LGBT Campus Center Library
The LGBT Campus Center became a member of the University Library System during the Summer of 2006. Our collection of volumes are fully searchable and accessible in the University's online catalogue. Holdings range from gay and lesbian fiction to up-to-date reference materials on LGBT studies, history, politics, medical issues, people of color and transgender resource materials.
LGBTQ Studies Resources at UW-Madison
LGBTCC Library Staff and Volunteer Picks
Robin Matthies
Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai
Set against the background of Sri Lanka’s tumultuous political climate, this is the coming-of-age story of Arjun. Arjun is often harassed by other young boys for his feminine demeanor so, in the belief that he will shed his gender-bending ways, his family decides to send him to private school. While in private school he meets Shehan. Arjun and Shehan become involved romantically and have to confront two taboos: their homosexuality and their membership in different ethnic groups. While Arjun belongs to Tamil, a minority group in Sri Lanka, Shehan belongs to the dominant Sinhalese group. As a result, Arjun and his family are forced to flee as penniless refugees to Canada in 1983.
Abel Ramos Ramos
Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig
While in an Argentine prison, Molina and Valentin find a way of escaping their sordid lives by telling stories. The former, an eccentric middle-aged gay individual, recounts various stories of the movies he's seen so that the novel becomes an intricately woven narration between fantasy and reality. Valentin, who has been imprisoned for his socialist tendencies, listens attentively and challenges his cellmate's melodramatic, romantic notions. In spite of their different backgrounds and worldviews, they develop an unusual relationship that gives way to manipulation, drama, and love and culminates in tragedy.
Michael Lemire
Milk dir. By Gus Van Sant
This film recounts the story of Harvey Milk, an extraordinary individual who fought for the rights of LGBT people. When Milk (Sean Penn) moves to San Francisco from New York with his boyfriend Scott (James Franco), he opens a camera shop on the Castro. The shop quickly becomes a sort of refuge for LGBT people who face widespread discrimination, which encourages Milk to run for office. He wins various races and is poised to challenge Proposition 6, which denies equal rights to LGBT people. While in his short lifetime Milk demonstrated that one individual can make a difference, he also exposed the fact that there is still a lot of work to be done.
Aiden Caes
Nobody Passes ed. Matt Bernstein Sycamore
In this title, a collection of essays questions the idea of belonging by exploring the intersections of identity, community, and categorization. The authors explore and critique the systems of power inherent in the idea of “passing.” In their attempt to eliminate the need to “pass”, they offer possibilities for change.
Kasandra Brown
Shoulders: A Novel by Georgia Cotrell
Written in 1987, this novel was one of the first in a new genre of gay and lesbian romance. It follows the coming of age story of a young Texas lesbian as she navigates attraction and love during and after college. It's an engaging read that pulls you in and doesn't want to let go even after the last page!
Jake Weinraub
Stitching a Revolution: The Making of an Activist by Cleve Jones
Cleve Jones tells his story as a queer activist in San Francisco before, during and after the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco. It is extremely touching, and details many of the lessons he learned along the way. I found it very inspiring. Here's my favorite quote:
The Quilt required me to change. Whether it is the pope or the woman from Kentucky, the Quilt touches something intensely private and personal in everyone who sees it. I had to learn to listen to those feelings, those fears and hopes-not just of my sorrowing brothers, but of everyone who even for a moment had opened up and recognized a common humanity, a link between all of us. For ten years I’d lived in the gay ghetto, shouted through the bullhorn, marched and been arrested and jailed. My friends were gay, the music I listened to was gay oriented, the movies I saw had something to do with being gay, and except for a few family holidays it was a closed world. But now our goals demanded a different attitude, a wider reference. Certainly I wanted to startle Middle America and shake them up, but shocking people, hollering, “Look out, America, we’re coming!” just didn’t work. Times had changed, and the Quilt was part of the way we would survive and possibly prevail.
Angela Filer
Stonewall by Martin Bauml Duberman.
In Stonewall, Martin Duberman describes the 1969 Stonewall riots and the birth of the modern LGBT equal rights movement. By following the lives of six LGBT individuals, Duberman explores the diversity of obstacles that involved LGBT individuals faced. Written in an engaging style, Stonewall integrates human stories with a history of the movement.
Kelsey Nelson and Israel Pechstein
XXY dir. Lucia Puenzo
XXY is an independent film about an intersex individual in Uruguay who is faced with the decision of choosing their sex, and also gender. We chose this film because it balances medical and social issues associated with intersex identity while educating the audience about hardships that may face the community. Throughout the film we see how the protagonist responds to peer bullying, family pressure, and sexual relationships. Check out XXY if you're interested in a thought-provoking, Spanish-language film that portrays intersex issues in a realistic way, unlike common media representations.