Read With Pride: Celebrate Pride Month with these powerful reads

Published on 23 June 2026

International Pride Month is celebrated every June and is a time to honour LGBTQIA+ pride, visibility and liberation. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the progress still to be made, and to recognise the resilience and strength of queer communities.

Reading is a powerful way to celebrate, learn and build understanding. Whether you are looking to explore history, discover new voices or simply enjoy a great story, our Pride Month picks offer something for every reader.

Non-fiction Highlights

Moonlite: The Tragic Love Story of Captain Moonlite and the Bloody End of the Bushrangers by Garry Linnell, 2020

A gay bushranger with a love of poetry and guns. A grotesque hangman with a passion for flowers and gardening. A broken young man desperate for love and respect. These men, two of them lovers, are about to bring the era of Australia's outlaws to a torrid and bloody climax.

The boy in the dress : investigating a tragic unsolved murder in wartime Australia that echoes through the ages by Jonathan Butler, 2022

On a balmy Townsville night in 1944, young serviceman Warwick Meale is found beaten to death under a bridge. The army and police do not, or will not, conduct a proper investigation and history forgets the killer - until now. Nearly eighty years on, Warwick's descendant Jonathan Butler dusts off the case and chases the leads that were there all along.

Fabulosa! : the story of Polari, Britain's secret gay language by Paul Baker

Polari is a language that was used chiefly by gay men in the first half of the twentieth century. At a time when being gay could result in criminal prosecution—or worse—Polari offered its speakers a degree of public camouflage, a way of expressing humor, and a means of identification and of establishing a community.

Chappell Roan : a vibrant journey through the career and influence of the indie-pop superstar by Harbert Day, 2025

Chappell Roan is a 2025 Grammy Award winner for Best New Artist. The queer queen's meteoric rise from small-town girl to pop icon is a story of self-discovery, resilience, and triumph.

Queer Georgians : a hidden history of lovers, lawbreakers and homemakers by Anthony Delaney, 2025

Queer people have always existed. In an era when this basic truth faces undue scrutiny, here is a dazzling work of restorative history that reveals the hard-won lives of those who dared to break the mold in the 'long eighteenth-century.'

The House of Hidden Meanings: a memoir by RuPaul Charles, 2024

From international drag superstar and pop culture icon RuPaul, comes his most revealing and personal work to date - a brutally honest, surprisingly poignant, and deeply intimate memoir of growing up Black, poor, and queer in a broken home to discovering the power of performance, found family, and self-acceptance.

A secretive century : Monte Punshon's Australia by Tessa Morris-Suzuki, 2024

Monte Punshon refused to be labelled. She was, at various times, Ethel May Punshon, Miss Montague, Monte, Mickey and Erica Morley Punshon. In this imaginative biography, Tessa Morris-Suzuki brings to life a woman who was unafraid to be, and who accepted, willingly, the price of her liberation.

Detachable penis : a queer legal saga by Sam Elkin, 2024

As the inaugural lawyer of Victoria's queer law service, Elkin is quickly immersed in thorny debates around trans inclusion in sport, children's access to puberty blockers, birth certificate law reform and the Christian right's demand for enhanced religious freedoms.

We have always been here : a queer Muslim memoir by Samra Habib, 2019

A queer Muslim searches for the language to express her truest self, making peace with her sexuality, her family, and Islam.

Eros : queer myths for lovers by Zoe Terakes, 2025

A sexy modern take on ancient Greek myths!

Transgender Australia : a history since 1910 by Noah Riseman, 2023

Trans and gender diverse people have always been present in Australian life, whether they've lived quiet lives in the country, performed in cabaret shows, worked on the streets or run for parliament. But over the last century there have been remarkable changes in how they have identified and expressed themselves. 

If queers weren't meant to have kids ... by Narelda Jacobs, Karina Natt and Molly Hunt, 2025

If Queers Weren't Meant to Have Kids ... is both a satirical picture book for adults and a love letter to rainbow families. 

Fiction Highlights

Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan, 2025

British-Malaysian Author, Nicola Dinan is back with another touching and sometimes cynical story of love.

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon, 2023

In this prequel to The Priory of the Orange Tree, Shannon gives us with more compelling women and female relationships in another epic fantasy. 

A Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle, 2024

An emotional read capturing love, friendship and loss in 1970s Australia.