LGBTQ+ literature often explores difficult relationships between queer and trans people and their parents. But what about parents who are themselves queer or trans?

This list includes  a variety of queer and trans people writing about their experiences of pregnancy and raising children. It also features stories about queer and trans children with closeted parents, such as Alison Bechdel’s autobiographical comic Fun Home and Mia McKenzie’s debut novel The Summer We Got Free. This pride month, check out some fiction and nonfiction titles about  LGBTQ+ parents.

The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

A blend of queer theory, philosophy, and personal essay, The Argonauts explores what it means to queer the family. Maggie Nelson writes about her experiences being pregnant at the same time her partner starts taking testosterone and gets top surgery. Challenging many of the stereotypes of pregnancy and motherhood, The Argonauts is as much about the writers and theorists who become our “queer mothers” as it is about the queer nuclear family. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to challenge the idea that having children is a form of assimilation

Pregnant Butch: Nine Long Months Spent in Drag by A.K. Summers

Based on Summers’ pregnancy, Pregnant Butch is a graphic novel that follows Teek Thomasson through life as a pregnant butch lesbian. Dealing with the stereotypes of traditional femininity associated with pregnancy, Teek tries to find ways of making pregnancy a butch experience. For example, she imagines breastfeeding as a superpower (introducing the Boobed-Avenger!). I recommend this graphic novel to anyone who thinks suspenders are excellent maternity wear.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

Bechdel’s most famous graphic novel Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is an autobiography about coming out and the life of her closeted gay father before his suicide. The comic is interwoven with passages from her father’s favorite literature as Bechdel tries to understand a man that hid in fiction his whole life. Fun Home is so popular, it was adapted into a musical in 2013. I recommend Fun Home to anyone who has grappled with understanding their parents.

The Summer We Got Free by Mia McKenzie

After the death of her brother, Ava Delaney loses her ability to feel. That is until her sister-in-law Helena arrives. Everything starts to change for Ava who is uncontrollably attracted to Helena while her father tries to push away the coming changes. Switching between the 1950s and 1970s, The Summer We Got Free explores Ava and her father's inability to talk to each other about their experiences of racism, homophobia, and religious zealotry. I recommend this book to anyone who loves McKenzie’s website Black Girl Dangerous and can’t wait to experience her skills as a fiction writer.

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

A collection of 15 essays by black lesbian socialist poet and writer Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider is a fundamental feminist text as relevant today as it was when it was first published in 1984. Lorde covers a wide range of topics including poetry, racism, sexuality, and motherhood. In the chapter “Man Child: A Black Lesbian Feminist’s Response”, Lorde explores raising a boy as a lesbian. I recommend Sister Outsider to anyone who identifies as a feminist.

Labor of Love: The Story of One Man’s Extraordinary Pregnancy by Thomas Beatie

Probably one of the most well known trans parents, Beatie made headlines in 2008 when he was pregnant. Labor of Love chronicles his experiences coming out as trans, as well as his pregnancy. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to read beyond the media circus that surrounded Beatie’s pregnancy to the actual experiences of a trans parent.