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Books, judgments and long reads that helped us understand, or feel less alone. Chosen by hand, India first. Nothing here is sponsored, and the links go to libraries and public sources, never shops.
Added automatically every Monday morning from new releases, so it is not hand-picked. If something does not belong here, tell us and it goes.
If you read only a few, read these.
Book · 2010
A. Revathi
The life of a hijra woman from Tamil Nadu, in her own words, translated from Tamil. Plain, unflinching and hard to forget.
Content note. Includes violence and sexual abuse.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2000
Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai
Two thousand years of writing about same-sex love across Indian languages. The book to hand to anyone who calls it a Western import.
Find it in a libraryJudgment or law · 2018
Supreme Court of India
The judgment that read down Section 377 and said sexual orientation is a natural part of identity. Read the judgment, not the headlines.
Read about itFiction from India and beyond: tender, funny, hard, and hard to put down.
Memoirs, in the writers' own words.
Where it came from, what people argued about, and what it all means.
Poems, stories and anthologies you can finish in an evening.
Stories told in pictures, from funny to heartbreaking.
Stories about growing up, loving and finding your people.
Picture books for the very young, and for the grown-ups who read to them.
If someone you love has just told you, start here.
The judgments and laws that shaped queer life in India, and the ones that shaped the world.
Magazines, archives and organisations with something worth reading today.
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Book · 2010
A. Revathi
The life of a hijra woman from Tamil Nadu, in her own words, translated from Tamil. Plain, unflinching and hard to forget.
Content note. Includes violence and sexual abuse.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2000
Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai
Two thousand years of writing about same-sex love across Indian languages. The book to hand to anyone who calls it a Western import.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2016
A. Revathi
What came after: organising, arguing and building community as a trans woman in India.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2015
Laxmi Narayan Tripathi
A hijra activist's memoir of growing up in Mumbai and becoming a public voice for her community.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2005
Ruth Vanita
How same-sex couples have lived, married and been treated, in Indian stories and in real life.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1999
Edited by Ashwini Sukthankar
Stories, poems and essays by Indian women on love between women.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2008
Parmesh Shahani
Gay life in Mumbai, seen through the people who built it, by a writer who is part of it.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2018
Shraddha Chatterjee
An academic study of how queer movements in India organise, and who gets left out of them.
Content note. Academic writing.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1956
James Baldwin
A short, devastating novel about desire, shame and what hiding costs.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2006
Alison Bechdel
A graphic memoir about a daughter, a father and everything neither could say.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1993
Leslie Feinberg
A working-class butch's life across decades of police raids and organising. A landmark novel about gender and survival.
Content note. Includes violence.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2019
Maia Kobabe
A graphic memoir about growing up nonbinary and asexual, told with warmth and humour.
Content note. Some explicit drawings. For older teens and adults.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2011
Madeline Miller
A Greek myth retold as a love story, tender and heartbreaking.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1928
Virginia Woolf
A playful, strange biography of someone who lives for centuries and changes sex along the way.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2019
Alice Oseman
Gentle, funny comics about two boys at school falling for each other. Also a TV series.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2012
Benjamin Alire Saenz
A quiet love story about two teenagers whose friendship slowly becomes something more.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2015
Becky Albertalli
A funny, warm story about a boy being outed by a stranger, and choosing how to tell his own story.
Find it in a libraryJudgment or law · 2018
Supreme Court of India
The judgment that read down Section 377 and said sexual orientation is a natural part of identity. Read the judgment, not the headlines.
Read about itJudgment or law · 2014
Supreme Court of India
Recognised transgender people as a third gender and affirmed the right to decide your own gender identity.
Read about itJudgment or law · 2017
Supreme Court of India
The nine-judge decision that made privacy a fundamental right, and that the Navtej judgment later leaned on.
Read about itJudgment or law · 2009
Delhi High Court
The first court ruling to strike down Section 377 for consenting adults. It was set aside in 2013 and the law was finally read down in 2018.
Read about itJudgment or law · 2019
Parliament of India
The law that followed the NALSA judgment, and the reasons many in the community criticised it.
Read about itRead online
A queer collective in Chennai
An archive of news, essays, resources and history, kept by volunteers.
VisitRead online
Online magazine
Queer news, stories, interviews and opinion from India and South Asia.
VisitRead online
Community magazine
Essays, art and personal stories by and for queer South Asians.
VisitRead online
Mumbai
One of India's oldest LGBTQ organisations: health services, helplines and policy work.
VisitHere
On this site
What seventy years of research found about where orientation comes from, in plain language.
OpenHere
On this site
Violence, family rejection, discrimination and mental health: what the records show, with every number sourced.
OpenHere
On this site
Helplines first, then practical guides on coming out, for parents and for allies.
OpenBook · 2014
Devdutt Pattanaik
Stories from Hindu myth and folklore where gender and desire do not stay inside boxes. A good place to start if someone tells you this is all foreign.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2012
Edited by Minal Hajratwala
An anthology of stories and essays by queer writers from India and its diaspora, from the funny to the painful.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2002
Edited by Ruth Vanita
Essays on same-sex love across Indian history, religion, film and law.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1999
Edited by Hoshang Merchant
One of the first anthologies of gay writing from India: fiction, poetry and memoir.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1942
Ismat Chughtai
Her short story 'Lihaaf', about a lonely wife and her maid, led to an obscenity trial in Lahore. She refused to apologise and the case was dismissed.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2017
Arundhati Roy
A sprawling novel that follows Anjum, a hijra woman in Delhi, and a cast of people at the edges of the nation.
Content note. Includes violence.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2016
Anosh Irani
A novel about an ageing hijra in Mumbai's red-light district and the young girl she is asked to prepare for the trade. Dark and compassionate.
Content note. Includes sexual exploitation.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2013
Sachin Kundalkar, translated by Jerry Pinto
A brother and sister both fall for the paying guest in their Marathi family's home. Quiet, lyrical and widely loved. First published in Marathi in 2006.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2013
Living Smile Vidya
A trans woman from Tamil Nadu tells the story of leaving home, finding community and becoming an actor and activist.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2012
Naisargi N. Dave
An anthropologist follows queer activists in India over years to show how they built communities and argued about what matters.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2020
Parmesh Shahani
A practical and personal look at how companies in India can include LGBTQ people, by Parmesh Shahani of the Godrej India Culture Lab.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1994
Shyam Selvadurai
A Tamil boy in Sri Lanka grows up gay against the backdrop of rising ethnic violence in the 1970s and 80s.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1971
E. M. Forster
Written in 1913 and 1914 and published after Forster's death. A love story with the happy ending he insisted on.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1952
Patricia Highsmith
First published under a pseudonym: two women fall in love in 1950s America, and the book gave readers a happy ending. Filmed as Carol.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1985
Jeanette Winterson
A girl raised in an evangelical English family falls in love with a woman. Funny, sharp and drawn from the author's own life.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2002
Sarah Waters
A Victorian thriller of thieves, an heiress and a twist, with a love story at its heart.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1982
Alice Walker
Celie's letters to God from rural Georgia, her survival, and her love for Shug Avery.
Content note. Includes abuse.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1973
Rita Mae Brown
A funny, defiant lesbian coming-of-age novel that became a bestseller.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1928
Radclyffe Hall
Banned for obscenity in Britain, it was the first widely read lesbian novel. Dated in some ways, and still historically important.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2007
André Aciman
A summer in Italy, a seventeen-year-old and his father's guest. Filmed in 2017.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2019
Ocean Vuong
A letter from a son to his mother, who cannot read it, about family, war, class and desire.
Content note. Includes violence and addiction.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2021
Torrey Peters
A funny, sharp novel about a trans woman, her ex, and the baby who might bring them back together.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2019
Bernardine Evaristo
Twelve linked lives, mostly of Black British women, across a century. Shared the Booker Prize in 2019.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2015
Hanya Yanagihara
Four friends in New York and the trauma one of them carries. Beautifully written and extremely distressing.
Content note. Includes sexual abuse, self-harm and suicide.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2002
Jeffrey Eugenides
A multigenerational Greek American family story told by an intersex narrator. It won the Pulitzer Prize, and some intersex readers have criticised how it treats intersex lives.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1982
Audre Lorde
Lorde called it a 'biomythography': growing up Black and lesbian in Harlem and New York in the 1950s.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1984
Audre Lorde
Essays and speeches on racism, sexism, homophobia and what we can do with our differences.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2015
Maggie Nelson
A writer's life with her partner, who is transitioning, and her pregnancy, woven with theory.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2014
Janet Mock
Mock's memoir of growing up trans and poor in Hawaii and becoming a writer.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2007
Julia Serano
A trans woman and biologist on how sexism shapes the way the world sees trans women.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2008
Susan Stryker
A short, readable history of trans and gender-variant people, mostly in the United States.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2015
Lillian Faderman
A big history of the LGBT civil rights movement in the United States, from the 1950s on.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1987
Randy Shilts
The reporting that showed how politics, fear and neglect let AIDS spread in the early 1980s.
Content note. About the AIDS epidemic and many deaths.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1990
Judith Butler
The book that shaped queer theory: how gender is something we do, not something we are. Dense, so read it slowly.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2005
Alan Downs
A psychologist on shame and how it can shape gay men's lives and relationships.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2016
Ocean Vuong
A debut collection of poems about family, war, grief and desire.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2002
Translated by Anne Carson
The surviving fragments of Sappho, the poet of Lesbos, in Carson's spare translation.
Find it in a libraryBook · 1978
Audre Lorde
Poems of Black womanhood, myth and anger from one of the great voices of the twentieth century.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2010
Julie Maroh
The French graphic novel the film was based on: a teenager's first love. It is quite different from the film.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2015
ND Stevenson
A shapeshifter, a knight and a kingdom. Funny, furious and full of heart.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2016
Meg-John Barker and Julia Scheele
A comic-book guide to queer theory and history, written for beginners.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2003
Kevin Jennings and Pat Shapiro
A guide for parents who have just learned that their child is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2021
Malinda Lo
San Francisco's Chinatown, 1954: a Chinese American teenager finds a lesbian bar. Won the US National Book Award for Young People's Literature.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2019
Casey McQuiston
The son of the US president and a British prince start as enemies and become more. A romance for older teens and up.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2020
Kacen Callender
A Black trans teenager in New York is outed by an anonymous prankster and sets out for revenge, and finds more.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2012
Emily M. Danforth
A girl in 1990s Montana is sent to a conversion therapy centre.
Content note. Includes conversion therapy and homophobia.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2020
Alice Oseman
A university story about a girl who finds out she is asexual and aromantic.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2019
Akwaeke Emezi
A young trans girl and a monster from a painting, in a town that says it has no monsters left.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2017
Adam Silvera
Two teenage boys get the call that today is their last day, and spend it together.
Content note. About death.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2020
Aiden Thomas
A trans boy tries to prove he is a brujo by summoning a ghost, and summons the wrong one.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2005
Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Based on the true story of two male penguins in a New York zoo who raised a chick together.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2018
Jessica Love
A boy sees three women dressed as mermaids on the subway and decides to become one. A joyful picture book.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2009
Lesléa Newman
A toddler's day with two mums, in short, rhyming lines. For the very young.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2018
Sophie Beer
A bright board book showing the many shapes a family can take.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2015
Michael Hall
A crayon labelled red is blue on the inside. A gentle picture book about being who you are.
Find it in a libraryBook · 2019
Theresa Thorn
A simple introduction to gender identity for young children.
Find it in a libraryJudgment or law · 2013
Supreme Court of India
The decision that overturned the Delhi High Court and put Section 377 back in force. It was effectively reversed in 2018.
Read about itJudgment or law · 2023
Supreme Court of India (Supriyo @ Supriya Chakraborty)
The marriage equality case. The court declined to recognise same-sex marriage and left it to Parliament, while recording that queer people must not face discrimination.
Read about itJudgment or law · 2003
Supreme Court of the United States
Struck down state laws that made same-sex intimacy a crime.
Read about itJudgment or law · 2015
Supreme Court of the United States
The ruling that required every US state to license and recognise same-sex marriages.
Read about itJudgment or law · 1981
European Court of Human Rights
The first time a court held that criminalising private same-sex acts violates human rights. Its reasoning travelled around the world.
Read about itRead online
Wikipedia
A well-sourced overview of the laws and history, with every claim referenced. Check the sources at the bottom.
VisitRead online
New Delhi organisation
Works on sexuality, health and rights in India, with plain-language guides and a helpline.
VisitRead online
Bengaluru legal collective
Advocacy, research and litigation on rights in India, including sexuality and gender.
VisitRead online
Online magazine
Queer and trans news, culture, advice and comics, written largely by queer women, trans and non-binary people.
VisitRead online
Global federation
Tracks laws on sexual orientation and gender identity country by country, with reports you can cite.
VisitRead online
Charity
Clear guides and research on LGBTQ+ inclusion at school and at work.
VisitRead online
Literary organisation
Reviews, news and awards for LGBTQ+ books. A good way to find your next read.
VisitHow we choose: a book or document makes this list if it is honest, readable and worth someone's time, and if it helps a person feel seen or understand better. Some are heavy, so we add a content note when they are. Tell us what we missed through the connect page.
