Throughout June, GeekMom will be celebrating Pride Month with lots of LGBTQ content. Follow the Pride Month tag to find all the content in one space and keep checking back for more throughout the month. Today’s book review is Queer Heroes by Arabelle Sicardi.
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Some time ago, I reviewed several anthology-style books containing short biographies of famous and historical figures, each on a theme such as Sports Stars or Musicians. Queer Heroes by Arabelle Sicardi is another of these books but this time with an LGBTQ theme. Every figure contained here is either publically out as LGBTQ, or was a historical figure who is now generally believed to have been LGBTQ.
Queer Heroes contains 53 short biographies of people including Freddie Mercury, Emma Gonzalez, Alan Turing, and Harvey Milk. Each one is illustrated with a drawing by Sarah Tanat-Jones with the illustrations attempting to capture something of the person’s personality and achievements, Martina Navratilova is shown playing tennis while Rufus Wainwright is shown singing at a piano, and Marlene Dietrich’s page is drawn in a black and white art nouveau style with her in a top hat and tails.
Some of the entries in the book might be considered to be controversial because of the lack of “proof” regarding their sexuality. Michaelangelo is included, as is Leonardo da Vinci and clearly neither is available to confirm or deny whether they really were LGBTQ so the author relies on historical sources that provide evidence to suggest they were.
Even if the odd inclusion is perhaps historically inaccurate, the vast majority of people featured here lived during the 20th and 21st centuries and were famously out as LGBTQ. There are sports stars and musicians, film directors and politicians, TV presenters and scientists. In fact, the representation is fantastically wide including teens and the elderly, all genders, and multiple nationalities and skin colors. This is great because of the way it shows that LGBTQ folk exist in all walks of life.
Queer Heroes will be a great book to give to any young people who may be questioning their sexuality and looking for LGBTQ role models. That being said, it will also be great for all young people because it shows that LGBTQ folk are around in every field and every social group.
GeekMom received a copy of this book for review purposes.
