As some of you have doubtless noticed, I spent Pride month building a rec list of books containing LGBTQA rep on twitter. I’ve been using a specific set of criteria to choose which books I recommended.

Here’s a link to an unrolled thread: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1532831608453177349.html

Basically, what I decided was that the more currently widely popular and discussed they are, the more I, personally, have to love them. I wanted to concentrate on older books, books that have largely been erased from the canon (because one of the ways that systemic oppression works is by making us reinvent our identities and uncover our marginalizations anew with every generation, so we can’t build on the work of those who came before. Also I wanted to boost some newer, lesser-known works.

Basically, I was trying to get away from The Usual Suspects, which is why I made those decisions.

Anyway, it’s important for established artists to make room for emerging artists and promote them. And it’s important for Hot New Things to support and remember the trailblazers who came before, especially in marginalized communities, because erasure is real. (See How to Suppress Women’s Writing, by Joanna Russ. Note that these tactics apply to every marginalized group and not just women.

Hope this finds you well, and be careful out there.

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