This Queer Book Saved My Life

A new episode of This Queer Book Saved My Life drops August 18th! In our off weeks we air episodes from The Gaily Show. It's the only daily LGBTQ news and talk show in the US! John hosts it and it airs on AM950-KTNF (Minneapolis), WCPT 820 AM (Chicago), 92.7 FM WMDX (Madison, WI), plus weekly on NewsTalk WHMP (Amherst, MA) and Alternative Talk 1150AM KKNW (Seattle).
In this episode, author Isabella Tousignant joins us to discuss her new memoir The Uninvited Passenger. In it she talks about current trans issues in the age of MAGA misinformation and hate, growing up trans but with no place to express it or a way to come out, coming out late in life, and the complications of staying married. Connect with Isabella and buy the book at: http://www.theuninvitedpassenger.com/
Watch on YouTube
We're in video too! You can watch this episode at youtube.com/@thegailyshow
Credits
Host/Founder: John Parker (learn more about my name change)
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Production and Distribution Support: Brett Johnson, AM950
Marketing/Advertising Support: Chad Larson, Laura Hedlund, Jennifer Ogren, AM950
Accounting and Creative Support: Gordy Erickson
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Support the show

We have such an issue with: what should we educate children with?
Today we meet Dr. Helen Webberley and we’re talking about the queer book that saved her life: My Daddies! by Gareth Peter. And Gareth joins us for the conversation!
Dr. Webberley is a doctor, gender specialist, and medical educator with years of experience across medicine, science, sexual health, and gender identity. In 2015, Dr. Webberley supported a young trans boy who had been left without care by UK's National Health System. That’s when she founded GenderGP. The small medical service quickly became a lifeline for trans people across the UK and beyond. Now, her goals include developing training for healthcare professionals, improving legal protections for the trans community, and championing a global shift towards patient-led, rights-based models of care.
Gareth Peter has had a career as a composer and lyricist for theater, with his songs performed on stage by West End and Broadway voices across the United Kingdom and internationally. He founded the Broadway School of Performing Arts, a part-time theater school, in 2004. In 2018, he was a top-ten Penguin Random House Write Now finalist. Recent books include a series with Scholastic titled This Book is Full Of, including This Book Is Full of Unicorns and this Book Is Full Of Bunnies. Gareth lives in Nottingham with his partner and his two wonderful adopted children.
My Daddies! is a funny, heartfelt picture-book celebrating same-sex parents and shared story time, perfect for introducing children to the different kinds of family in the world today.
Connect with Dr. Webberley and Gareth
Dr. Webberley's website: helenwebberley.com
GenderGP: gendergp.com
Gareth's website: storywise.uk/gareth-peter
Instagram: @gareth.peter
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
Buy your copy of My Daddies! here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/314591/my-daddies-by-peter-gareth/9780241405772
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: John Parker
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Troy Ford, Jonathan Fried, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, Sean Smith, and Karsten Vagner
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, Sofia Nerman, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can’t buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Support the show

A new episode of This Queer Book Saved My Life drops August 4th! In our off weeks we air episodes from The Gaily Show. It's the only daily LGBTQ news and talk show in the US! John hosts it and it airs on AM950-KTNF (Minneapolis), WCPT 820 AM (Chicago), 92.7 FM WMDX (Madison, WI), plus weekly on NewsTalk WHMP (Amherst, MA) and Alternative Talk 1150AM KKNW (Seattle).
In this episode, two former guests of This Queer Book Saved My Life joined John on The Gaily Show! Paul Russell talked about his upcoming novel The Angels Came to Sodom in the Evening which comes out on October 6, 2026. And it was the third Friday of the month, which meant author and critic Ilana Masad was back to share this month's queer book recommendations:
Hotshot: A Life on Fire by River Selby
I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Mac Crane
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
Ilana Masad is a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and criticism whose work has been widely published. She holds a PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and is the author of the novels All My Mother’s Lovers and Beings, as well as the coeditor of the forthcoming anthology Here for All the Reasons: Why We Watch The Bachelor. https://www.ilanamasad.com/
Watch on YouTube
We're in video too! You can watch this episode at youtube.com/@thegailyshow
Credits
Host/Founder: John Parker (learn more about my name change)
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Production and Distribution Support: Brett Johnson, AM950
Marketing/Advertising Support: Chad Larson, Laura Hedlund, Jennifer Ogren, AM950
Accounting and Creative Support: Gordy Erickson
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Support the show

As a kid I always wondered where do I belong?
Today we meet Mario Elías and we’re talking about the queer book that saved his life: The Color of Summer by  Reinaldo Arenas.
Mario Elías is a multidisciplinary artist of Cuban and Syrian descent based in Chicago. His work spans fiction, nonfiction, photography, painting, and printmaking. His book Queering the Male Gaze reimagined masterpieces of the classical and modern canon through essays and self-portraiture, exploring often-overlooked queer and female figures who shaped them. He is the founder of The KindaSuper Project, a philanthropic initiative offering free photography and video services to underserved communities. His debut novel Beloved Disciples just came out earlier this spring.
The Color of Summer is a Rabelaisian tale of survival by wits and wit and ultimately a powerful and passionate story about the triumph of the human spirit over the forces of political and sexual repression. This novel is the fulfillment of author Reinaldo Arenas' life's work, the Pentagonía, a five-volume cycle of novels that is his "secret history of Cuba."
Reinaldo Arenas was born in Cuba in 1943. In 1980, he was one of 120,000 Cubans who arrived in the United States on the Mariel boatlift. Arenas settled in New York where he lived until his death from AIDS ten years later. His extraordinary memoir, Before Night Falls, was named one of the fourteen "Best Books of 1993" by the editors of The New York Times Book Review and has now been made into a major motion picture.
Connect with Mario Elías
website: kindasuper.com
instagram: @kindasupermario
Our Bookshop
Visit our Bookshop for new releases, current bestsellers, banned books, critically acclaimed LGBTQ books, or peruse the books featured on our podcasts: bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook
Buy your copy of The Color of Summer: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9780140157192
Buy your copy of Beloved Disciples: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781612943374
Become an Associate Producer!
Become an Associate Producer of our podcast through a $20/month sponsorship on Patreon! A professionally recognized credit, you can gain access to Associate Producer meetings to help guide our podcast into the future! Get started today: patreon.com/thisqueerbook
Credits
Host/Founder: John Parker
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Associate Producers: Archie Arnold, K Jason Bryan and David Rephan, Bob Bush, Natalie Cruz, Troy Ford, Jonathan Fried, Joe Perazzo, Bill Shay, Sean Smith, and Karsten Vagner
Patreon Subscribers: Stephen D., Stephen Flamm, Ida Göteburg, Thomas Michna, Sofia Nerman, and Gary Nygaard.
Creative and Accounting support provided by: Gordy Erickson
Quatrefoil Library
Quatrefoil has created a curated lending library made up of the books featured on our podcast! If you can’t buy these books, then borrow them! Link: https://libbyapp.com/library/quatrefoil/curated-1404336/page-1
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Support the show

A new episode of This Queer Book Saved My Life drops July 21st! In our off weeks we air episodes from The Gaily Show. It's the only daily LGBTQ news and talk show in the US! John hosts it and it airs on AM950-KTNF (Minneapolis), WCPT 820 AM (Chicago), 92.7 FM WMDX (Madison, WI), plus weekly on NewsTalk WHMP (Amherst, MA) and Alternative Talk 1150AM KKNW (Seattle).
In this episode, Troy Ford joins us to discuss his new novel Waterspout. Then Rasheed Newsom stops by to talk about his newest novel There's Only One Sin in Hollywood.
Connect with Troy at https://troyfordauthor.com and at Substack at https://troyford.substack.com
Connect with Rasheed at https://www.rasheednewson.com/
Watch on YouTube
We're in video too! You can watch this episode at youtube.com/@thegailyshow
Credits
Host/Founder: John Parker (learn more about my name change)
Executive Producer: Jim Pounds
Production and Distribution Support: Brett Johnson, AM950
Marketing/Advertising Support: Chad Larson, Laura Hedlund, Jennifer Ogren, AM950
Accounting and Creative Support: Gordy Erickson
Real quick: yes, you too can be a guest on our podcast! If you have a queer book that had a life-saving impact for you, then please visit thisqueerbook.com and fill out the form on the homepage! Looking forward to hearing back from you!
Support the show