#about
About the Guide
June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer (or Questioning) Pride Month. This month offers an opportunity to explore the stories and perspectives of those who identify as members of the LGBTQ community. The library aims to include such topics in programming and content throughout the year, and this month serves as a chance to focus our efforts.
What we now know as LGBTQ Pride Month began as a grassroots effort to commemorate the June 1969 Stonewall Uprising, when LGBTQ patrons of a New York City gay bar and their supporters fought back against police officers raiding the establishment. In the years after Stonewall, many celebrated what they called Gay Pride Day on the last Sunday in June. Celebrations varied from place to place and went on to include monthlong activities and events across June. In the mid-1990s, education organizations joined forces to formalize June as LGBT History Month. President Bill Clinton was the first U.S. president to issue a proclamation acknowledging Pride Month, with Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden following suit.
#programs
Programs & Events
Pride Month launches in Princeton with the Pride Month Flag Raising Ceremony. The municipality hosts the annual event in celebration of Pride Month on “Pride Eve,” that is, the day before Pride Month officially begins. The flag raising will occur at noon on May 31.
On the same date the library is co-hosting the fourth annual Princeton Community Pride Picnic, a family friendly event featuring local nonprofits, community groups, music, food and fun. The event starts at 4:30 p.m. with the crowd gathering on Hinds Plaza. (In the event of rain, the event will be held inside the Sands Library Building.) Up-to-date information on this year’s celebration, including details about the performers, vendors, activities, sponsors and community partners, is available through the library’s virtual brochure.
Princeton continues its Pride Eve celebration into the evening at the Arts Council of Princeton, which hosts its Outdoor Dance Party from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Now a Princeton Pride tradition, the Arts Council’s parking lot transforms into an open-air dance floor for this evening event. Glow sticks and glitter tattoos are provided as long as supplies last.
Following the celebrations of Pride Eve, the library welcomes an Epic Pride Author Panel to the Community Room for a book brunch panel on Sunday, June 2, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Doors open at 10:45 a.m. for a brunch served by the Jammin’ Community Café. Hosted in partnership with Labyrinth Books, the panel features Epic Reads authors Erik J. Brown, Vichet Chum, Alex Crespo, Tony Keith Jr., Kasey LeBlanc and Jenna Miller and celebrates diverse books that center LGBTQIAP+ voices and stories. Participating authors interact with attendees and pose for selfies, and event sponsor Epic Reads is on site with swag, a photo booth and games. Following the panel discussion, a book signing session will be held on Hinds Plaza, where the library and event partners HiTOPS and Labyrinth Books will have tents to visit.
Later during Pride Month, community members gather to join the Bayard Rustin Center‘s annual Pride Parade and After-Party, “A Celebration of Queer Joy.” This year’s parade will be on June 22 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the location is the parking lot of the Princeton Municipal Office at 400 Witherspoon St., Paul Robeson Place. More details will follow.
#resources
Books & Resources
To learn more about the Stonewall Uprising, watch a recording of a 2020 virtual library program with Jason Baumann, New York Public Library’s coordinator of humanities and LGBTQ collections. Baumann discusses the anthology of first-person accounts of the Stonewall uprising he curated from the library’s archives. Published in 2019, the 50th anniversary of the uprising that started the fight for American LGBTQ+ rights, “The Stonewall Reader” chronicles some of the gay liberation movement’s most iconic moments and figures in the years before and after those tumultuous events.
See below for lists of nonfiction and fiction and essays geared toward adult readers and centered around LGBTQ+ experiences and perspectives.
For teens and kids, below are lists of books that highlight varied narratives and perspectives of those in the LGBTQIA+ community.