. This unique biography sets the scene for Horrigan’s coming out and takes readers on an insider tour of his life via a fantastical journey through some of the most famous films 1960s and 1970s: Hello Dolly!, The Sound of Music, The Poseidon Adventure, Dog Day Afternoon and of course, the Wiz.