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Top LGBTQ+ Must-Reads by Chicago Authors (or About Chicago!)
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items Chicago is a city known for its rich history, diverse communities, and vibrant LGBTQ+ culture. In this list, we highlight 12 must-read LGBTQ+ books, each written by an author with ties to Chicago or set within the city’s iconic neighborhoods. From hi...
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Historical Nonfiction: LGBTQ+ History in Chicago
Fiction: LGBTQ+ Stories with a Chicago Connection
Historical Nonfiction: LGBTQ+ History in Chicago
If you love reading true stories and learning about history, you'll love these books about LGBTQ+ history in Chicago.
Do You Remember House? dives into Chicago’s house music scene and shows how queer people of color built powerful communities through music and dance. It’s a great read if you want to learn how nightlife, identity, and culture came together in undergr...
Do You Remember House?: Chicago's Queer Undergrounds
Queer Legacies tells real stories from Chicago’s LGBTQ history using personal letters, photos, and archives. It’s an easy-to-read and powerful look at how everyday people shaped the city’s queer past and why saving these stories matters.
Queer Legacies: Chicago's LGBTQ Archives
Last Call Chicago is a fun and nostalgic guide to the city’s LGBTQ bars, clubs, and hangouts—past and present. It’s perfect if you love local history, nightlife, or just want to remember the places that helped build queer community in Chicago.
Last Call Chicago: 1001 LGBTQ Taverns & Haunts
Jim Elledge takes us back to the forgotten queer history of 19th and early 20th-century Chicago in this fascinating nonfiction exploration of the city’s underground queer culture.
The Boys of Fairy Town: Sodomites & Impersonators
De la Croix’s Chicago Whispers offers a unique window into the LGBTQ+ community’s early existence in Chicago, covering the period from the city’s founding through the 1960s. The book highlights activists, cultural figures, and everyday people who fou...
Chicago Whispers: LGBT History Before Stonewall
This scholarly work by Timothy Stewart-Winter examines the development of LGBTQ+ political activism in Chicago. Focused on the 1950s through the post-Stonewall era, Queer Clout explores how Black civil rights movements and gay liberation intersected,...
Queer Clout: Chicago and Gay Politics
Fiction: LGBTQ+ Stories with a Chicago Connection
If you love escaping into fictional stories, you'll love these novels featuring LGBTQ+ characters and stories with a Chicago connection.
This queer shapeshifter novel, set partially in Chicago, brings the 1990s indie punk scene to life through the eyes of a gender-fluid protagonist. Lawlor’s deep connection to Chicago informs the book’s energy and authenticity.
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
This rom-com set in Chicago blends humor and heart, featuring a fake-dating romance between exes. If you’re into fun, contemporary LGBTQ+ love stories, this one’s a must-read!
I'm So (Not) Over You: Jackson, Kosoko
Gaybash is a fast-paced thriller set in Chicago about a gay man who survives a brutal attack and decides to fight back. It’s intense, emotional, and explores how fear, justice, and identity all collide.
Gaybash
Set in 1980s Chicago and modern-day Paris, The Great Believers explores the devastating impact of the AIDS crisis on Chicago's Boystown community. A powerful narrative about loss, friendship, and survival.
The Great Believers
Set during the 1893 World’s Fair, The City Beautiful follows Alter, a gay Jewish teen in Chicago who becomes possessed by a dybbuk—a spirit of someone who’s been murdered. As he works to uncover who’s killing young immigrant boys in the city, the sto...
The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros
This cozy sapphic rom-com takes place in suburban Geneva, Illinois (right outside Chicago) and follows Murphy, a snarky college student, who returns home for Thanksgiving and finds herself in a fake-dating situation with Ellie, a girl she used to hav...
I'll Get Back to You