The Book of Pride audiobook

Not to begin this review on a negative note, but some patterns and phrasings and such in this book (dropping the assigned gender and deadname of nearly every trans subject? really?) left a bad taste in my mouth. However, given the value of these interviews as records of LGBT elders, and the fact that language is one of the slipperiest and most contentious subjects in the community, I think it's best to let them go, albeit with a note to think about things critically (for example, I would really hope that cishets don't run with the 'it's cool to just call people queer(s)' train more than they already have). At the end of the day this is a compendium of LGBT history, a precious record given how much has been erased, and I can't give this book enough credit for that.I would recommend pairing this book with the podcast Making Gay History ; the podcast features recordings of decades-old interviews with LGBT pioneers (including titans such as Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson), many of whom have since passed away. Maybe The Book of Pride could publish audio transcripts of their interviews as well, if they haven't done so already- hearing the authentic, unvarnished voices of these people who have done so much creates a connection that still brings me to tears. Either way, I'm grateful for what both these sources have brought.

“The Book of Pride: LGBTQ Heroes Who Changed the World” by Mason Funk is such an inspiring book that gives you new insight into the LGBTQ activists & leaders’ efforts & sacrifices for the equality & rights of LGBTQ community in our country. This book features interviews and Black & White photographs of 75 brave individuals, divided by categories — Community, Integrity, Liberation, Breaking Ground, Disrupters, Spirit, Survival, Bridges, Words, and Truth to Power. This is an important historical record and a guidebook of lessons & experiences that are important, inspiring, and relevant. I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve never heard of many of them before reading this book, one of the reasons why a book like this is so important. Do you have a favorite LGBTQ book you’d think I should add to my tbr list? 🤓✌️📖❤️🌈

One of the most inspiring books I've ever read! If you ever feel like you are not important, or that your actions, even the smallest of them, don't matter, think twice! Always be kind. Love is love

This book. This book.Y'all, this is an amazing read. Yes, it's a great read for Pride month, but it is an EXCELLENT read for ANYTIME. Please, do not regulate this to a dusty "pride month TBR." The book needs to be read (or this audiobook needs to be listened to) and be shared.Mason Funk started with the idea of gathering the history of the LGBTQIAP+ community from the people who were on the front lines. What follows is an intersectional collection of stories from members of the LGBTQIAP+ that help to further cement the hardship that the community has faced, especially those members who are BIPOC and have faced more oppression than white members of the community. It was educational and inspirational; there were literally times that I cried.I cannot recommend this book enough. For allies and members of the LGBTQIAP+ community. For everyone. You will be doing yourself the biggest service, and you will be richer for the experience.

I received an ARC copy of this book from EdelweissThis was such a moving book. I was basically just crying on and off all throughout reading this, but I would say in a 'good' way most of the time. Obviously everything is not perfect for LGBTQ people even today, but it's just absolutely incredible to hear some of these people's stories and what they had to go through just to be who they are and be allowed to exist in the world. I think this is a very important book because it interviews only people who are older and were instrumental in founding many LGBTQ groups and getting laws changed that benefit us all today. I think that recently there has been kind of a feeling among young people that all 'old people' are 'the enemy' or something and this book is a great way to show how much we actually owe to the people who have come before us and that LGBTQ have always existed and aren't by any means a 'new' thing. Also this book is part of a larger project called OUTWORDS and they have a website which includes the video copies of all the interviews featured in the book as well as many more [and I think it said transcripts and pictures as well]. Definitely a really good read if you are interested in LGBTQ history.

I’m so thankful and proud. This book makes me so proud to be an openly queer woman. I listened to all of these stories from LGBTQ pioneers that made me realize the serious sacrifices that were made. It wasn’t just white people but black,Latino and Asian who paved the way for us. All of these people were born between 1925 and 1960 and they lived through discrimination everyday because who and how they chose to love.

a wonderful collection of amazing lgbt pioneers and elderly lgbt people at least i don’t hear about enough. this probably would have worked even better as a physical book as now the stories kind of blurred together and i obviously missed the portraits in the book when listening to an audiobook. outwords is a very imporant project and i enjoyed this collection of some of its stories.

This book is a series of 75 interviews to document the history and experience of LGBTQ pioneers across the US. While I wished there were more stories about education leaders in the book, the collection shows how nascent the Pride movement truly is and the stories are really incredible examples of resistance, power, courage, and social change. The interview with Betsy Parsons is certainly one. 65 year-old Parsons is a retired English teacher in Maine. Born in Boston and raised in rural Illinois, Betsy talked about her experience as the first Maine teacher to come out and to keep her job.“In the mid-90s… the most prevalent form of hate language in the school was anti-gay language,” Betsy explains in the Book of Pride. “Constant ridicule and verbal harassment, coupled with physical harassment, shoving, hitting, tripping, and punching… Teachers would not typically intervene because to target LGBT people was acceptable.”Betsy continued, “A former student, a young lesbian, came back to visit me. She told me that during her freshman year of high school, when she was my student, she had been on the brink of suicide the entire year. I thought her life was perfect. She was brainy, beautiful, and musical. When I heard about that eight years later, it was just shocking for me. I asked what I could have done to make that year less painful, less frightening. My former student said, ‘you could have been out.’ That moment… was a point of no return for me. I was going to have to either leave public school teaching or find a way to keep teaching and come out.”Not only did Betsy come out to her English students, doing so by using literary characters to teach about the persecution of minorities, but she also founded GLSEN chapters in her school and throughout the state.

An in depth look at some of the lesser-known pioneers of the LGBTQ liberation struggle! Radio talk show hosts, artists, scientists, historians, college professors, labor leaders, AIDS fighters, etc. An incredibly enlightening book of mini autobiographies; Funk tells a little about each person, but all interviewed tell about themselves. This is a feel good book. My only critique? No non-binary people. I was disappointed there. Being non-binary myself, I love seeing that representation; non-binary gender long precedes any western notion of a gender system -- it isn't something "new" or "made up".

The Book of Pride: LGBTQ Heroes Who Changed the World is an anthology of seventy-five mini-biographies of LGBTQ activist around America that has been written and collected by Mason Funk. It is a dignified tapestry of trailblazing pioneers who have contributed to the gay liberation movement.For the most part, this collection of mini-biographies were written and researched rather well. Among the dynamic voices featured in his empowering anthology are activists, leaders, and individual contributors who represent the struggle of LGBTQ people to be heard above the perennial din of intolerance, discrimination, and hate.Split into ten thematic sections: Community (9), Integrity (9), Liberation (7), Breaking Ground (7), Disrupters (6), Spirit (8), Survival (7), Bridges (8), Words (7), and Truth to Power (7), these seventy-five mini-biographies includes diverse voices from activists, legal, political, performance backgrounds and media, military, and ministerial affiliations. Many of these stories are highly introspective and poignant while some are humorous.Like most anthologies there are weaker entries and The Book of Pride: LGBTQ Heroes Who Changed the World is not an exception. It is not so much as weaker entries, but there were some entries that I wished was delved much deeper, which is a good thing.All in all, The Book of Pride: LGBTQ Heroes Who Changed the World is a significant educational and motivational tribute to dozens of social justice heroes.

I really enjoyed this collection. While it recognized the major names of the quest for LGBTQ+ recognition and equality, it also brought light to the stories and people we don’t know. The scope of people that Outwords - inspired by the Shoah Project - reached is amazing and while I almost wish he’d highlighted fewer and left the interviews longer, there are no stories I’d have cut so I understand his dilemma. Was especially grateful foe those who died shortly after their interviews as these stories are so crucial. Like Mark Segal said about Stonewall, tell your own story not someone else’s.

Wonderfully inspiring. It was like being hugged by my chosen family the entire time I was reading it. My birth family has a lot of records of our heritage, and sadly it wasn't a very inclusive or lgbtq-friendly heritage. Sometimes I have to reach outside that genealogy to find records of the queer community, which feels more like my real family. I'm so grateful someone was wise enough to collect these stories. I gained a whole list of books stemming from these accounts and books the interviewees have written!

Featuring brief profiles of and interviews with 75 LGBTQ+ activists who have contributed in one way or another to the advances made in the struggle for equality from the 60s to the present day, this collection made for a moving and wonderfully inspiring read.