As Street Roots’ resident queer little art gremlin, I am here to give you some suggestions to queer your media. I promise I am qualified (I am loud, opinionated and gay in a way so complex it comes back around to being simple).
Just like the queer community, this is a combination of diverse recommendations and not all are for everyone. Hopefully, at least one of these strikes your fancy, and if not, I would encourage you not to email me and instead read this story about touching grass
READ
Reading our picks this summer? Get them from your local library! If you prefer an audio- or e-book, snag them via the Libby app, which acts as a digital collection for your local public library, available in most Portland-area library systems. Be gay, support your library!
Hammajang Luck
by Makana Yamamoto
A futuristic heist to steal from a tech trillionaire with a gruff, nonbinary, Hawaiian protagonist? What more could you ask for?
Edie Morikawa, a recent release from Kepler Systems Penitentiary, reunites with their family. Determined to go straight (workwise), only to find that they are blacklisted from any above-board employment. But there is Angel Huang, the reason they spent eight years locked up, who is offering Edie a chance to join a heist that would set them and their family up for generations. And the target is Joyce Atlas, an unequivocally evil and uncomfortably familiar tech trillionaire (a thing that, unfortunately, now exists today), and Angel’s boss.
Themes of homes lost and found, identity and displacement run through this gritty and atmospheric novel. Yamamoto creates a rich and exciting world with like-real characters that makes this story hard to put down.
This Is How You Lose The Time War
by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
“This Is How You Lose The Time War” is like nothing else. I read it for the first time in 2023, and I think about it at least twice a month. It truly is my Roman Empire. (Right alongside Richard Nixon and 1970’s typography. I contain bizarre multitudes.)
Written in an epistolary style, the novel follows two agents, Red and Blue. They work for warring empires, exchanging messages while traveling through time to alter the course of history in each employer’s favor (and they’re both girls!). The messages begin as jabs, and slowly morph into love notes.
Everything about this book feels revolutionary, from the style (all of Red’s letters are written by Gladstone and Blue’s written by El-Mohtar), to the feeling of minute intricacy and breakspeed pace. Exhilarating, delightful, heartwrenching and triumphant.
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen
by KJ Charles
It is a well-known fact in our office that I am a bit of a romance novel connoisseur. I have dabbled in many corners of that space, but nothing compares to its pinnacle: the queer historical romance. And very few do it with the skill of KJ Charles.
Fair warning: this book (and its sequel) contain smut. Just want to get that out of the way. But there’s a lot more to love here (no shade though to the porn without plot lovers).
A chance meeting with a stranger changes everything for Gareth Inglis. After years of loneliness and disappointment, Gareth falls for him. Soon, it all falls apart. Then Gareth’s dad dies and now Gareth is Sir Gareth, the lord of a manor in Romney Marsh in rural York. As he navigates the smuggler-overrun Marsh, he finds Joss Doomsday, the leader of the Doomsday smuggling clan, very familiar. The two must navigate the conflict of their positions and cope with the brewing tension between them.
Fun, heartfelt and with real stakes, this story is a joy from start to finish.
WATCH
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
I cannot stress enough that this is not last year’s musical film with Jennifer Lopez, even though they are both derived from the same 1974 novel by Manuel Puig. This film is breathtaking and quietly beautiful and very different, vibes-wise.
Set primarily in a Brazilian prison cell during the two-decade military dictatorship that ended the year the film was released, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” centers around the relationship between cellmates Valentin (portrayed by Raul Julia), a leftist revolutionary, and Luis (William Hurt), an apolitical gay man. Their dynamic is tense to start, with Luis passing the time by recounting a film he loves, a romantic thriller that happens to also be a Nazi propaganda film. That film-within-a-film weaves through the whole movie in a high-contrast noir style. Meanwhile, Valentin stews and lashes out. He sees this recounting not as comfort, but as a reflection of Luis’ lack of political depth.
We see two men who react imperfectly (and sometimes horrifically) to inhumane conditions they have little control over, but we also see them grow towards each other. And when the setting expands, the intimate focus on these characters is still the driver of the story.
I won’t say that this movie is a feel-good experience, but it is powerful and very worth your time. Available to stream on HBO Max and The Criterion Channel.
The Queen (1968)
This documentary follows a group of contestants in the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Contest in New York. Hosted and narrated by Flawless Sabrina, we see the contestants through from arrival to post-show.
What is so fascinating about this film is not just that you get to see drag as it looked 60 years ago, but also how it reflects femininity and the role of women at the time. This is not a creative free-for-all, it’s a regimented beauty pageant where decorum and illusion are of highest import. Contestants practice choreographed group dance numbers and in one scene, are told they will be docked points if they drop their shawls or coats on the ground, instead of waiting for a page to take them. It’s all big hair and sparkling gowns in competition for one of the most fabulous crowns I’ve ever seen (a confection of curlicues and dangling crystals, I’m kind of obsessed).
While they prepare for the contest, the contestants discuss identity, their drag process and even talk about the Vietnam War draft. They help each other get ready and share jokes but also snap at each other and fight. I am not giving any spoilers, but while Harlow’s look was beautiful, Crystal LaBeija (the iconic founder of the House of LaBeija, also featured in “Paris Is Burning”) was right.
And while the pageant reflects a strict adherence to conventional expressions of femininity, it includes b-roll that reflects the countercultural spirit of a drag pageant in 1960’s America. At just over an hour, it feels like a snapshot of a moment I think a lot of people wouldn’t know to look for. Available to stream on Kanopy for free (which you can access with your public library card).
LISTEN
Dancing on the Wall
MUNA
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be queer in Los Angeles in the current hell we are all living through? I mean, there is a strong likelihood that you check off up to two out of three. (Shout out to the, I assume, one person reading who is all three and is maybe angry with me for speaking on their experience. Please don’t be mad and go Sparks!)
MUNA’s fourth album, “Dancing on the Wall,” really encapsulates that experience. It’s jubilant, deeply sorrowful, reverent, horny and full of righteous rage, all wrapped up in an irresistible 1980’s electro-pop package that is as cool as that girl you had a huge crush on in your college Shakespeare course but never actually spoke to.
This album feels infinitely listenable and also is just straight-up echolalia fuel. “Eastside Girls” was a trending sound for a bit in May. The song has a breakdown that has overridden my memory of “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” “So What” feels like the climatic moment of an A24 queer romantic drama. “Big Stick” releases our communal rage, from the individual to the systemic. It’s got a little bit of everything and maybe that’s why it feels so reflective of the moment we’re in.
Want to hear the songs suggested in this article (plus some vibe-adjacent songs)?
A playlist is available here.
If you haven’t got enough MUNA, check out their cover of Go West’s “King of Wishful Thinking” from their Sirius XM set. It’s the perfect lil yacht rock addition to your summer soundtrack.
Every time is a good time to listen to Janelle Monaé. The near-universally beloved, self-described “free-ass motherfucker” has been putting out queer jams for years now. “The Age of Pleasure,” released in 2023, is no different. One track in particular, “Float” always hits the spot with a summery groove and iconic lyrics like “They said I was bi, yeah, baby, I’m by a whole ‘nother coast.”
The late, great SOPHIE’s legendary status in the electronic-dance genre is eternal and her song “Immaterial” is proof of that. With a frenetic beat and rhythmic lyrics, it explores transness and creation and recreation of the self.
Matt Baume’s YouTube videos provide a glimpse into the history of queer media that proves we have been here the whole time. I would suggest starting where I did: his video on Paul Lynde and the weirdest Halloween special to ever exist (KISS makes a deeply awkward appearance that is infamous in my family).
Doechii’s “NISSAN ALTIMA” is only two minutes and change long, but it’s a rich and complex text the likes of which I have never seen before.
Wet Leg’s “mangetout” is definitely one of my queer anthems, and that was before it was used so precisely in episode two of “Heated Rivalry.” Give it a (or another) listen.
Respect your elders this Pride season and listen to some disco. It’s made to groove to and, at least for me, always bolstering.
This article appears in June 24, 2026.