Trans Solidarity Project

Category: Media & Entertainment

  • Celebrate LGBTQIA+ History Month: What to Read & Watch

    Celebrate LGBTQIA+ History Month: What to Read & Watch

    In addition to Halloween, October serves as LGBTQIA+ History Month. It’s been observed since 1994, when Missouri high school teacher Rodney Wilson believed his students deserved the opportunity to learn about queer role models. LGBTQIA+ history is actively being erased by those in political power, making learning about queer history into rebellion. Teaching, learning, and knowing queer history builds community and serves as a reminder to stand with civil rights.

    No matter your age, October presents a perfect opportunity to learn about LGBTQIA+ history. Refresh yourself on the facts, arm yourself with knowledge. Queer history is under attack.

    As of 2025, LGBTQIA+ History Month is observed in thirty-three countries:

    • UK (February)
    • Spain (February)
    • Hungary (March)
    • Netherlands (March)
    • Israel (March)
    • Italy (April)
    • Germany (May)
    • France (June)
    • New Zealand (July)
    • USA (October)
    • Canada (October)
    • Romania (October)
    • Australia (October)
    • Cuba (October)
    • Sweden (October)
    • Norway (October)
    • Denmark (October)
    • Iceland (October)
    • Greenland (October)
    • Estonia (October)
    • Latvia (October)
    • Lithuania (October)
    • Armenia (October)
    • Cambodia  (October)
    • Vietnam (October)
    • Myanmar (October)
    • Singapore (October)
    • Thailand (October)
    • Malaysia (October)
    • Indonesia (October)
    • Philippines (October)
    • Uganda (October)
    • Finland (November)

    Being included in the above list DOES NOT mean that the country officially endorses LGBTQIA+ History Month. In 2026, it’s expected that Brazil and Venezuela will participate in their own celebrations.

    Why is LGBTQIA+ History Month in October?

    In the United States, LGBTQIA+ History Month is celebrated in October to coincide with National Coming Out Day on October 11th. Since the US was the first country to begin observing LGBTQIA+ History Month, many other countries use October for their own celebrations. 

    So, why is October 11th National Coming Out Day? NCOD was first celebrated in 1988 due to it being the anniversary of the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Approximately 750,000 people joined in Washington DC in 1987 alongside ACT UP at the Supreme Court building to vocalize dissent against the Reagan administration’s reaction to the AIDS epidemic.

    Coming Out Handbook
    HRC Coming Out Resources

    Five Films for LGBTQIA+ History Month

    Paris Is Burning (1990)

    Queer culture was heavily impacted by the ballroom scene in New York City, an underground subculture amongst gay and transgender Black and Latino Americans seeking a community to express themselves during the 1980s. Paris Is Burning was THE documentary that chronicled an aspect of queer history that would have otherwise been completely forgotten.

    There aren’t many lists that don’t recommend Paris Is Burning. Most folks see RuPaul’s Drag Race and assume that’s the extent of drag culture – but drag has a complex history that NYC’s ballroom scene mixed into. Competing houses, chosen family, the freedom to transgress gender roles, and perform. At the same time, Paris Is Burning showcases critical aspects of the time, such as the AIDS crisis and the woes of being a sex worker in impoverished New York City.

    Paris Is Burning centers on the generation following Stonewall. Over a decade before, queer people were rioting in rebellion to police corruption, mafia takeovers, and political malice. Some things changed, some things didn’t.

    Gay USA (1977)

    Best accompanied with Before Stonewall (1984), Gay USA was filmed entirely on June 26, 1977, to document pride celebrations throughout the United States. Camaramen recorded demonstrations in San Diego, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and New York City in response to the murder of Robert Hillsborough.

    Gay USA memorializes the time between Stonewall and the AIDS crisis, when the LGBTQIA+ community was beginning to receive organized backlash from figures like Anita Bryant. Anita and other anti-gay activists were compelled by Stonewall to advocate for the repeal of anti-discrimination laws that were fought for during the 1960s. History takes two steps forward, one step back – which resonates today.

    Different from the Others (1919)

    Anders als die Andern, or Different from the Others, is the oldest gay film – although we nearly lost it to history. It was produced during the Weimar Republic as a silent melodramatic film (common for the time period), presenting an interesting story between two men being blackmailed through Paragraph 175. It even stars Magnus Hirschfeld (who also helped write the film)! If you want to know about queer culture during the Weimar Republic, check out Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate (2023).

    Part of Different from the Others *is* lost to history. When the Nazis came to power in the 1930s, they purposely sought out and destroyed documentation, research, and media that referenced queer identities. The film was burned and believed forgotten until a partially destroyed copy was discovered in the early 2000s. The film was reconstructed and shortened to preserve as much of the plot as possible, which is how it exists today in its abridged version.

    Individuals rising to power and then removing mention of LGBTQIA+ identities. Sound familiar? History rhymes, so we should take note.

    How to Survive a Plague (2012)

    Using 700 hours of archived footage, How to Survive a Plague explores the early years of the AIDS crisis. It was a frightening time when LGBTQIA+ people were dying, believed they were going to die, and the government was telling them that they deserved to die.

    How to Survive a Plague follows the actions of ACT UP and TAG, the most prominent AIDS activist organizations during the time period that fought for recognition, humanity, and research. The United States government didn’t feel it was worth finding a cure or treatment for HIV, forcing individuals to either pay $10,000 per year out-of-pocket for medication that merely slowed its progression or seek underground drugs from overseas.

    If you’re looking for something more fun, RENT (2005) is a film adaptation of the Broadway production that centers on a group of friends struggling to survive during the New York City AIDS crisis despite exorbitant rent and medication costs.

    Boys Don’t Cry (1999)

    Brandon Teena was a real transgender man who was raped and murdered in rural Nebraska. Boys Don’t Cry is a fictional adaptation of his story – Brandon found himself in Nebraska after running into trouble with the law, believing he had a chance to start fresh as authentically himself with new friends and a chosen family.

    As a film, Boys Don’t Cry emphasizes the brutality that LGBTQIA+ people experienced. The murders of Brandon Teena, Matthew Shepard, and Robert Hillsborough were some of the hallmark cases that led to anti-discrimination laws that outlaw anti-queer hate crimes.

    This is likely the most jarring film on the list. Read its triggers before viewing.

    Boys Don’t Cry is a fictional account of a real story. For greater detail regarding Brandon and his story, watch The Brandon Teena Story (1998).

    Five Books for LGBTQIA+ History Month

    A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski

    Bronski’s 2011 book is perhaps the best piece of media to become acquainted with LGBTQIA+ American history. It covers the entirety of queer history in the United States, spanning from before 1492 to the book’s publication. Gay people have always existed, but few films focus on history before Stonewall.

    A Queer History of the United States details gay pilgrims, sodomy laws,  crossdressing Civil War soldiers, and the purity culture that shaped America. Most of its information is relatively broad (Jonathan Ned Katz’s Gay American History is considerably more detailed, but also extremely dense), which makes it a great starting point to introduce readers to LGBTQIA+ history.

    Read A Queer History of the United States

    Transgender History by Susan Stryker

    Just as with gay men and lesbians, transgender people have existed as long as humans have had concepts related to gender. Transgender History by Susan Stryker is essentially a trans-focused version of Michael Bronski’s book.

    In just 200 pages, Stryker overviews major events and individuals that led us to today. In other words, Stryker’s work (which was published in 2008) is the most in-depth book that covers transgender history in the United States. There isn’t a 1000-page “Transgender American History.” There might be someday, but not yet.

    Read Transgender History

    And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts

    In the 1980s, journalist Randy Shilts took it upon himself to document the discovery and spread of HIV/AIDS – even though other journalists weren’t doing so at the time. This book is best read alongside How to Survive a Plague to give a comprehensive account of the political landscape LGBTQIA+ people were fighting in the 1980s. And the Band Played On was produced into a film adaptation in 1993; How to Survive a Plague was originally a movie that was later made into a book in 2016.

    And the Band Played On centers on the premise that the United States government was intentionally indifferent to the suffering of LGBTQIA+ people victimized by AIDS. Due to the federal government failing to fund research and treatment options, the US allowed the spread of HIV to exponentially increase into a crisis.

    How to Survive a Plague follows the actions of groups like ACT UP and TAG, but both books are valuable when considering this time period. And the Band Played On is considerably older (it was published in the midst of the AIDS crisis and helped cement international attention). It drew criticism from academic and scientific communities that refused to believe they were complicit in the AIDS crisis by failing to act. 

    Others argue that Shilts shouldn’t have called Gaëtan Dugas “Patient Zero” since it normalized the idea that gay men were overtly infectious, since Dugas intentionally continued to have unprotected sex after being told he had contracted HIV. Dugas was one of the first major cases in North America leading up to the AIDS crisis, but he wasn’t Patient Zero. On the other hand, Shilts was writing during the crisis – so the book is a product of its time. In his point of view, as likely the view of many other queer people at the time, Dugas should have used protection when having sex with others once he had learned he had HIV. Dugas was still a victim. Both statements can be true.

    Read And the Band Played On

    Whipping Girl by Julia Serano

    There are a LOT of great books regarding gender theory and feminism. Stone Butch Blues, The Second Sex, Bad Feminist, The Feminine Mystique, Women, Race & Class, Gender Trouble, and Feminism Is for Everybody are just a few – and all of those books inspired the creation of Julia Serano’s Whipping Girl.

    Before Serano’s book, feminist academia wasn’t particularly friendly to transgender scholars. This history still matters – feminism has not always had a history of being inclusive or intersectional, which is why TERFs still exist today and dominate some feminist spaces. Whipping Girl criticized mainstream feminist circles for failing to stand with transgender people, cementing the reality that transgender struggles are part of the general feminist movement leading up to the third wave.

    Read Whipping Girl

    The Lavender Scare by David E. Johnson

    Many Americans are aware of the insane war that Senator Joseph McCarthy waged by charging government officials, agencies, and everyday Americans as communists during a time period when there was hardly anything worse you could be. The Red Scare is taught as a core part of US history to public school students, emphasizing how the national government engaged in a wrongful witch hunt in the 1950s.

    Fewer people know of the Lavender Scare, which occurred at the same time. McCarthy made unsubstantiated claims that the federal government was also compromised by homosexuals who posed just as much of a national security threat as communists did. David E. Johnson’s The Lavender Scare chronicles this legacy and how Joseph McCarthy managed to bar LGBTQIA+ people from jobs in the public sector by associating them with the USSR.

    Read The Lavender Scare

    Queer History YOU Should Know #1
    During the Middle Ages, individuals assigned female at birth would occasionally live socially as men in monasteries (monachoparthenoi). While these transgender men weren’t open about their identities, it was the most socially acceptable way they could express themselves in Medieval Europe.

    Some of these monks, such as Saint Marinos and Anastasia the Patrician, were even later canonized as Catholic saints – although the Vatican isn’t too willing to refer to these individuals as men.

    Five Podcasts for LGBTQIA+ History Month

    Making Gay History

    Making Gay History has produced *14 seasons* worth of content, which might make it the longest-running LGBTQIA+ podcast. Their last episode aired in April, but it’s a fairly safe bet to assume season 15 will air in a few months once their writers have had a break.

    The podcast covers a variety of topics, but most of its episodes center on individuals who played significant roles throughout LGBTQIA+ history. Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Vito Russo, Larry Kramer, Magnus Hirschfeld, Bayard Rustin – the list goes on.

    Closeted History

    Originally started to help teachers include LGBTQIA+ topics into their lesson plans, the creators behind Closeted History were led to hosting weekly trivia that eventually became their current podcast. The series is produced by educator Destiny Clarke, aiming to showcase queer and transgender history largely forgotten or ignored by history books.

    Bad Gays

    These days, LGBTQIA+ history is being more frequently included in larger narratives – even if it’s not commonly taught yet. Academics are finally interested in unearthing queer stories! That’s generally a good thing.

    Bad Gays explores the lives of not-so-great queer people throughout history. While historians are getting around to admitting figures like Alexander the Great, Audre Lorde, and Shakespeare were gay, they avoid remembering the stories of queer people who lived less than remarkable lives. 

    Thus, Bad Gays explores LGBTQIA+ people who are forgotten by other academics due to being criminals, deviants, or generally unethical. It’s a great addition to folks already knowledgeable on LGBTQIA+ history since it reaffirms the fact that, since queer people are people, we range along the morality spectrum. Bad Gays *isn’t* recommended for people new to LGBTQIA+ history.

    History is Gay

    Leigh Pfeffer and Gretch Jones produced a wealth of content until the podcast History is Gay was eventually retired in 2023. It’s one of the most listened to pieces of media on queer history, alongside Making Gay History and Queer as Fact, and covers a TON of topics in hour-long monthly segments. History is Gay won’t be receiving any new episodes, but it covers topics unlikely to be found elsewhere.

    Queer as Fact

    Although Queer as Fact is based in Australia, it has reliably produced two seasons of episodes per year. Topics span the entire world, so you’ll get a good education in not just American and European history (like most sources focus on), but also LGBTQIA+ stories from China, Haiti, Nigeria, Mexico, and Iran. Like Making Gay History, you’ll continue to get new content if you find yourself hooked on Queer as Fact. 

    Queer History YOU Should Know #2
    Stonewall was a critical turning point for LGBTQIA+ history that led to increased visibility, acceptance, and rights. However, the story on what exactly happened that night in 1969 is just as much folktale as fact.

    There are multiple conflicting accounts regarding Stonewall. Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were influential figures behind the events leading up to Stonewall as well as organizing the masses later into action – but Marsha herself stated she never threw the first brick. Stonewall also didn’t happen because queer people were made over the death of Judy Garland: Stonewall was the consequence of repetitive police raids on gay bars despite LGBTQIA+ people already blackmailed by the NYC mafia for protection.

    Five Video Series for LGBTQIA+ History Month

    Jessica Keligren-Fozard

    Most known for her videos on disability awareness, vintage fashion, and LGBTQIA+ history, Jessica has created content on YouTube since 2011. Her channel has a series of both queer history shorts and long video-essay style videos to appeal to folks with short and not-so-short attention spans. 

    Jessica’s content is also great for teaching disability allyship and intersectionality since disability inclusion is still overwhelmingly ignored in social justice spaces.

    Kaz Rowe

    Kaz is both a cartoonist and YouTuber, maintaining their ongoing webcomic while producing relatively eclectic videos. In short, they love history – their videos are detailed and explore topics like the Middle Ages, Victorian period, and everything in between. Pirates, monks and knights, cowboys, and the industrial revolution – what more could you ask for?

    Powered by Rainbows

    Even though Powered By Rainbows is geared towards schools, its content is detailed and versatile. The channel has a large team that allows it to post several times each week. The website behind Powered By Rainbows is also a fantastic resource, extensively covering LGBTQIA+ in easy and accessible courses.

    It is also worth noting that Powered By Rainbows is more than just a history channel. Generally, the channel focuses on LGBTQIA+-related news but it also produces content related to queer history and theory.

    The Book of Queer

    This video series was produced in five parts by Discovery+ in 2022, but it’s extremely well-made and engaging. The Book of Queer is partially available to watch for free on YouTube, bringing LGBTQIA+ history on screen with reenactments and interviews that make otherwise dry content too boring to be interesting.

    As a comedy documentary, The Book of Queer is fun to watch. Its humor is becoming increasingly dated, however, due to the high use of queer slang popular in 2022.

    Rowan Ellis

    Similar to Powered By Rainbows and Kaz Rowe, Rowan Ellis’s content tends to be eclectic – she’s been uploading content to YouTube since 2014 regarding LGBTQIA+ issues, feminism, Autism, and polyamory – and plenty more. Rowan’s videos are well-researched, and while more of her content centers on queer media, art is an important aspect of history.

    No matter what format you prefer your content, there’s something out there to get you more acquainted with LGBTQIA+ history. Make the active goal this October to spend time with one of these pieces and find yourself a bit more educated by next month.

    Next week, I’ll be covering other ways to learn about LGBTQIA+ history in-person and virtually.

  • Beginner Reads: Anti-Fascism

    Beginner Reads: Anti-Fascism

    The current fascist movement can be traced before the 2024 election – far-right and authoritarian politics have been growing in United States politics for decades. Some trace recent events to President Ronald Reagan due to his administration’s dismantling of government programs in favor of creating a more ‘free market,’ since it is predominantly the ultra-wealthy that are moving into politics via fascist ideas to grow their wealth further.

    At its core, fascism seeks to consolidate power into the hands of a few select individuals and undermine the public’s ability to impact politics. Movements may have different ideologies – some favor nationalism, others use racism and populism to convince the general public that they are the right choice to hand power to. Historical fascism is defined by leaders of World War II, such as the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Axis powers. At the same time, newer influences are referred to as neo-fascists – but it’s all the same brand: a far-right political movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forced suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, and subordination of individuals for the ‘good’ of the nation or race.

    Words like fascism and neo-Nazis have a lot of weight – the majority of Americans have rolled their eyes when individuals like Trump are called fascists, chalking it up to polarizing politics. Due to the virtual echo chambers monetized by social media algorithms, the American public is unaware of the real dangers Trump and The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 pose to democracy. Like other nations that have succumbed to fascism, Americans are naturally more concerned with their own survival – we are more worried about affording groceries and job security, similar to the Germans who were radicalized while suffering from economic collapse and hyperinflation post-World War I. On top of this, Americans lack fundamental media literacy skills regardless of age – which is why fake news and misinformation spread so rapidly. Major American social media sites are incentivized by fascism and misinformation since it leads to higher engagement, even if it harms democracy and the general public.

    With that in mind, it’s not easy to learn about anti-fascism. The United States has been purposely built for the past several decades to make it difficult, jarring, and taxing. Works like The Communist Manifesto are dense reads – and we all have negative stereotypes about leftists obsessed with reading too much theory. The following is introductory material for Americans curious about what fascism is, how it applies to current events, and advice on how to become empowered enough to prevent the destruction of American democracy.

    Nineteen Eighty-Four / 1984 by George Orwell

    Probably one of the most talked about books right now – Orwell wrote both 1984 and Animal Farm, which became classics taught in nearly every American high school. His literature even created the term ‘Orwellian,’ referencing brutal situations that destroy free societies through propaganda, surveillance, disinformation, truth denial, and other repressive means as described in his novels.

    If you haven’t read 1984, do so. Like the other fiction books I’ll recommend, a book not being nonfiction doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable. Through this book, Orwell invented concepts still discussed today – like Big Brother, Thought Police, and doublethink. It was published in 1949 and explored a future where fascist totalitarianism took control of previously free societies like the United Kingdom.

    Given how successful 1984‘s publication was, you can find it at nearly any library – and it’s also uploaded for free on the Internet Archive. If your local library doesn’t have an audiobook version available, there are also versions uploaded for free on YouTube.

    Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

    Bradbury’s dystopian novel is commonly banned or censored due to its themes (including in the United States) – which is ironic, considering Fahrenheit 451 centers on literary censorship. Published a few years after Orwell’s 1984, Fahrenheit 451 imagines a future American society where books have been banned entirely – ‘firemen’ are employed to burn books similar to the real book burnings done by Nazi Germany.

    In his personal life, Bradbury had mixed politics – in his younger days, he was a strong Democrat but eventually became a stereotypical Republican staunchly against affirmative action and political correctness, which he said was an allegory for censorship within Fahrenheit 451. Ironically, Bradbury was a white man of substantial financial means who became the exact type of antagonist his main character in Fahrenheit 451 fought against – and it’s worth wondering what Bradbury would have said if he were still alive in Trump’s war on democracy, considering he deemed the American left villains despite Fahrenheit 451 and American book censorship during his lifetime was perpetrated by conservatives like today.

    Fahrenheit 451 is still valuable and a necessary read when learning about anti-fascism – while Bradbury’s politics further warped after its publication, it is still important to connect his personal ideology when reading the novel. He wrote in 1979, “Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-day Adventist, Women’s Lib/Republican, Mattachine/Four Square Gospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse… Fire-Captain Beatty, in my novel Fahrenheit 451, described how the books were burned first by minorities, each ripping a page or a paragraph from this book, then that, until the day came when the books were empty and the minds shut and the libraries closed forever.” It centers on state-based censorship – similar to acts by President Trump to remove all mentions of transgender people from government-funded sites and literature. Bradbury later argued minorities were the cause of censorship, forgetting that Fahrenheit 451 centers on government censorship – and these minorities have never held power in the same way that Republicans have.

    Like 1984, you can find Fahrenheit 451 at any library. It’s also available for free in PDF format online in several places, although it’s not commonly uploaded as an audiobook for free – so visit your local library if you prefer alternative formats.

    It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

    Published originally in 1935, It Can’t Happen Here is a dystopian novel that predates 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 but it’s recently rejoined best-seller lists alongside other dystopian classics. While the other two novels are science fiction, It Can’t Happen Here is historical fiction and instead visualizes an alternative reality of 1930s America where the United States falls to fascism. Lewis uses the fictional character Berzelius ‘Buzz’ Windrip to portray real-life Adolf Hitler in Germany, who was rising to power overseas – but in this reality, Buzz becomes America’s first dictator through a self-coup through the same tactics Hitler and Mussolini did.

    Unlike later dystopian works, It Can’t Happen Here doesn’t try to imagine new technologies that aid totalitarianism or a far-away future. The point of the work is that fascism can very well happen in America – which Lewis was cautioning against in 1935. Even in Lewis’ time, American Nazis were a very real threat to democracy as they integrated into US politics. The Friends of New Germany, German American Bund, and other Nazi organizations purposely spread fascist propaganda as they infiltrated other parties and stormed American newspaper publishers. Several entities have been compared to the story, beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s forced relocation of Japanese Americans during WWII, potential presidential candidate Huey Long, Richard Nixon through the Watergate scandal, George W. Bush’s attack on individual privacy and the National Security Agency, and most recently Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

    Considering It Can’t Happen Here is such an old novel, you should be able to find it at any library – but it’s also available via PDF on the Internet Archive as well as an audiobook on YouTube.

    The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

    As a contemporary pick, The Hunger Games took the world by storm when it was released in 2008. No matter your age, I recommend giving it a re-read – the themes you’ll pull will likely vary since Americans have vastly different interpretations of the series depending on their media literacy level. The books focus on an oppressive American future controlled by an oligarchy that a populist movement strives to overcome – bringing up an interesting point that despite how Trump and other fascist leaders use populism, it isn’t inherently a bad thing since populism is a general movement by the common public against the establishment. Fascist rulers convince the public that they are the sole savior for the nation against the twisted government that hinders common folks – and since these rulers are well-versed in propaganda, they make it look convincing to their audiences.

    At its core, The Hunger Games centers on the social inequality that causes caste discrimination within American capitalism – but it also delves into the ethics of entertainment and war alongside mass revolution. I’ve seen many right-wingers try to compare the book’s inequality as an allegory to communism – but the series overwhelmingly describes the conditions caused by unchecked capitalism due to the wealth hoarding by the government creating painful conditions for the poor common class. Unlike Bradbury, Collins has remained politically silent – a wise move considering the fall of other authors like JK Rowling – but her novels’ political views mark her as not conservative. The Hunger Games is a good fictional read for anti-fascism because it explores oppression, governmental totalitarianism, the injustice of capitalism, and how dictators like Snow impact freedom.

    You will likely find a copy of The Hunger Games at your local library – although you might have trouble getting some of the newer releases like The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Sunrise on the Reaping. Read it online via the Internet Archive’s upload or as an audiobook on YouTube.

    Beautiful Trouble by Andrew Boyd

    The first nonfiction book on this list, Beautiful Trouble is a collection of ‘creative campaigns’ throughout activism’s history. Written as a handbook and guide, it details strategies, theories, and examples of demonstrations – successful or otherwise. Beautiful Trouble illustrates forms of protest beyond just marches and boycotts (although it does touch on them) and explains the philosophies that guided previous movements to action.

    Unlike the fictional novels I’ve included, you’re not inherently going to get some moral from Beautiful Trouble – but it’s a book that I readily recommend to any individual interested in social justice. It is a less dense read than similar books that aim to disrupt the current status quo in activism (ex. The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex) but makes you want to delve deeper and learn more. In oppressive regimes, most forms of protest are illegal – but it guides you through the risks and benefits in ways that Recipes for Disaster and The Anarchist Cookbook don’t. Beautiful Trouble also takes inspiration from beyond Europe and North America – it’s easy for people to focus on demonstrations that have taken place within the ‘first world,’ even though most campaigns happen elsewhere

    You are unlikely to find Beautiful Trouble or other nonfiction books I’ve included at your public library – it’s not impossible, but it will vary drastically based on what state you reside in and what library district you’re connected to. However, most nonfiction social justice books are available for free online – Beautiful Trouble and its tools are all hosted on its website with constant updates as well as its upload on the Internet Archive. These books are aimed at creating a better world, so there are fewer paywalls associated with them – even for newer releases, you typically just have to wait a few months before they’re uploaded somewhere like The Anarchist Library, Internet Archive, Library Genesis, or the Pirate Bay.

    On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

    It’s a short read, but On Tyranny is a fantastic introduction to breaking common individuals out of their isolated bubbles and understanding how fascism can still happen in places like the United States today like Germany, Italy, and other historical fascist governments. Snyder published the work at the beginning of the first Trump presidency, and the book’s lessons are even more important now as Trump’s administration takes a bolder turn towards authoritarianism.

    Snyder is primarily a historian – but history is political. On Tyranny is not an end-all book, but another good starting point and probably one of the best to recommend to non-political friends and family. He wrote the book intending to wake people up from the monotony of centralism since the failure of the political left and center in Germany led to the far-right’s rise in the 1930s. It includes fundamental ideas in just over 100 pages that, if spread to enough open minds, can prevent a fascist takeover of America. Do not obey in advance, remember professional ethics, believe in truth, listen to dangerous words, be a patriot – because there’s little less American than being anti-fascist, especially in service to democracy and the common good.

    On Tyranny is likely in a library near you, or at least an accessible district. However, the book is also uploaded for free on the Internet Archive and there’s an audiobook version available on YouTube.

    https://youtu.be/ViLZqh-_fHs

    Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook by Mark Bray

    This book is immediately next on my reading list – it was gathering dust until this most recent election but analyses contemporary anti-fascist movements throughout the United States and Europe. It was published at the same time as On Tyranny but takes a militant approach when considering how to handle the far-right. Whereas Snyder focuses on bringing people to attention to the signs of fascism, Bray moves people to take up arms as a reasonable and legitimate reaction to fascism.

    According to Donald Trump and other enemies of democracy, ‘antifa’ is a real political party – but as Bray explains, antifa (or anti-fascism) is merely the belief that fascism and authoritarianism are inherently wrong and is no more a political party than other political terms like ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative.’ In fact, anyone can be anti-fascist regardless of whether they identify as a Democrat, Republican, Socialist, Libertarian, or something else as long as they remain opposed to authoritarian rule. The reason why more leftists identify with anti-fascism compared to conservatives is because the far-right leans into power consolidation but anti-fascism is nonpartisan. In the face of fascism, everyone must be united to preserve democracy.

    Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook is less likely to be found in a public library, but it is commonly uploaded on the internet. Check the Internet Archive for a few uploads and YouTube for audio versions.

    Strongmen by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

    As one of the most recently published books on this list, Strongmen discusses the lengthy history of fascist leaders and the movements that opposed them – ranging from historical examples like Adolf Hitler to contemporary fascists like Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. It’s a great read if you’re interested in the personalities and egos that lead fascist leaders to assume power – but it’s a dense book. Ben-Ghiat is another historian, so Strongmen is just as much a history book as a political one.

    Ben-Ghiat’s book isn’t entirely gloomy, though – she makes it clear that while authoritarian rulers do terrible things to their countries, they’re awfully predictable since they are pushed by their egos and beliefs to forcibly move nations. That doesn’t alleviate the harm caused by fascist movements, but it does guide activists to understand their opponents and the movements that stand behind them. With current events, we’re seeing this play out between the extraordinarily public and fragile egos of Donald Trump and Elon Musk – while the two men publicly collaborate, it is also incredibly clear that they are competing against each other to be America’s sitting president.

    Strongmen is available in some libraries, as well as several places online via PDF – but you might have to do some digging since it does not have a centralized version on major sites like Internet Archive.

    Why Bad Governments Happen to Good People by Danny Katch

    Another book inspired and published right after Trump’s 2016 election, Why Bad Governments Happen to Good People explores the political system that enabled Trump to rise to power in the first place. Compared to other titles on this list, Katch’s book is lesser known, more humorous, and an easier read than books like Strongmen.

    Katch uses the current political system as an introductory point for socialism in the United States – most Americans dislike capitalism even if they lack the words to verbalize it after decades of pro-capitalism propaganda. He wrote it after his 2015 work Socialism… Seriously: A Brief Guide to Human Liberation to outline how the United States was capable of putting Donald Trump in the White House after the two-term presidency of Barack Obama. Can America turn back and restore democracy? Can Americans vote fascism out of power?

    Unfortunately, Why Bad Governments Happen to Good People isn’t broadly available – it’s unlikely to be in your local library and there are no full editions of the work online. At the time of this article, the only way to get a copy is to purchase it online either as an e-book or paperback.

    How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt

    Levitsky and Ziblatt wrote How Democracies Die in 2018, also in response to Donald Trump’s rise within the Republican Party. Rather than focus on just Trump, they write about the long-standing tradition among political leaders to subvert democracy to further increase their individual power. Rooted in political theory, How Democracies Die pushes readers towards the center – in the grand scheme of democracy, political parties must tolerate and respect their opponents as legitimate even when they disagree to ensure fair elections based on the public’s interests. They also explain the dangers of abusing the various branches of government – but given the period, How Democracies Die isn’t able to hold up to the current reality of the Republican Party that wages war on democracy.

    Considered one of the most important books on political theory from the first Trump administration, How Democracies Die is not a guidebook for Donald Trump’s return to office – these periods illustrate the schism between advocating for moderate opinions and the paradox of tolerance since tolerating fascist parties will ultimately lead to the destruction of democracy. Yet, that doesn’t make the book null: Levitsky and Ziblatt explain how America got here and is a time capsule when tolerance was still an option. Even if tolerance is no longer able to defend democracy, How Democracies Die invites readers to think critically about the cost and benefits of such tolerance as they fight for a future.

    How Democracies Die was even read and carried by President Joe Biden during his term, which he occasionally read passages from – so it shouldn’t be difficult to locate a copy near you. If your library doesn’t have a version available, check out the Internet Archive.

    The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

    In 1991, Art Spiegelman published the final chapters of the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus: A Survivor’s Tale – the story uses the real-life experiences of Spiegelman’s father as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor, depicting Jewish people as mice, Germans as cats, and Poles as pigs. The entire series was published between 1980 to 1991, which makes up The Complete Maus today.

    Since Maus directly deals with the Holocaust, it’s been banned as ‘inappropriate’ in recent years. After being banned in a Tennessee district in 2022, the series skyrocketed as an Amazon best-seller as more school districts throughout the country tried to follow suit. Additionally, Maus‘s availability varies around the world since countries like Russia have banned the book due to its inclusion of the Nazi swastika. Most American schools have not successfully banned Maus, although the book is still aimed at youth ages 13 and older due to its violent content and depictions of the Holocaust.

    Most public libraries should have Maus, although it might depend on the state you’re residing in due to censorship laws and book bans. It’s available on the Internet Archive and as an audiobook on YouTube – but considering it’s a graphic novel, I recommend actually reading it over listening to the series.

    Banned Books

    As a general rule, any book that is banned is a book worth reading. Censorship grows alongside fascism, and book bans have been steadily climbing in number by Republicans through school boards and library takeovers.

    There is no singular database of the world’s banned books – but PEN International and PEN America have countless lists on their websites of the most banned books throughout the world. Barnes and Noble also have a database of banned books based on information available to them.