LGBTQ - Nonfiction

This list has been created by a Library Assistant at Wake County Public Libraries (WCPL) and encompasses *most* of the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, plus other identitites such as, intersex, asexual, aromantic, demisexual, demiromantic, nonbinary, genderqueer, and more) titles categorized under "Nonfiction" and "Biography" in the WCPL collection as of March 11, 2025.

Showing 1 - 20 of 25  There are a total of 257 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Farewell yellow brick road"
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Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"In this lavish celebration authored by the icon himself, Elton John shares his fondest memories, most unforgettable moments, and previously untold stories of his record-breaking final tour. Readers will get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into every aspect of this globe-spanning spectacle, including Elton's legendary touring wardrobe by Gucci, official photography, and more. As the tour weaves across the world, Elton reaches back in time to reflect on...
Book cover for "Loud"
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5 stars
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"The empowering, inspiring, patriarchy-smashing first book by the TikTok and Spotify star Drew Afualo"--
Book cover for "Miss Major speaks"
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Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"The future of Black, queer, and trans liberation explored by a legendary transgender elder and activist. Miss Major Griffin-Gracy is a veteran of the infamous Stonewall Riots, a former sex worker, and a transgender elder and activist who survived Bellevue psychiatric hospital, New York's jail system, and the HIV/AIDS crisis. For over fifty years, she has been on the front lines of struggles for queer liberation. In this brilliant and moving conversation...
Book cover for "Zami"
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Average Rating:
5 stars
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"Lorde, best known for her [poetry] and essays, leaves us with this ... autobiography of her early years as a writer, and as a struggling black lesbian in NYC. Slowly, through gentle inflections of her Grenadian roots and development of the ideas of Caricou society, she stitches together a number of very personal 'mythographies,' ultimately weaving a ... telling of her life"--Review on Amazon.com.
Book cover for "Burning my roti"
Star rating for Burning my roti
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Part memoir, part guide, Burning My Roti is essential reading for a new generation of South Asian women. With chapters covering sexual and cultural identity, body hair, colourism and mental health, and a particular focus on the suffocating beauty standards South Asian women are expected to adhere to, Sharan Dhaliwal speaks openly about her journey towards loving herself, offering advice, support and comfort to people that are encountering the same...
Book cover for "Hold the line"
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Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"An urgent warning about the growing threat to our democracy from a twenty-year police veteran and former diehard Trump supporter who nearly lost his life during the insurrection of January 6th. When Michael Fanone self-deployed to the Capitol on January 6, 2021, he had no idea his life was about to change. When he got to the front of the line, he urged his fellow officers to hold it against the growing crowd of insurrectionists-until he found himself...
Book cover for "Black folk could fly"
Star rating for Black folk could fly
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"A personal, social, and intellectual self-portrait of the beloved and enormously influential late Randall Kenan, a master of both fiction and nonfiction. Virtuosic in his use of literary forms, nurtured and unbounded by his identities as a Black man, a gay man, an intellectual, and a Southerner, Randall Kenan was known for his groundbreaking fiction. Less visible were his extraordinary nonfiction essays, published as introductions to anthologies...
Book cover for "My greatest save"
Star rating for My greatest save
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Briana Scurry was a pioneer on the US Women's National Team. She won gold in Atlanta in 1996, the first time women's soccer was ever played in the Olympics. She was a key part of the fabled "99ers," making an epic save in the decisive penalty-kick shootout in the final. Scurry captured her second Olympic gold in 2004, cementing her status as one of the premier players in the world. She was the only Black player on the team, and she was also the first...
Book cover for "Normal family"
Star rating for Normal family
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"In this unputdownable story of nature, nurture, and coming to terms with one's true inheritance, the author, introducing her deeply dysfunctional yet fiercely loving family that is anything but "normal," reveals how a colorful cast of characters were thrown together by chance and DNA"--
Book cover for "My gay church days"
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Average Rating:
5 stars
Book cover for "Boys and oil"
Star rating for Boys and oil
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"From a young, gay environmentalist, a searing coming-of-age memoir set against the arid landscape of rural North Dakota, where homosexuality 'seems akin to a ticking bomb.' 'I am a child of the American West, a landscape so rich and wide that my culture trembles with terror before its power.' So begins ... a haunting, bracingly honest memoir about growing up gay amidst the harshness of rural North Dakota, 'a place where there is no safety in a ravaged...
Book cover for "A place called home"
Star rating for A place called home
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"As a child, David Ambroz was raised homeless in New York City, the home of Wall Street and more than 100,000 homeless children. For David and his two siblings, their mother's diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia sets them in motion for a life of poverty, violence and instability as they travel across New York and New England seeking shelter. For eleven years, home for David means living in train stations, subway cars, 24-hour diners, and wherever...
Book cover for "Redefining realness"
Star rating for Redefining realness
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"In a landmark book, an extraordinary young woman recounts her coming-of-age as a transgender teen--a deeply personal and empowering portrait of self-revelation, adversity, and heroism. In 2011, Marie Claire magazine published a profile of Janet Mock in which she publicly stepped forward for the first time as a trans woman. Since then, Mock has gone from covering the red carpet for People.com to advocating for all those who live within the shadows...
Book cover for "Raising them"
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Average Rating:
5 stars
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"'What did you have? A boy or a girl?' Kyl and Brent imagined it would be years before their child would identify with a gender. Until then... As a first-time parent, Kyl Myers had one aspect dialed in from the start: not being beholden to the boy-girl binary, disparities, or stereotypes from the day a child is born. With no wish to eliminate gender but rather gender discrimination, Kyl and her husband, Brent, ventured off on a parenting path less...
Book cover for "Life isn't binary"
Star rating for Life isn't binary
Average Rating:
5 stars
Book cover for "Tomorrow will be different"
Star rating for Tomorrow will be different
Average Rating:
5 stars
Book cover for "Whipping girl"
Star rating for Whipping girl
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"In the updated second edition of Whipping Girl, Julia Serano, a transsexual woman whose supremely intelligent writing reflects her diverse background as a lesbian transgender activist and professional biologist, shares her powerful experiences and observations -- both pre- and post-transition -- to reveal the ways in which fear, suspicion, and dismissiveness toward femininity shape our societal attitudes toward trans women, as well as gender and...
Book cover for "Name drop"
Star rating for Name drop
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Television personality Ross Mathews likes telling stories. He was always outrageous and hilariously honest, even when the biggest celebrity he knew was his favorite lunch lady in the school cafeteria. Now that he has Hollywood experience--from interning behind the scenes at The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to judging RuPaul's Drag Race--he has a lot to talk about. In [this book], Ross dishes about being an unlikely insider in the alternate reality...
Book cover for "All the young men"
Star rating for All the young men
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"In 1986, twenty-six-year-old Ruth visits a friend at the hospital when she notices a door to one of the rooms is painted red. Nurses are drawing straws to see who will tend to the patient crying for his mother on the other side, all of them unwilling to help. Ruth immediately steps into the quarantined space herself, comforting the young man in his last moments. Before she realizes what she's done, word spreads in the community that Ruth is the only...
Book cover for "The deviant's war"
Star rating for The deviant's war
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"A biography of gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny"--