LGBTQ+ Pride Month
Celebrate the impact of writers in the LGBTQ+ community and their work!
June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month and we have a number of resources available to help you discover, celebrate, and honor the vast contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and non-binary writers, both past and present.
The American Writers Museum recognizes that sexual identity is an inherently personal matter and it is important to honor that. With that in mind, the AWM curators chose not to “out” writers in our exhibits who were not open with their identities during their lifetimes. Though, through scholarly research and literary analysis—combined with our current understanding and acceptance of sexual identity—we can look at these writers’ lives with a modern lens. It is also important to note that terminology relating to sex, gender, and sexual attraction has shifted and grown through the years, and continues to do so. Many authors just didn’t have access to the language to define their identities. But now we do.
- Explore virtual exhibits like Pauli Murray: Survival with Dignity, focused on the life and legacy of Pauli Murray, a hugely influential poet, lawyer, priest, activist, educator, and closeted member of the LGBTQ+ community. Learn how Murray used various forms of writing to understand her sexual identity and advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.
- Watch past program videos with contemporary authors like Rigoberto González, T Kira Madden, and more.
- Listen to informative and engaging podcasts with leading writers such as Saaed Jones, or learn about writers of the past like Margaret Wise Brown and James Baldwin.
- Book a group tour of the AWM with a focus on LGBTQ+ writers and how writing has helped shift the landscape of gender and sexual identity through the years.
Pauli Murray (1910-1985) was a poet, a lawyer, a priest, a freight hopper, Eleanor Roosevelt’s friend, arrested for refusing to comply with bus segregation laws, a closeted member of the LBGTQ+ community, a professor, and so much more. Their work has influenced Supreme Court decisions, the Civil Rights movement, and countless individual people, such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Get to know the life and work of Pauli Murray and see how they used writing to fight for justice for all oppressed communities.
Classroom resources are available to download as well.
In our special exhibit My America, available both online and in person, contemporary immigrant and refugee writers explore themes of home, community, language, duality, and what it means to be “American.” Acclaimed writers like poet Rigoberto González, novelist R. O. Kwon, and author Akwaeke Emezi share insights into their craft and how their gender and sexual identities overlap with their respective immigrant experiences.
Classroom resources are available to download as well.
Watch Jennifer Finney Boylan discuss her recent memoir Good Boy: My Life in Seven Dogs with comedian and LGBTQ+ rights activist Kathy Griffin. Boylan’s 2003 memoir, She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders, was the first book published by an openly transgender American to become a bestseller.
All three series in the AWM Podcast Network include episodes featuring or about writers who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community. Dive into some of them below, and view our full lineup of podcast episodes here.