LGBT Pride Month, celebrated in June, commemorates the Stonewall riots in New York's Greenwich Village, which ignited the gay rights movement in the United States in 1969. Throughout the month and beyond, the Kansas City Public Library offers LGBTQIA+ programs and highlights reading or listening recommendations and other resources.

> Reading
> Programs
> Discussion
> Library Resources
> Music + Movies

 

Reading:

This book list is a compilation of LGBTQIA+ nonfiction. The titles encompass essential histories of the gay and lesbian underground but also brilliant books about the 20th century that capture a time and a place, pre-internet, when people struggled to find their tribe.  View list in catalog >



If fiction is more your thing, this list might be of some interest. Many of our most canonical authors -- Oscar Wilde, Alice Walker, James Baldwin and Virginia Woolf, among others -- were writing about same-sex relationships and gender fluidity years before mainstream acceptance of homosexuality. There are more great books by gay and lesbian authors than we can possibly recommend for one month, but here are some of our personal favorites to get you started. View list in catalog >



BookRiot compiled a list of the 100 must-read LGBTQIA young-adult books in 2017, and we’ve put them in one, easy-to-find place in our web catalog.  View list in the catalog >

Programs:

The Ordinance Project: KC’s LGBT Landmark

June 6, 2018

Twenty-five years ago, at the height of the AIDS crisis, the city council took one of the most controversial steps in Kansas City’s history. It added “sexual orientation” to the local Civil Rights Ordinance, barring discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and people with HIV/AIDS. The Library recently hosted a program at the Plaza Branch that explored the legacy of the ordinance and compared and contrasted the struggle for LGBT rights then and now.

Filmmaker Austin Williams moderated the conversation, kicking off the event with a clip from his upcoming documentary, The Ordinance Project, about the lead-up to and passage of the revised ordinance in June 1993. Panelists included Katheryn Shields, a council member then and now, and longtime activists Jon D. Barnett, Lea Hopkins, and Kay Madden . The program was co-presented by the Gay and Lesbian Archives of Mid-America, Out Here Now: Kansas City LGBT Film Festival and the Kansas City Human Rights Commission Task Force on Gay and Lesbian Issues.

Listen to an audio recording of the discussion here >

>>>Listen

Never Anyone But You by Rupert Thomson

June 12, 2018

Marking LGBT Pride Month, renowned author Rupert Thomson discussed his new novel about real-life lovers and artistic collaborators Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore. The two remarkable French women refused to conform to societal expectations of the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s, defending gender equity and espousing freedom of sexual orientation.

About the book > 

Program Details

Discussion

Teens are invited to the inaugural LGBTQIA+ Meet Up at the Library's Southeast Branch, 6242 Swope Parkway, on Friday, June 15, 2018, at 3:30 p.m. 

Learn More

Join us for the next edition of the Library's FYI Book Group, in partnership with the Kansas City Star:

No Place Like Home
by C.J. Janovy

Discussion date and location:
Sunday, July 29, 2018   |   2 p.m.
Kansas City Center for Inclusion,  3911 Main St., Kansas City, MO

Copies of the book will be provided for participants in advance of the discussion date. RSVPs required. The author will attend the discussion.

About the book >
About the author >

RSVP: kaitestover@kclibrary.org

 

Library Resources:

Learn more about LGBT history and culture with the LGBT Studies in Video database. All you need is your Library card to get started.   
LGBT Studies in Video

The online Archives of Sexuality & Gender illuminates the experiences of not just the LGBTQ community as a whole but also individuals of different races, ethnicities, ages, religions, political orientations, and geographical locations.
Archives of Sexuality & Gender

This page on our website lists resources for member sof the LGBTQIA community in Kansas City.
Kansas City Resources for LGBTQIA Community Members

The nonprofit Kansas City Anti-Violence Project offers advocacy to the area's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community on issues of domestic violence, sexual assault, and bias crimes.
Kansas City Anti-Violence Project

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays of Kansas City (PFLAG-KC) offers help for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth, their families, and communities in the areas of sexual orientation and gender identity.
PFLAG-KC
 

Music + movies:

Both Freegal Music and hoopla put together specially curated playlists for LGBT Pride Month. Start streaming today:

Freegal Music
hoopla

Kanopy has also curated a selection of cinema celebrating LGBT Pride Month. Stream to your computer, mobile device or watch Kanopy on your Roku:

Kanopy