DOCUMENTARIES
 
Paris Is Burning (1990)
A foundational documentary about New York City ballroom culture, focusing on Black and Latinx queer and trans communities.
 
Before Stonewall (1984)
An essential look at queer life and organizing in the United States before the Stonewall uprising. A great companion to The Life and Death of Marsha P. Johnson.
 
The Life and Death of Marsha P. Johnson (2017)
Explores the life and activism of Marsha P. Johnson, her role in the early LGBTQ liberation movement, and the ongoing questions surrounding her death.
 
Kiki (2016)
A contemporary look at New York’s ballroom scene and the lives of LGBTQ young people involved in it. A great companion to Paris Is Burning.
 
Disclosure (2020)
An exploration of the history and impact of transgender representation in film and television.
 
The Celluloid Closet (1995)
A fascinating history of LGBTQ representation in Hollywood, including coded queer characters, censorship, stereotypes, and the Hays Code.
 
Tongues Untied (1989)
An experimental and deeply personal film about Black gay men, sexuality, race, masculinity, and community.
 
Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin (2003)
The life of Bayard Rustin, a Black gay civil rights organizer who played a major role in the March on Washington.
 
Stormé: The Lady of the Jewel Box (1987)
A documentary about Stormé DeLarverie, a Black/biracial butch lesbian performer and important figure in queer nightlife and history.

FILMS
 
The Watermelon Woman (1996)
A Black lesbian filmmaker investigates the history of a Black lesbian actress from old Hollywood. A particularly great film about queer history, race, archives, and whose stories get remembered.
 
Pariah (2011)
A Black lesbian teenager navigates sexuality, family, identity, and coming into her own.
 
Desert Hearts (1985)
A classic lesbian romance set in 1950s Nevada. An important contrast to the often tragic way lesbian relationships were portrayed in earlier cinema.
 
The Children’s Hour (1961)
A historically important film for understanding how lesbianism was represented in mainstream American film before the sexual revolution. Definitely worth discussing as a historical artifact rather than a model of representation.
 
But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)
A campy, funny take on conversion therapy, compulsory heterosexuality, and queer identity.
 
Go Fish (1994)
A low-budget lesbian film that captures 1990s lesbian culture and community.
 
Carol (2015)
A beautifully made story of lesbian desire and repression in 1950s America.
 
Saving Face (2004)
A queer Chinese-American romantic comedy dealing with sexuality, family, culture, and expectations.
 
Rafiki (2018)
A Kenyan queer love story exploring sexuality, family, religion, politics, and community.
 
The Half of It (2020)
A contemporary coming-of-age story about queer identity, friendship, love, and being an outsider.
 
TELEVISION
 
Pose
Black and Latinx LGBTQ communities, ballroom culture, HIV/AIDS, chosen family, and the early years of the AIDS crisis.

A League of Their Own
A fictionalized look at the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League that explores women, gender, sexuality, race, and queer life in the 1940s.
 
Gentleman Jack
Based on the diaries of Anne Lister, a 19th-century landowner and woman who openly pursued relationships with women.
 
Dickinson
A highly stylized and intentionally modern take on Emily Dickinson’s life, sexuality, relationships, and poetry.
 
The L Word
An important cultural artifact in lesbian television history. Very much a product of its time and worth discussing critically for its representation, limitations, and impact.
 
Vida
A contemporary series centered on queer Latina identity, family, sexuality, culture, and gentrification.
 
BOOKS
 
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde
Part memoir, part history, part mythology. One of the most important books for understanding Black lesbian life, community, sexuality, and feminism.
 
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
A collection of essays and speeches addressing race, sexuality, feminism, class, identity, and power.
 
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
A foundational novel about working-class butch and femme culture, gender identity, labor organizing, sexuality, and queer community.
 
Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought, edited by Briona Simone Jones
A collection of Black lesbian writing and thought spanning generations. Includes essays, poetry, theory, and historical perspectives.
 
The Combahee River Collective Statement
A short but foundational piece of Black feminist and lesbian feminist political thought.
 
How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective, edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
A contemporary collection that provides context for the Combahee River Collective and connects its ideas to contemporary Black feminism.
 
Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
A funny, irreverent lesbian coming-of-age novel published in 1973. A classic of lesbian literature.
 
The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez
A Black lesbian vampire novel that moves through several centuries of history, exploring race, sexuality, community, survival, and chosen family.
 
Loving Her by Ann Allen Shockley
A groundbreaking 1974 novel about a Black lesbian relationship and one of the earliest published novels to center Black lesbian love.
 
The Women’s House of Detention by Hugh Ryan
An exploration of the history of queer women and gender-nonconforming people incarcerated at New York City’s Women’s House of Detention.
 
Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers by Lillian Faderman
A more academic history of lesbian life and relationships in the United States.
 
The Book of Pride by Mason Funk
A collection of oral histories from LGBTQ activists and community members.
 
Stonewall by Martin Duberman
A detailed history of the Stonewall uprising and the people involved in it.
 
The Alan Turing Enigma by Andrew Hodges
A biography of Alan Turing and an important piece of queer history, particularly around the criminalization of homosexuality and its impact on LGBTQ people.
 
Unprotected by Billy Porter
Memoir from actor, singer, and LGBTQ icon Billy Porter.
 
This Bridge Called My Back, edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa
A foundational collection of writing by women of color addressing race, sexuality, feminism, identity, and oppression.
 
Tales of the Lavender Menace by Karla Jay
A history of lesbian activism and the conflicts between lesbian feminists, the women’s movement, and the broader gay liberation movement.
 
POETRY
 
Audre Lorde
Start with The Black Unicorn or selected poems from Your Silence Will Not Protect You.
 
Adrienne Rich
Particularly Twenty-One Love Poems and the essay “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.”
 
Pat Parker
Black lesbian feminist poet whose work explores sexuality, race, relationships, feminism, and liberation.
 
Cheryl Clarke
Black lesbian feminist poet and writer whose work explores sexuality, race, gender, and community.
 
June Jordan
Black feminist poet and writer whose work addresses race, sexuality, gender, class, and political liberation.
 
Essex Hemphill
Important Black gay poet and activist whose work explores sexuality, masculinity, race, love, and the AIDS crisis.
 
Andrea Gibson
A contemporary queer poet whose work explores gender, sexuality, love, trauma, politics, and identity.
 
PEOPLE TO KNOW

• Sappho

• Audre Lorde

• James Baldwin

• Bayard Rustin

• Lorraine Hansberry

• Pauli Murray

• Gladys Bentley

• Stormé DeLarverie

• Barbara Smith

• Del Martin

• Phyllis Lyon

• Barbara Gittings

• Ann Bannon

• Sylvia Rivera

• Marsha P. Johnson

• Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

• José Sarria

• Lou Sullivan

• Jackie Shane

• Josephine Baker

 
A GOOD PLACE TO START
If they don’t want to tackle a giant reading list, I’d start with:
 
Read:

• Zami

• Stone Butch Blues

• Sister Outsider

• Mouths of Rain

• Rubyfruit Jungle

 
Watch:

• Paris Is Burning

• Before Stonewall

• The Watermelon Woman

• Tongues Untied

• Kiki

 
For something lighter:

• But I’m a Cheerleader

• A League of Their Own

• Desert Hearts

• The Half of It

• Dickinson

• Gentleman Jack