A Very Bookish Pride and The Queer Books That Moved Us

By Dakota Parks for Inweekly

There’s a lot to be angry—and scared—about this Pride month.

As corporate companies quietly abandon DEI initiatives and ditch donations to Pride organizations, the threats facing LGBTQ+ people are growing louder and more dangerous. The Republican party continues to use trans lives as political cannon fodder—as the Trump administration officially begins discharging thousands of transgender service members from the military, the Supreme Court prepares a landmark decision on transgender healthcare, and federal agencies work to erase trans existence by scrubbing government websites and attempting to legally recognize only two sexes.

Queer and trans people continue to face brutal violence, including the tragic and barbaric murder of Jonathan Joss that shocked the nation just as Pride began. Meanwhile, queer books are still being banned from schools and libraries, and lawmakers in nine states have introduced resolutions urging the Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges—threatening to dismantle marriage equality altogether.

The LGBTQ+ community is under fire. But there are lessons to be learned from our history—and from our books.

One powerful reminder comes from “Stone Butch Blues,” Leslie Feinberg’s groundbreaking novel that follows a working-class butch lesbian and transgender union organizer navigating the violence of mid-20th-century America—where police still raided gay bars, and the government turned a blind eye to the AIDS epidemic killing our community. In one moment of reflection, the protagonist says:

“I’ve been going to the library, looking up our history. There’s a ton of it in anthropology books, a ton of it, Ruth. We haven’t always been hated. Why didn’t we grow up knowing that?”

Feinberg’s words are a testament to the power of queer literature and importance of access. Reading has always been a political act, and censorship has always been a tactic of control. For decades, queer stories were systematically silenced—rejected by publishers, erased from mainstream media and suppressed by obscenity laws that cast LGBTQ+ lives as deviant. Yet they survived—in journals and personal libraries, zines, indie presses and community spaces—passed quietly from hand to hand.

That’s why reading queer books during Pride month isn’t just a celebration. It’s resistance. It’s a way to honor those who came before and ensure their stories—and ours—aren’t lost forever. And this June, a growing number of local bookstores and organizations are doing more than just acknowledging that—they’re taking action.

Perfect Day Books

Hannah Burns and her wife Karis Ederer have always dreamed of running a bookstore when they retire. It wasn’t until the slew of book censorship began sweeping the country, targeting queer stories in schools, public libraries and even some private bookstores, that they realized the need was too urgent to wait.

“We always spend an entire day in whatever city we travel to just visiting and patronizing independent bookstores, so we’ve seen what Pensacola is missing,” Burns said. “But it wasn’t until we saw the outpour online of hundreds of people from the Pensacola community voicing that they want a queer and inclusive bookstore—that we knew we could provide that.”

Burns, an alumna of the University of West Florida English department, cut her teeth learning the ins and outs of bookstore operations by working in shops and honing her skills as a technical writer. Ederer, a physical therapist by day, has been busy working out all the knots in their backs after hauling thousands of books into their apartment.

Over the years, the couple has bonded through collecting books everywhere they go—scouring thrift stores, browsing estate sales and picking up treasures while traveling—slowly amassing a library that now serves as the foundation of their shop.

“I don’t think reading is just for entertainment,” Burns explained. “I think reading is very political, and I have an archivist attitude toward it. I’m really scared we are going to lose access to our histories or lose access to revolutionary art and people’s thoughts that have changed the world. I often buy things because I want to keep them. Otherwise, some book banner might come across it and burn it or wipe it off the face of the earth, which I think is insane and totally dystopian.”

Perfect Day Books began as a small but mighty collection of curated queer and witchcraft titles tucked inside Jitterbug Coffee Co. But it wasn’t long before fate stepped in.

Burns and Ederer heard about a mobile book truck for sale—the beloved Navarre-based Story Tree Books, which closed after its owner, Mecca Caron-Apple, passed away from cancer. Her husband, Jim Apple, built the truck for her and spent the past two years slowly searching for someone who would honor her vision rather than convert it into a food truck. When the couple learned of the opportunity, they jumped at the chance to buy it—eager to carry on Mecca’s legacy and grow their own.

Jitterbug will continue to serve as the stationary hub for the shop, featuring primarily adult titles. However, Perfect Day Books aims to be an all-ages shop that welcomes families of all kinds, with plans to expand the selection soon. The mobile book truck will carry a wide range of genres, with smut and romance titles stocked safely out of reach of little hands.

In the meantime, Burns and Ederer are popping up at events and tabling around town while they finish outfitting the truck for weekend pop-ups.

They also recently launched the “Whatever Book Club,” a low-pressure gathering where readers can bring whatever they feel like reading for silent reading time—or choose to follow along with Perfect Day Books’ “Book of the Month” pick. Burns promises to read each monthly selection, so there’s always at least one person you can count on to chat about it with. For June, the pick is “A Queer History of the United States,” and copies are stocked at Jitterbug and available through their bookshop.org store.

The community can also follow along on their journey on Instagram and TikTok, where they share regular vlogs and updates. Burn’s background in content creation—including her “Bookstagram” @heburnslit and a personal account focused on writing, reading, thrifting and all things gothic—has already shaped how they’re marketing the new bookstore. Their online presence is just one of many ways they’re inviting the community in.

“We want the community to feel like they’re a part of it, like the truck belongs to them too,” Ederer said. “When someone donates a book, maybe they’ll spot it in the background of a vlog or know they had a hand in building this with us. Watching Hannah light up doing what she loves has been the greatest joy of my life. This bookstore is her passion, and we aren’t going to get rich from it. But now more than ever, people are being really intentional where they spend their money. You can be political and vote by what you spend your money on and what kinds of businesses you support.”

Open Books

Pensacola’s longest-standing indie bookstore knows that the best way to fight book bans is by increasing access to diverse stories. That’s why Open Books has ordered a brand-new collection of LGBTQ+ titles ahead of Pride—a major shift for a nonprofit that has traditionally relied solely on donated used books.

“When it comes to curating the store, we’re always at the mercy of whatever someone decides to drop off—whether that’s from a breakup, a move, an estate or another bookstore closing,” Scott Satterwhite, a co-founder of the store explained. “That model makes it tough to build intentional sections. But with so many book bans happening in the area, we felt the best response was to increase access to these stories.”

This response to the growing wave of censorship, has the store ordering new books for the first time in over a decade. Buying new books isn’t cheap, but it’s part of a bigger mission.

“It’s always an investment,” Satterwhite said. “If we didn’t buy these books, our section would be limited. A lot of what we had in our LGBTQ+ section were older books, some from the ’90s, with outdated terminology and arguments still debating whether gay marriage should exist. That doesn’t reflect where we are now. This new collection gives people more reading options—not just in the store, but in the city. It’s part of our effort to make Pensacola a little more literate, interesting and culturally rich.”

As a nonprofit, Open Books also supports its long-running Prison Book Project through store sales and community donations, working every day to get books into the hands that need them most. In the past, they’ve also partnered with Inweekly to give away banned books for free—another example of their commitment to intellectual freedom.

“One of the reasons they go after books is because, clearly, they’re effective,” he said. “Books open people’s minds, and some people in power don’t want other people’s minds to open.”

Satterwhite also pushes back on the idea that LGBTQ+ people and their stories are part of some recent cultural shift or “woke” agenda.

“There’s this misconception that queer and trans people didn’t exist until the early 2000s,” he said. “But that’s just not true. My wife and I have been watching nostalgic shows like ‘All in the Family’ and ‘The Jeffersons,’ and what surprised us is how often they featured sympathetic, openly gay characters. There’s one episode in ‘All in the Family,’ where a trans woman is killed in a gay bashing, and it shakes one of the main characters so deeply she loses her faith. That aired in 1977. These stories and issues have always existed, and I’m really glad we can give them more space on our shelves.”

Today, the store’s biggest sections include local authors and its newly expanded LGBTQ+ section, which Satterwhite is proud to brag is bigger than the corporate bookstore displays.

Liberation Library

No price tags, no late fees—just free access to books and political histories that matter the most.

The Pensacola Liberation Center, a working-class community center and grassroots organizing hub home to the Central Gulf Coast chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), is expanding its resources with a major addition: the Liberation Library. Long envisioned it as part of the center’s mission to offer political education and build community power. The project is now coming to life thanks to the donation of a rare and expansive archive.

“From the earliest conceptions of the Liberation Center, we knew we wanted to include some sort of library as a resource to our community,” said Sarah Brummet, the organizer. “In fact, we have had a much smaller library in the space from the beginning. This expansion is beyond what we dreamed would be possible.”

The collection comes from a generous elder with deep roots in the labor movement and the gay liberation movements who offered to donate his personal archive. The main challenge was figuring out how to transport and store them. With community support, that became possible.

“Our space is entirely volunteer-run and member-funded,” Brummet said. “With the support of our community and donations, we were able to cut our out-of-pocket costs down to only a few hundred dollars. The radical history of struggle in the South is so often erased from public consciousness and from our education system, so the emphasis this collection places on our region’s past is incredibly meaningful to us as organizers in this region.”

The donation includes an estimated 600–1,000 books, delivered in over 40 banker boxes from Fort Lauderdale. Many of the books are rare or out of print, covering topics like labor movements, gay and Black liberation and Southern history, including texts that focus specifically on Florida and Escambia County.

“Our library is going to be a form of resistance because people are taught to consume in abundance, and the space is an antonym to this,” added Laylah Holiday, another organizer. “The Liberation Center is a free space, and the books are free, so you don’t need to buy anything. By centering marginalized voices and stories, the space innately becomes a progressive space.”

Currently, they have a check-out system for their existing library, but the new books will be available through an in-building rental system to protect more fragile titles. Already, the collection has contributed to recent programming, including a three-part AAPI Month reading series, and will continue to inform future reading groups, events and educational offerings.

“We are up against a system that has given us a Trump presidency twice, facilitated genocide, and is working to privatize, dissolve and demolish every public service you can imagine—while using racism, xenophobia and anti-LGBTQ bigotry to pit poor people against each other,” Brummet concluded. “Now more than ever, our people need political education. Every right we have was won through organized, sustained struggle—not handed down by a politician with a good heart. This archive is going to be a resource to empower our people. History is a weapon.”

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Perfect Day Books

@perfectdaybookstore

Mobile book truck coming soon, also located inside Jitterbug Coffee Co., 2050 N. 12th Ave.

Open Books

@openbookspcola

1040 N. Guillemard St.

Pensacola Liberation Center

@psl_cgc

2737 N. E St.

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If you’re feeling inspired to check out Perfect Day Books, Open Books and/or Pensacola Liberation Center (and we hope you are), you’re in luck. Everyone featured in this story will be a vendor at PensaPride next weekend. Also, make sure you tune into next week’s issue for more on PensaPride.

PensaPride

WHAT: Pensacola’s annual family-friendly Pride festival featuring a vendor market, live music, performances and more

WHEN: 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Saturday, June 28

WHERE: Pensacola Interstate Fairgrounds Expo Hall, 6655 Mobile Hwy.

COST: $3

DETAILS: pensapride.org, @pensapride

The Queer Books That Moved Us:

A Community-Sourced Reading List

For this issue, we asked you—our readers, our community—to tell us about the queer books that changed your life, shifted your worldview or made you feel truly seen. The result is this list, which is filled with stories that celebrate, challenge and connect us.

“Hungerstone” by Kat Dunn

I related a lot to Lenore’s fight for her right to desire. To desire food, to desire tenderness, to desire queer sex; all the most delicious things that are shunned by the dominant culture.

–Lachlan Woodson

“The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For” by Alison Bechdel

Seeing queer people exist and live normal, simple, messy and such varied lives was very transformative for me. Queer characters of all spectrums exist in this comic anthology with differing values and ideals and beliefs. They are all normalized and celebrated.–Sam Ellis

“Big Swiss” by Jen BeaginI loved the messy lesbian culture—lesbians don’t just have to be good, they’re human. Representation of the full human experience is important. Characters can be unlikable and messy, just like straight people. You don’t have to be a “good gay.”

–Hannah Burns

“The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1”  by Anaïs Nin

Anaïs Nin’s journals are poetry for me when nothing else will scratch a particular itch for raw, sensual vulnerability and beautiful writing. Reading about her falling in love with June Miller was one of the first pieces of literature that pulled me into polyamory and crafting my own relationships outside the lines of societal norms.

–Charles McCaskill

“The Passion” by Jeanette Winterson

I would recommend any books by Jeanette Winterson, but this one has gorgeous, poetic prose.

–Laynie Gibson

“The Traitor Baru Cormorant” by Seth Dickinson

This is an incredibly well-crafted political drama that honestly made me enjoy reading again after a long depression that took me out of it.

–Anonymous

“The House in the Cerulean Sea” by T.J. Klune

This is a heartfelt narrative that highlights the value of asking questions and the importance of giving people—especially children—the space to feel safe, protected and truly themselves. One quote I love sums it up: “Hate is loud, but I think you will learn it’s because it’s only a few people shouting, desperate to be heard. You might not ever be able to change their minds, but so long as you remember you’re not alone, you will overcome.”It’s easy to feel defeated when oppressors, bigots and small-minded people pass laws targeting the LGBTQIA+ community. Though they may be loud, it’s up to us to keep going, remember we are not alone, and—together, with courage, love and determination—be the change we want to see in the world.

–Nichole Murphy

“Heartstopper” by Alice Oseman

The “Heartstopper” series has touched so many people, including me. It’s the first story that made me truly embrace my bisexuality. We’re so often told that we shouldn’t speak about our sexuality or celebrate it, but it takes a lot of courage to be yourself and to accept yourself. The queer joy in ‘Heartstopper’ had a huge impact on me. It’s also one of the best representations of bisexuality. A lot of bisexual characters in media are reduced to a character that cheats or sleeps around, which isn’t true at all. Nick’s character was one of the first times I ever saw an honest representation of being bi. That made a huge difference to me.

–Rachel

“Red, White & Royal Blue” by Casey McQuiston

This book affected me most by showing me another world is possible. I liked how it not only represented me with a Mexican American protagonist but that it showed the complexity of growing up torn between worlds. It imagines a world where change is not only possible but embraced as the love of family conquers old traditions and rules. This is the kind of book that I wish I’d read sooner as I was trying to grapple with my sexual identity in high school. It was impactful to see people like me not only enter the halls of power but use their influence to create meaningful change and build a better world.

–Sam Avocado

“Troubled Sleep” by Samantha Dorsett

I am biased because Samantha was a dear friend of mine. Her novel, written 15 years ago, follows someone coming out as transgender, and to my knowledge, is likely the first novel set in Pensacola with transgender and queer folks as main characters. She used to live at 309 Punk House, but she moved to California and died by suicide not long after the book was released. It is kind of hard to come by, but hopefully it will be republished soon. I am sad that Samantha is no longer with us, but I am glad that her writing still exists. If you can find her book, it is worth the read.

Another favorite is “Rubyfruit Jungle” by Rita Mae Brown, which I first heard about from the ’90s queercore band named Team Dresch. One of their songs mentions hiding a copy of it under their pillow to keep away from their parents. It was the first coming-out story I read in a novel, and I really loved it. At the time, it was much harder to find queer novels, but one door leads to another.

–Scott Satterwhite

“A Psalm for the Wild-Built" by Becky Chambers

This was the first book I ever read that had a genderless protagonist, and I loved the dynamic their gender identity introduced to the story. Plus, cute robots and monks serving tea.

–Sydney Robinson

“Marsha” by Tourmaline

Black transgender artist Tourmaline brings Marsha P. Johnson’s revolutionary legacy to life in the first biography of the trans icon, who championed the rights of trans and homeless communities and played a pivotal role in the Stonewall Riots. Without Marsha, we wouldn’t be here today celebrating Pride. Trans women have always been, and will always be, the godmothers of queer liberation and the fight for LGBTQ+ rights.

–Inweekly staff pick