Author: Read with Pride

readwithpride.com If you scroll through any dating app, look at the front of most gay novels, or walk into a club on a Saturday night, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the LGBTQ+ community has a strict “sell-by” date. In a world that prizes the smooth skin of a twenty-something and the frantic energy of …

The Experience of Being a Queer Senior in a Youth-Obsessed CultureRead More

readwithpride.com When we talk about Pride today, we often think of the glitter, the parades, and the freedom to shout our love from the rooftops. But for a huge chunk of our community’s history: specifically between 1994 and 2011: there was a group of heroes who had to do the exact opposite. They served our …

Queer Veterans: Serving in Silence During Don’t Ask, Don’t TellRead More

readwithpride.com Let’s talk about the “Checkbox Crisis.” You know the one. You’re filling out a form, and they ask for your ethnicity. You see “White,” “Black,” “Asian,” “Hispanic/Latino,” and then there’s that lonely little box at the bottom: “Other” or “Two or more races.” For many of us, that box is a metaphor for our …

Mixed-Race Queer Folks: Finding Community When You Don’t Fit NeatlyRead More

readwithpride.com If you’ve ever sat in a wooden pew on a Sunday morning, adjusting a tie or a modest skirt while the preacher talks about “Eternal Families,” you know the vibe. But when you’re LGBTQ+ and Mormon (LDS), that “vibe” can feel more like a high-stakes obstacle course designed by someone who really, really loves …

Queer and Mormon: Leaving or Reclaiming FaithRead More

readwithpride.com Imagine walking into a room where everyone is talking, but nobody is making a sound. The air is thick with movement: hands flashing, faces morphing through a kaleidoscope of expressions, and eyes locked in an intensity that hearing folks rarely manage. This isn’t just a party; it’s a masterclass in connection. Welcome to the …

The Deaf Queer Community: Language, Culture, and BelongingRead More

readwithpride.com Let’s talk about the mask. Not the skincare kind (though we love a good sheet mask), but the heavy, invisible one that so many of us in the LGBTQ+ community wear every single day. If you’re queer and you also happen to be neurotypical passing, you’re navigating a very specific, often exhausting, kind of …

Queer and Neurotypical Passing: The Invisible StrugglesRead More

readwithpride.com When you think of “queer life,” where does your mind go first? Most people immediately conjure up images of neon lights in Soho, high-rises in New York, or the bustling streets of San Francisco. But there’s a whole world of magic, grit, and survival happening far away from the subway lines: deep in the …

Appalachian Queer Stories: Resilience in the MountainsRead More

readwithpride.com If you’ve spent any time scrolling through the MM romance books section or diving into the latest LGBTQ+ ebooks, you know that our stories are as diverse as the colors in a nebula. But here’s a truth bomb: the way we talk about being queer in London, New York, or Sydney isn’t necessarily how …

Global Queerness: How Identity Looks Different Around the WorldRead More

readwithpride.com Let’s be real: life in 2026 is a lot. Between the fast-paced digital world and the daily grind, sometimes you just want to curl up with a book that doesn’t break your heart into a million irreparable pieces. For a long time, LGBTQ+ literature was synonymous with tragedy: the “Bury Your Gays” trope was …

Romance Novels with Guaranteed Happy Endings for Queer CouplesRead More

readwithpride.com If you’ve spent any time in the world of queer fiction or TV, you know the feeling. You’ve finally found a character who feels like you. They’re charming, they’re complex, and, hallelujah, they’ve finally kissed their love interest. You’re ready for the happily-ever-after (HEA). And then, out of nowhere, they’re hit by a car. …

The ‘Bury Your Gays’ Trope: A History and Why It Still MattersRead More

readwithpride.com Let’s be real for a second: we’ve all been there. You find a new book or a movie with a beautiful queer couple on the cover. You’re excited. You’ve got your snacks ready. And then, two chapters in, someone is disowned, someone is assaulted, and by the end, one of them is dead. It’s …

Queer Joy vs. Trauma Porn: What We Want from Our StoriesRead More

readwithpride.com Let’s be real: for a long time, finding a lesbian character on television felt like a high-stakes game of “Where’s Waldo?” except Waldo was usually a side character who died in the third act or was just “very close friends” with her roommate. But when we talk about the politics of lesbian visibility, there …

The Politics of Lesbian Visibility on Television: A Look at The L WordRead More

readwithpride.com Let’s get real for a second. For a long time, the literary world treated disability and queerness like two separate boxes that rarely, if ever, sat on the same shelf. If you were reading a “disability book,” it was usually a tragedy designed to make able-bodied people feel a sudden rush of gratitude for …

Exploring the Intersection of Queerness and Disability in LiteratureRead More

readwithpride.com Let’s be real for a second: for most of the LGBTQ+ community, the “birds and the bees” talk was always a bit… complicated. While our straight counterparts might accidentally stumble into parenthood after a particularly good bottle of wine, for us, building a family is a deliberate, often expensive, and occasionally exhausting marathon. Whether …

How Reproductive Healthcare Can Be More Inclusive for LGBTQ+ FamiliesRead More

readwithpride.com Let’s be honest for a second: who among us didn’t grow up secretly (or not-so-secretly) stanning the villain? While the square-jawed hero was busy saving the day with all the personality of a damp paper towel, the villain was over there serving looks, theatricality, and the kind of sharp-tongued wit that we usually only …

The Rise of the ‘Queer Villain’: Compelling or Problematic?Read More

readwithpride.com Let’s be real for a second: there is a specific kind of magic that happens when you walk into a room and realize you don’t have to translate yourself. No “explaining” your pronouns for the tenth time, no dodging awkward questions about your dating life at Thanksgiving, and definitely no feeling like the “token” …

Found Family: The Heartbeat of Queer StorytellingRead More

readwithpride.com Let’s be real for a second: we all love a spicy, three-alarm-fire of a sex scene. There is absolutely a place for high-heat MM romance books that leave your e-reader steaming. But as we move further into 2026, there’s a growing hunger in the queer community for something that hits a different kind of …

Writing and Reading Queer Desire: Beyond the Sex SceneRead More

readwithpride.com Let’s be real for a second: there is a specific kind of magic that happens when you open a book and see a reflection of your own soul staring back at you. For the trans and non-binary community, that magic hasn’t always been easy to find. For decades, our stories were told about us, …

The Importance of Trans and Non-Binary Authors Writing Their Own StoriesRead More

readwithpride.com Let’s be real for a second: our bookshelves are often a bit… localized. We love a good MM romance set in a rainy London cafe or a high-stakes gay romance in a bustling New York law firm, but the world of queer storytelling is so much bigger than the English-speaking bubble. If you’re looking …

Queer Stories in Translation: A World of VoicesRead More

readwithpride.com Long before we had TikTok aesthetics, “BookTok” recommendations, or even the convenience of LGBTQ+ ebooks, the queer community was busy in the back of copy shops, late at night, smelling like toner and rebellion. We’re talking about zines. If you’ve ever felt like mainstream media just didn’t get it, or if you’ve ever scoured …

The Power of Zines in Queer History and ActivismRead More