Archives for 2025

ECHR Debate: Political Theatre or Genuine Crisis?

29/10/2025 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

The Observer’s deep dive into the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR Debate ) debate exposes something uncomfortable: much of what we’ve been told about human rights law blocking deportations is complete nonsense. Remember the Albanian criminal supposedly kept in Britain because his son didn’t like foreign chicken nuggets? Never happened. The Iranian who couldn’t be deported so he could cut his son’s hair? Fabricated. These myths have poisoned the political debate, yet politicians from Kemi Badenoch to Nigel Farage continue weaponising them.

The Positives:

The article’s fact-checking is thorough and necessary. Oxford University’s Bonavero Institute data reveals that only 0.73% of foreign national offenders successfully appeal deportation on human rights grounds. The Strasbourg court has ruled against the UK just three times in 45 years on immigration cases. These statistics demolish the narrative that the ECHR is some insurmountable barrier to border control.

The piece also provides valuable historical context—reminding us that British lawyers drafted the ECHR after World War II, and it’s helped secure justice for Hillsborough families and protected vulnerable people during the pandemic. The practical complications of withdrawal are clearly laid out: the Good Friday Agreement embeds the ECHR, and leaving it would reduce European cooperation on asylum seekers.

The Negatives:

What’s deeply concerning is the cynicism on display. Politicians across the spectrum are treating human rights as a “useful political scapegoat” (as Liberty’s Akiko Hart notes), offering “disingenuous solutions” they know won’t work. Reform UK’s promise of a “department of believers” staffed by anti-ECHR civil servants sounds dystopian. Even Labour MPs in red wall seats are signalling hostility to human rights to appear tough on immigration.

The article perhaps doesn’t emphasise enough how dangerous this erosion of principle is. As former Lord Chancellor Charlie Falconer warns, abandoning rights for immigrants sets a precedent:

“there is essentially no limitation on what the government may do in other areas where there is political pressure.”

For Keir Starmer—who once called the ECHR his “lodestar”—this represents a pivotal test. Will he defend fundamental rights against populist pressure, or will he join the race to the bottom? The answer matters far beyond immigration policy. When politicians compete to see who can abandon human rights fastest, we all lose.

We All Lose

#ECHR #HumanRights #UKPolitics #Immigration #FactCheck #BorderControl #AsylumSeekers #PoliticalDebate #LegalAnalysis #MythBusting #Brexit #ReformUK #Labour #Conservatives #UKImmigration #HumanRightsAct #GoodFridayAgreement #Deportation #PoliticalAccountability #UKNews

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Attack on Libraries Should Terrify Us All

27/10/2025 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Attack on Libraries – When I think about libraries, I think about freedom. Not the abstract, flag-waving kind—but the real, tangible freedom to walk into a room and discover ideas that might change your life. The freedom to read without someone looking over your shoulder, deciding what you’re allowed to know.

That freedom is under attack in America right now. And what’s happening there should be a wake-up call for the rest of us.

Book Banning Has Gone From Rare to Epidemic

Here’s a stat that should stop you in your tracks: between 2001 and 2020, an average of 273 book titles were challenged in US libraries each year. In 2023 alone? Over 9,000 titles were targeted. That’s not a trend—it’s an avalanche.

We’re not talking about obscure edge cases. Books by Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Judy Blume are being pulled from shelves. A graphic novel about the Holocaust was banned in Tennessee. Even a children’s book about seahorses faced removal because—wait for it—it showed them mating.

The targets are predictable: anything involving LGBTQ+ themes (39% of challenged titles in 2024), books about race and racial justice, and materials related to sex education. But the scale is what’s new. This is no longer scattered local outrage. It’s organised, well-funded, and strategic.

It’s Not Grassroots—It’s Astroturfed

Groups like Moms for Liberty—which sounds wholesome enough—are actually connected to extremist organisations like the Proud Boys and QAnon conspiracy theorists. They’ve systematically taken over local library boards, using social media to manufacture outrage and fund candidates who’ll do their bidding.

One of the Proud Boys’ leaders literally called Moms for Liberty “the Gestapo with vaginas.” When fascists are giving you compliments, you might want to reconsider your strategy.

Librarians are facing death threats for doing their jobs. Amanda Jones, a Louisiana school librarian, spoke out against book banning at a board meeting. She was immediately accused of grooming children and received such terrifying threats that she now sleeps with a shotgun under her bed. Think about that—a school librarian needs weapons to feel safe because she defends books.

Trump’s Making It Official Policy

Things escalated dramatically when Trump returned to office. In February 2025, Dr. Colleen Shogan—the head of the US National Archives—was fired without explanation. In May, Dr Carla Hayden, the brilliant librarian of Congress, got an email: “Your position is terminated effective immediately.”

Her replacement? Todd Blanche—Trump’s lawyer from the Stormy Daniels case. That’s right: America replaced one of the world’s most accomplished librarians with a defence attorney. The symbolism couldn’t be clearer.

Meanwhile, government datasets are being scrubbed from websites. Environmental data, public health information, disease control statistics—all disappearing down the memory hole. Volunteer librarians are racing to save what they can, but established institutions need to step up and host this rescued data before it’s lost forever.

Why “Just Books” Matters More Than You Think

There’s a quote from philosopher Jacques Derrida that sums this up: “There is no political power without power over the archive.” Whoever controls what gets remembered—what gets preserved, what’s accessible—controls the narrative. They control history itself.

When a Florida judge ruled that public libraries are “government speech” and citizens have no First Amendment right to access books there, it wasn’t just about books anymore. It was about whether we’re allowed to think independently of what the government wants us to think.

It’s Already Crossing the Atlantic

Don’t think this is just an American problem. In Ireland, groups modelled directly on Moms for Liberty are targeting libraries with the same playbook. In the UK, 82% of librarians reported increased pressure to remove books in 2023, especially LGBTQ+ titles.

This August, a mob firebombed Spellow library in Liverpool because it served immigrant communities. A Reform UK councillor in Kent boasted about ordering the removal of “trans-ideological material” from children’s sections—material that didn’t even exist.

The tactics are spreading, and underfunded UK libraries are vulnerable.

What We Need to Do

Libraries have been the “pristine brand” of civic institutions for generations—universally trusted, politically neutral spaces. That brand is being deliberately tarnished, and we can’t let it happen.

We need to fund libraries properly, support librarians who face harassment, and push back loudly when books are targeted. We need to remember that free people read freely—and that freedom isn’t free if someone else decides what you’re allowed to know.

As Helen Keller wrote in 1933, when the Nazis were burning books: “You may burn my books and the books of the best minds in Europe, but the ideas those books contain have passed through millions of channels and will go on.”

Ideas are resilient. But they need defenders. Libraries aren’t just buildings with books—they’re the hidden infrastructure of democracy itself.

Links:

#FreedomToRead
#StopBookBans
#DefendLibraries
#NoToCensorship
#ReadingIsResistance

Un Invincible Été

26/10/2025 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Un Invincible Été: A Tender Coming-of-Age Story

A Brief but Powerful Exploration of Teenage Desire and Self-Discovery

Arnaud Dufeys’ short film Un Invincible Été captures a pivotal moment in adolescence with remarkable sensitivity and restraint. In just a brief runtime, the film manages to convey the complexity of teenage sexuality, vulnerability, and the sometimes uncomfortable gap between expectation and reality.

The premise is deceptively simple: 16-year-old Clément (Vadiel Gonzalez Lardued), bored and restless during a hot summer evening by the pool, decides tonight’s the night he’ll lose his virginity. Armed with Grindr and a lie about his age, he arranges to meet 24-year-old Naël. What follows is a delicate portrait of anticipation, nervous energy, and ultimately, a different kind of awakening than Clément expected.

What makes this film particularly effective is its refusal to sensationalize. Writer Nicolas Moulin crafts a narrative that understands the urgency and single-mindedness of teenage desire while also acknowledging the emotional complexity beneath it. The film’s turning point—when Clément encounters a body “completely different from Naël’s”—becomes not just about physical intimacy but about accepting reality versus fantasy, and the messy, imperfect nature of growing up.

The performances are naturalistic and unforced, particularly Gonzalez Lardued’s portrayal of Clément’s mix of bravado and uncertainty. Dufeys directs with a light touch, letting moments breathe and trusting his audience to read between the lines. The summer setting—the pool, the heat, the isolation—creates an almost dreamlike atmosphere that perfectly captures that strange liminal space of adolescence.

Un Invincible Été doesn’t provide easy answers or moralize about its subject matter. Instead, it offers an honest, empathetic glimpse into a formative moment, reminding us that coming of age is rarely about grand revelations but rather small, sometimes awkward moments of truth that shape who we become.

A thoughtful, mature short that lingers in the mind long after its brief runtime.

Un invincible été

Links:

#UnInvincibleÉté #GayShortFilm #LGBTQCinema #QueerCinema #FrenchFilm #ComingOfAge #ShortFilm #GayMovie #QueerFilm #IndieFilm #LGBTQShort #GayTeen #FrenchCinema #ArnaudDufeys #SummerFilm #QueerStory #GayRomance #ShortFilmReview #LGBTQ #QueerMedia

Between sickness and sin

24/10/2025 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Review of ‘Between sickness and sin: models of male homosexuality in Northern Ireland c. 1960-1990’

Author: Charlie Lynch

Publication: Irish Historical Studies (2025)

Summary and Central Argument

Charlie Lynch’s article (Between sickness and sin: models of male homosexuality in Northern Ireland c. 1960-1990) provides an essential analysis of how male homosexuality was understood and managed in Northern Ireland between the early 1960s and the end of the 1980s. The central thesis posits that understandings of same-sex desire were primarily channelled through two powerful, negative institutional frameworks: the theological model of ‘sinfulness’ and the medical model of ‘sickness’ (or pathology).

The article charts the evolution and interaction of these two models, arguing that they formed the dominant discourse against which gay men had to navigate their lives and against which nascent reform movements had to fight.

Methodology and Evidence

A major strength of this article is its use of a rich and varied evidence base. Lynch moves beyond typical institutional histories by synthesising three key source types:

Contemporary Comment and Institutional Writings: Analysis of theological texts, medical journals, and public commentary that articulated the official positions of churches and health professionals.
Law Reform Documentation: Examination of how the campaign for legal reform in the 1970s forced major Protestant churches to issue formal, often complex, responses to the “problem” of homosexuality.
Oral History Testimonies: Crucially, the work incorporates the lived experiences and memories of gay men from the period. This inclusion ensures the analysis is grounded in the reality of those affected by the ‘sickness’ and ‘sinfulness’ models, providing necessary nuance and depth.

Key Contributions

The article offers several valuable contributions to the historiography of sexuality:

Nuance in Religious Response

Lynch successfully complicates the often-simplistic narrative of monolithic religious opposition. While the notoriety of fundamentalist campaigns (like the one led by Ian Paisley against the decriminalisation of homosexuality) is acknowledged, the article demonstrates the complexity of responses within two major Protestant denominations. It shows that institutional reactions were not uniform and that there was a tentative emergence of a challenge from radical Christian voices, which provides a more sophisticated picture of the religious landscape than typically presented.

The Rise of Medical Pathology

The article highlights that, similar to trends in England, the notion of homosexuality as a pathology or sickness gained significant traction in the 1950s and 1960s. This medicalisation led to harmful conversion practices, such as aversion therapy, which were performed in an attempt to “cure” men of same-sex desire. By focusing on both the theological and medical realms, the article paints a complete picture of the institutional hostility faced by gay men.

Conclusion

Lynch’s article is a robust and important piece of scholarship. It illuminates a critical period in Northern Ireland’s social history, detailing the oppressive frameworks used to control and define male sexuality. Combining institutional records with oral history creates a nuanced narrative that is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of sexuality, civil rights, and modern Ireland.

#BetweenSicknessAndSin #CharlieLynch #LGBTQHistory #NorthernIreland #IrishStudies #QueerHistory #SocialHistory #OralHistory #LawReform #AcademicReview

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The Troubles Legacy: A One-Sided Search for Truth

23/10/2025 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

“Here is equal participation, the truth will remain buried with those who refuse to speak.”

The Troubles Legacy – Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn wants to find the truth about The Troubles. Noble goal, but after 30 years of failure, we should ask why the current approach won’t work.

Here’s the uncomfortable reality: of 3,600 deaths during The Troubles, over 90% were caused by terrorists. Yet terrorists rarely participate in truth-seeking. They’ve melted into the shadows, and their political allies—now sitting in government—keep their secrets locked tight.

The Troubles Legacy

The system is fundamentally unbalanced. The Ministry of Defence must hand over records and produce witnesses. Sinn Féin, the IRA’s political wing, does neither. Neither do loyalist parties connected to paramilitaries. This creates a process biased against the army and RUC—the only participants actually cooperating.

Consider what happens to soldiers who do cooperate. Two soldiers were promised no retribution by the McCann family for helping find closure. They told the truth about shooting an IRA leader during an arrest. Their reward? Five years of prosecution before acquittal. Dennis Hutchings endured seven years of legal torment and died during the trial.

The message is clear: cooperate and face years of legal hell. Stay silent and walk free.

Benn’s “new” framework isn’t new—it’s the same adversarial court system that’s failed for three decades. Defence lawyers will advise clients not to engage, creating no admissible evidence. Meanwhile, security services hold files and recordings that could reveal the truth, but refuse to open them.

If we genuinely want the truth, we need equal participation. Political parties linked to paramilitaries must share what they know, or be excluded from demanding investigations. Until then, this process will continue targeting military and police who kept records and cooperated, while the real secrets remain buried with those who refuse to talk.

#TheTroubles #NorthernIreland #LegacyIssues #Veterans #BritishArmy #RUC #SinnFein #IRA #MilitaryJustice #PeaceProcess #Terrorism #VeteransRights #HilaryBenn #NILegacy #ArmedForces

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Giroscope: The Punk Co-Op

19/10/2025 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Giroscope: The Punk Co-Op That Gamed Thatcher’s Britain (And Why We Can’t Do It Again)

Forty years ago, a group of punk-inspired activists and students in Hull decided to stop complaining and start outsmarting the system.

They pooled benefits and savings, bought a derelict terrace for £3,200, taught themselves the trades through sheer DIY grit, and created Giroscope: a worker-led co-op that bought, fixed, and let affordable homes to those who needed them most.

Playing Thatcher’s Game Better Than She Did

Instead of fighting capitalism head-on, Giroscope used Thatcher-era deregulation to its advantage. They “played the game” — borrowing big, turning empty properties into community assets while banks loosened criteria and cash flowed freely.

Their portfolio grew. Regeneration schemes followed. Eventually, they pulled off a million-pound church renovation and community hub — all while developing job-training programmes, repair shops, and support services for hundreds of locals.

Today, Giroscope’s legacy is a £10m charity, a beacon of hope in a once-forgotten part of Hull.

Could We Recreate It Today? The Brutal Truth

No. It’d be much harder. Possibly impossible.

Here’s why:

Sky-high property prices. Derelict housing for pennies doesn’t exist in most cities anymore. That £3,200 terrace would cost six figures today — if you could even find one.

Stricter regulation. Thatcher’s wild west of loose lending has been replaced by risk-averse banks and mountains of red tape. Good luck borrowing big as a scrappy collective with no credit history.

A culture of individualism. The punk rebellion and grassroots collective action that fuelled Giroscope has been replaced by closed community bonds and a society that tells you to “build your personal brand” instead of pooling resources.

Government support is patchy and short-lived. Innovative projects face legal and financial hurdles at every turn. The safety nets that once existed? Gone.

A Unique Moment in Time

Giroscope thrived because rebels could “work the system” and build change from the ground up. The conditions were perfect: cheap housing, accessible credit, looser regulation, and a generation willing to band together and get their hands dirty.

Today’s generation faces a more complex, less forgiving landscape.

But here’s the thing: the need for willpower, stubbornness, and solidarity has never been greater.

Giroscope proved that when people refuse to accept the world as it is, they can carve out something better — even if the odds are stacked against them. That spirit doesn’t belong to one era. It belongs to anyone brave enough to claim it.

So maybe we can’t replicate Giroscope. But we can learn from it. And we can find our own way to fight back.

Links:

#Giroscope #HousingCrisis #PunkActivism #CoOperatives #AffordableHousing #CommunityAction #ACOMSDave

HeartDrop — When Love Presses ‘Accept’

17/10/2025 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

“Will love survive the silence — or will fear keep pressing decline?”

In a world where honesty often feels like a luxury, HeartDrop emerges as a quiet yet defiant whisper of truth.

This poignant and bold short film follows Dylan and Max, a young queer couple in a small town, as they navigate the complexities of identity, secrecy, and love. One person embraces their true self with courage, while the other conceals it beneath the mask of social expectations.

Between them lies a fragile thread: a hidden phone feature — their silent, secret way to express the love that words can’t.

As HeartDrop unfolds, we are asked a simple but piercing question:
Can love survive when it’s forced to hide?

The Story Behind the Screen

At its core, HeartDrop is not merely a story of young love — it’s about truth, fear, and the courage to be seen. The film captures that delicate moment between expression and repression, between what the world expects and what the heart needs.

Created by a team of emerging queer filmmakers, it feels deeply personal — intimate yet universal. Every pause, every gesture, every vibration of a phone carries emotional weight. It’s cinema that lingers quietly long after the final frame.

🌟 Cast

Daniel Yaqo
Will Trineer
Idaya Bello
Haig Jamkodjian
Tyler Holmes
Jacob Versace

🎥 Crew

Producers: Daniel Yaqo, Matt Latreille
Writers: Daniel Yaqo, Matt Latreille
Director: Daniel Yaqo
Director of Photography: Eliana D’Assisi
Editors: Jasmine McLaughlin, Matt Latreille
Sound Design / Mixing: Daniel Zea

1st AD: Alyssa Rose Hunt
1st AC: Lily Chiasson
2nd ACs: Alyssa Rose Hunt, Alexandra Morrison
Drone Operator: Matt Latreille
Location Sound: Kyla Marie Supat, Sophia Lam
Gaffers: Lily Chiasson, Joseph Liu
Wardrobe: Adrian Ally (Martianally)
Key Hair & Makeup: Wade Dane
Production Assistant: Karen Pascal

Extras: Wade Dane, Alyssa Rose Hunt, Holly Loggie

🙏 Special Thanks

UNTITLEDToronto by Flaunt Boutique Hair Salon — for providing the café location
The Ally Family — for providing the bedroom sets

🌈 Connect & Follow

📸 HeartDrop Short Film – Instagram
🎬 Daniel Yaqo – Instagram

💭 Final Thoughts

HeartDrop is more than a short film — it’s an emotional exploration of what happens when love exists in the shadows.
For many queer people, it feels like a mirror: the first text that wasn’t sent, the kiss that didn’t happen, the truth that waited too long to be spoken.

Its power lies in its quietness — a tenderness that refuses to hide.
HeartDrop doesn’t shout its message; it whispers — and in that whisper, we hear something profoundly true.

#HeartDrop #QueerFilm #LGBTQCinema #ShortFilm #IndieFilm #LoveIsLove #QueerStories #DanielYaqo #FilmReview #ACOMSDave

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The Boys in the Boat

17/10/2025 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

A Triumph Worth Rowing For: The Boys in the Boat

There’s something quietly stirring about The Boys in the Boat — both Daniel James Brown’s book and George Clooney’s film adaptation. I went in expecting a solid sports drama and came away deeply moved, even if a few moments felt, well, a touch too polished by Hollywood’s hand.

Set against the bleak backdrop of the Great Depression, the story follows nine working-class young men from the University of Washington who dared to dream beyond their circumstances. Sons of loggers, shipbuilders, and farmers, they rowed their way from obscurity to the 1936 Berlin Olympics — and into history — by defeating not only the privileged Ivy League elites but also Hitler’s hand-picked German crew.

At the emotional centre is Joe Rantz, the quiet, determined soul whose life reads like something out of Dickens. Abandoned at fifteen, Joe built his life from the ground up — literally — and found belonging not in family, but in the rhythm and unity of the boat. Brown captures this beautifully, weaving Joe’s struggle for acceptance with the team’s relentless pursuit of excellence.

Then there’s George Pocock, the philosopher-craftsman whose poetic reverence for rowing gives the story its spiritual lift. For him, the perfect stroke wasn’t just athletic — it was transcendent, a “symphony of motion.”

Olympic champion crew team, University of Washington; this team won the gold medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin; Handwritten on border: 1936 – Olympic Champions.

Clooney’s direction honours that spirit, capturing the class divide of “old money versus no money at all” with warmth and sincerity. Yet at times, the film bows to convention — a few too many tidy crescendos and sentimental cues where raw restraint might have spoken louder. Still, those moments never sink in.

For anyone drawn to true tales of grit and grace — Unbroken, Chariots of Fire, or Seabiscuit come to mind — this story stands proudly alongside them. And the most touching detail? When Brown interviewed the elderly Joe Rantz, he wept only when remembering the boat — that fleeting, perfect unity that defined a lifetime.

Links:

#MovieReview #TheBoysInTheBoat #GeorgeClooney #FilmAdaptation #ACOMSDave #UnderdogStory #Olympics #TrueStory

30 Must-Read LGBTQ Books That Everyone Should Know

15/10/2025 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

30 Must-Read LGBTQ Books That Everyone Should Know

The literary world has been profoundly enriched by LGBTQ voices telling stories of love, identity, struggle, and triumph. From groundbreaking classics to contemporary masterpieces, these books offer windows into diverse experiences while exploring universal themes of authenticity, belonging, and self-discovery. Here are 30 essential LGBTQ books that have shaped conversations, broken barriers, and touched countless hearts.

Classic Groundbreakers

1. Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (1956). Baldwin’s exquisite novel explores a passionate affair between an American man and an Italian bartender in Paris. Raw and unflinching, it examines masculinity, desire, and the devastating consequences of denying one’s true self.

2. The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith (1952) Originally published under a pseudonym, this revolutionary novel offered one of the first lesbian love stories with a hopeful ending. Later adapted into the film Carol, it remains a tender portrait of forbidden love in 1950s America.

3. Orlando by Virginia Woolf (1928) This fantastical biography follows a nobleman who lives for centuries and mysteriously changes gender. Woolf’s playful, genre-bending masterpiece challenges conventional notions of gender and identity.

4. The Colour Purple by Alice Walker (1982). Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel tells the story of Celie, a Black woman in the rural South whose life is transformed through love and friendship, including a profound relationship with the singer Shug Avery.

5. Maurice by E.M. Forster (1971) Written in 1913 but published posthumously, this novel traces a young man’s journey to self-acceptance in Edwardian England. Forster’s insistence on a happy ending was radical for its time.

Memoirs and Non-Fiction

6. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (2006). This graphic memoir interweaves Bechdel’s coming out with the revelation of her father’s hidden sexuality and eventual death. Beautifully illustrated and deeply moving, it revolutionised the graphic novel genre.

7. When We Rise by Cleve Jones (2016). Jones, a protégé of Harvey Milk, chronicles his journey from the early days of the gay liberation movement through the AIDS crisis to the fight for marriage equality. This is living history from someone who helped make it.

8. Redefining Realness by Janet Mock (2014). Mock’s groundbreaking memoir offers an intimate look at growing up trans and multiracial in America. Her writing is both personal and political, challenging readers to expand their understanding of gender and identity.

9. The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui (2017) This illustrated memoir explores identity, family, and the refugee experience through a queer Vietnamese-American lens, examining intergenerational trauma and the meaning of home.

10. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (2019) Machado crafts an innovative memoir about surviving domestic abuse in a same-sex relationship. Each chapter employs a different literary genre, creating a haunting exploration of love and violence.

Contemporary Fiction

11. Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman (1997) Set in 1980s Italy, this sensuous novel captures a transformative summer romance between seventeen-year-old Elio and his father’s graduate assistant, Oliver. Aciman’s prose is intoxicating and bittersweet.

12. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (2011). Miller reimagines Homer’s Iliad through the love story between Achilles and Patroclus. This mythological retelling won the Orange Prize and introduced a new generation to queer classical literature.

13. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (2019) This joyful romantic comedy imagines the First Son of the United States falling for the Prince of Wales. Smart, swoony, and politically engaged, it became a cultural phenomenon.

14. Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg (1993) Feinberg’s semi-autobiographical novel follows Jess Goldberg, a working-class butch lesbian navigating identity and survival from the 1960s through the 1990s. A cornerstone of transgender literature.

15. Boy Erased by Garrard Conley (2016) This powerful memoir recounts Conley’s experience in a conversion therapy program in the South. Unflinching yet compassionate, it examines faith, family, and the harm of trying to change someone’s sexuality.

Young Adult Literature

16. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (2012) This tender coming-of-age story follows two Mexican-American teenagers in 1980s El Paso as their friendship deepens into something more. Sáenz’s writing is poetic and emotionally resonant.

17. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (2015) A charming story about a closeted teen who falls for an anonymous classmate online. Adapted into the film Love, Simon, it brought mainstream attention to LGBTQ YA literature.

18. The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth (2012). After being caught with another girl, Cameron is sent to a conversion therapy centre. This novel beautifully captures adolescent resilience and the search for authentic community.

19. Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas (2020) This supernatural romance follows a trans boy brujo determined to prove himself to his traditional Latinx family by summoning the ghost of his murdered cousin—but he accidentally summons the wrong ghost.

20. I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (2014) Told from dual perspectives, this luminous novel follows artistic twins navigating first love, family secrets, and grief. One twin’s storyline centers on a gay relationship that will break and mend your heart.

Poetry and Plays

21. The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde (1997). Lorde’s poetry explores being Black, lesbian, mother, and warrior. Her work is fierce, sensual, and politically charged—essential reading for understanding intersectional feminism.

22. Angels in America by Tony Kushner (1991-1992). This Pulitzer Prize-winning two-part play is an epic exploration of the AIDS crisis in 1980s America. Blending realism with fantasy, it remains one of the greatest works of American theatre.

23. Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine (2014) While not exclusively LGBTQ, Rankine’s groundbreaking work examines microaggressions and systemic racism in contemporary America, with intersectional insights relevant to all marginalised communities.

24. Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong (2016) Vuong’s debut poetry collection explores his identity as a gay Vietnamese-American man, weaving together family history, war, and desire in stunning, heartbreaking verses.

Genre Fiction

25. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (2019). This epic fantasy features a slow-burn lesbian romance at its centre while delivering dragons, political intrigue, and world-ending threats. At 800+ pages, it’s a commitment—but worth every moment.

26. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (2019). Described as “lesbian necromancers in space,” this sci-fi fantasy mash-up is wickedly funny, original, and features one of the most compelling enemies-to-lovers dynamics in recent memory.

27. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (2020) This cozy fantasy follows a caseworker who investigates an orphanage for magical children. Featuring a middle-aged gay romance, it’s a heartwarming story about found family and acceptance.

Essential Historical and Cultural Works

28. The Stonewall Reader edited by the New York Public Library (2019). This anthology collects firsthand accounts, speeches, and documents from the gay liberation movement. It’s essential for understanding the historical context of LGBTQ rights.

29. Gender Trouble by Judith Butler (1990.) Butler’s foundational academic text challenged conventional thinking about gender, arguing it’s performative rather than innate. Dense but revolutionary, it shaped queer theory for generations.

30. And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts (1987) Shilts’s investigative journalism chronicles the early years of the AIDS epidemic and the political failures that allowed it to spread. Devastating and necessary, it documents a crisis that decimated a generation.

Why These Books Matter

These thirty books represent just a fraction of LGBTQ literature, but they offer entry points into different genres, time periods, and perspectives. They document struggles and celebrate victories. They capture first loves and last goodbyes. They make visible what society once kept hidden.

Whether you’re looking for your own story reflected to you or seeking to understand experiences different from your own, these books offer empathy, education, and connection. They remind us that LGBTQ people have always existed, always loved, always created—and that their stories deserve to be read, celebrated, and remembered.

The best part? This is just the beginning. For every book on this list, hundreds more deserve recognition. The literary landscape continues to expand with new voices, new stories, and new ways of understanding identity and love. These 30 books are must-reads, but they’re also invitations to explore further and discover the rich, diverse world of LGBTQ literature.

Remember, Christmas is not far away, and there is nothing like receiving a gift that has been thought about for you – a lovely book!

Links:

#BookList

#WhatToRead

#BookBlog

#ReadingCommunity

#Bibliophile

Jean Genet – Un Chant d’Amour – Movie Review

14/10/2025 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Un Chant d’Amour – Jean Genet’s Silent Cry of Desire

Jean Genet’s Un Chant d’Amour (1950) remains one of the most haunting and poetic portrayals of forbidden desire ever committed to film. This 26-minute black-and-white short — the only film Genet ever directed — is both stark and lyrical, a work born out of confinement, yearning, and resistance.

For years, the film was banned for what was seen as “explicit homosexual content.” Today, those same images — bodies reaching across prison bars, smoke shared between lips, a flower trembling in the air — read not as scandalous, but as profoundly human. Genet gives us love stripped bare, fragile and defiant, a song whispered through the cracks of a cell wall.

Inside the Prison Walls

The story unfolds in a French prison where two men — one older, the other young and tattooed — are separated by thick stone and iron. Their only intimacy is through gesture and imagination: a tendril of smoke, a caress of the wall, a bouquet of wildflowers passed between bars but never received.

Hovering over them is a prison guard, a figure of authority, voyeurism, and jealousy. He spies on the prisoners’ private acts of longing, unable to understand them yet drawn inescapably toward them. When his envy turns violent, beating the older prisoner, the scene dissolves into fantasy — a pastoral escape where the two men can finally exist together, free from chains and shame.

The guard’s intrusion, particularly the disturbing moment when he forces the prisoner to simulate oral sex with his gun, serves as Genet’s commentary on power, repression, and the perverse relationship between control and desire. The final image — a hand grasping the long-offered flowers — completes the film’s circle of longing: love reaching out through impossibility.

A Silent Language of the Body

Genet forgoes dialogue entirely. Instead, the film speaks in close-ups — of torsos, faces, armpits, penises — each frame both sensual and symbolic. It’s cinema as pure visual poetry. The camera lingers not to titillate, but to witness. Every movement, every breath, becomes an act of resistance against invisibility.

At a time when queer love was criminalised and pathologised, Un Chant d’Amour dared to look directly, unapologetically, at the erotic. It’s not pornography, as its censors claimed, but a meditation on longing and the human need for connection — made even more profound by its silence.

Censorship and Legacy

When the film finally surfaced in the U.S. in the 1960s, it ignited fierce legal battles. Judges labelled it “cheap pornography calculated to promote homosexuality,” banning it outright. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld the ban without explanation — a quiet erasure of one of queer cinema’s first authentic expressions of desire.

And yet, like all true art, Un Chant d’Amour endured. It circulated underground, influencing generations of filmmakers, writers, and queer artists who recognised in its imagery both a mirror and a manifesto.

Critical Reflections

Today, critics recognise the film as a landmark. The Queer Encyclopedia of Film & Television calls it “one of the earliest and most remarkable attempts to portray homosexual passion on-screen.” For some, it remains “pretentious” or “curio value” — but that misses the point. Genet wasn’t making entertainment; he was crafting an act of defiance.

In Un Chant d’Amour, love becomes a subversive force — one that outlasts authority, confinement, and shame. It’s not just a film about desire; it’s a

love letter to the silenced.

Reflection

Watching it now, Un Chant d’Amour still feels radical — not because of its nudity or its notoriety, but because of its tenderness. In its silence, Genet gives us a universal truth: that love, however repressed, finds a way to reach across the bars.

Director – Jean Genet
Writer – Jean Genet
Stars – Bravo, Jean Genet, Java

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