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Learned By Heart: From the award-winning author of Room
by Emma DonoghueThe heartbreaking story of the love of two women – Anne Lister, the real-life inspiration behind Gentleman Jack, and her first love, Eliza Raine – from the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder.'A rich and spellbinding 19th-century story of forbidden love' – Independent'Donoghue evokes a relationship that is convincing and exquisitely touching.' – The GuardianIn 1805, at a boarding school in York, two fourteen-year-old girls first meet.Eliza Raine, the orphan daughter of an Indian mother, keeps herself apart from the other girls, tired of being picked out for being different. Anne Lister, a gifted troublemaker, is determined to conquer the world, refusing to bow to society’s expectations of what a woman can do.As they fall in love, the connection they forge will remain with them for the rest of their lives.Full of passion and heartbreak, evocative and wholly unique, Learned by Heart is a beautiful and moving historical novel from acclaimed author Emma Donoghue.Shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Prize
It Ain't Over Til the Bisexual Speaks: An Anthology of Bisexual Voices
by Various'Bisexuality allows for so many ways to desire and to express that desire. Plurality is at the heart of bisexuality' The bisexual experience is, by necessity, incredibly diverse - we are likely to be attracted to different genders, form part of multiple marginalised groups, and be perceived (depending on the gender of our partner) in wildly different ways..This anthology is a radical and ambitious attempt to capture the incredible multiplicity of bisexual identities. With essays that unpack the intersectionality and conflict of bisexuality with history, language, sexual violence, class identity, religion, polyamory, gender critical ideology, fatness, trans activism, the asylum system, literature and anarchy - this collection of bi voices demands to be heard..With contributions from Shiri Eisner, Hafsa Qureshi, Zachary Zane, Heron Greenesmith, and many, many more...
It Ain't Over Til the Bisexual Speaks: An Anthology of Bisexual Voices
by Various'Bisexuality allows for so many ways to desire and to express that desire. Plurality is at the heart of bisexuality' The bisexual experience is, by necessity, incredibly diverse - we are likely to be attracted to different genders, form part of multiple marginalised groups, and be perceived (depending on the gender of our partner) in wildly different ways..This anthology is a radical and ambitious attempt to capture the incredible multiplicity of bisexual identities. With essays that unpack the intersectionality and conflict of bisexuality with history, language, sexual violence, class identity, religion, polyamory, gender critical ideology, fatness, trans activism, the asylum system, literature and anarchy - this collection of bi voices demands to be heard..With contributions from Shiri Eisner, Hafsa Qureshi, Zachary Zane, Heron Greenesmith, and many, many more...
The Other Olympians: A True Story of Gender, Fascism and the Making of Modern Sport
by Michael WatersIn December 1935, Zdenek Koubek, one of the most famous sprinters in European women’s sports, declared he was now living as a man. Around the same time, the celebrated British field athlete Mark Weston, also assigned female at birth, announced that he, too, was a man. Periodicals and radio programs across the world carried the news; both became global celebrities. A few decades later, they were all but forgotten. And in the wake of their transitions, what could have been a push toward equality became instead, through a confluence of bureaucracy, war, and sheer happenstance, the exact opposite: the now all-too-familiar panic around trans, intersex, and gender nonconforming athletes.In The Other Olympians, Michael Waters uncovers, for the first time, the gripping true stories of Koubek, Weston, and other pioneering trans and intersex athletes from their era. With dogged research and cinematic flair, Waters also tracks how International Olympic Committee members ignored Nazi Germany’s atrocities in order to pull off the Berlin Games, a partnership that ultimately influenced the IOC’s nearly century-long obsession with surveilling and cataloging gender.Immersive and revelatory, The Other Olympians is a groundbreaking, hidden-in-the-archives marvel, an inspiring call for equality, and an essential contribution toward understanding the contemporary culture wars over gender in sports.
Cecilia
by K-Ming Chang'Hauntingly beautiful' GLAMOUR'Rowdy and razor-sharp' ALEXANDRA KLEEMANAn erotic, surreal novella about the ecstasies of intense friendships and obsessive loveSeven, who works as a cleaner at a chiropractor’s office, re-encounters Cecilia, a woman who has obsessed her since their school days.As the two of them board the same bus – each dubiously claiming not to be following the other – their chance meeting spurs a series of intensely vivid and corporeal memories. As past and present bleed together, Seven can feel her desire begin to unmoor her from the flow of time.Smart, subversive and gripping, Cecilia is a winding, misty road trip through bodily transformation, inextricable histories of violence and love, and the ghosts of girlhood friendship.PRAISE FOR K-MING CHANGBESTIARY‘Chang’s prose ravishes, ravages, rampages. An absolute lightning strike of a debut’ Kelly Link‘To read K-Ming Chang is to see the world in fresh, surreal technicolour… wild and lyrical, visionary and touching’ Sharlene Teo‘Fierce and funny, full of magic and grit’ Tash AwGODS OF WANT‘Blisteringly alive and unapologetically queer’ Guardian‘Strange, hilarious and unforgettable… a gift and a masterclass’ Bryan Washington‘Chang rewrites the world as a place of radical transformation’ New York Times Book Review
How It Works Out: The multiverse queer love story of the summer
by Myriam LacroixWhat if you could rewrite your relationship, again and again, until it works out?‘A stunner of a debut’ NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH‘A cause for celebration’ GEORGE SAUNDERS‘Exhilaratingly good’ KELLY LINKWhen Myriam and Allison fall in love at a show in a run-down punk house, their relationship begins to unfold through a series of hypotheticals:What if they became mothers by finding a baby in an alley?What if the only cure for Myriam’s depression was Allison’s flesh?How much darker - or sexier - would their dynamic be if one were a power-hungry CEO, and the other her lowly employee?From the fantasies of early romance to the slow encroaching of heartbreak, each reality builds to complete a brilliant and painfully funny portrait of love’s many promises and perils.WHAT READERS ARE SAYING:'Wow. I will be reading everything Myriam Lacroix puts out''Everything Everywhere All at Once for U-haul lesbians... I'm diving in again''I haven't read anything like it before... Fantastic debut'
Breaks Volume 2: The enemies-to-lovers queer webcomic sensation . . . that's a little bit broken (Breaks Series)
by Emma Vieceli Malin RydenBefore Heartstopper, there was Breaks . . . the enemies-to-lovers queer webcomic sensation. Now publishing in three volumes, catch the complete series in print for the first time.Ian and Cortland are all too aware that the bubble they've made for themselves can't last. Shifting relationships and tested friendships may be the least of their worries, though, as they learn more about each other and the pasts they'd rather leave behind. Familial legacy, fragile ambition and potentially devastating secrets; their budding relationship is going to need a stronger foundation than secrecy if they want to face what life has in store for them together.With millions of views and thousands of subscribers on webcomic platforms, Breaks is perfect for fans of popular LGBTQ+ graphic novels, such as Alice Osman's Heartstopper, who might be looking for something darker and more mature.
Experienced
by null Kate Young'Clever, sexy and joyful. I loved it' BETH O'LEARY 'A fizzing roller-coaster of a rom-com. The sexiest book you'll read all year and the most heartening’ CAROLINE O'DONOGHUE ‘A very relatable take on love that will pull at your heartstrings’ RED Bette loves Mei, but Bette and Mei are on a break, so Bette can catch-up on the decade of dating experiences she missed before she came out. So Bette is (reluctantly) on a dating odyssey: a quest to have lots of casual sex with lots of hot women and come back to Mei more experienced and more certain about what she wants. And now she has new friend Ruth as her dating guide, she can't possibly fail. It's just three months, then she'll be back with Mei. It's the perfect plan … isn't it? What readers are saying about Experienced… ‘An absolutely perfect romcom’ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ‘More bonking than Jilly Cooper’ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ‘384 pages of pure joy and heartbreak’ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ‘Phenomenal! Fun, sexy, big recommend’ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ‘I feel bereft now I’ve finished’ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
A Place of Our Own: Six Spaces That Shaped Queer Women's Culture - 'An inspiring celebration of lesbian camaraderie, activism and fun' (Sarah Waters)
by June ThomasLesbians are a people without a home. Perhaps that's why the ones we make for ourselves are so important.A highly readable cultural history of queer women's lives in the second half of the twentieth century, told through six iconic spaces'An inspiring celebration of lesbian camaraderie, activism and fun' SARAH WATERS'A cracking read, and a reminder of what shaped where we are now' VAL MCDERMID 'Riveting; indispensable; and suffused with a humane warmth' ALISON BECHDEL'A must-have for any queer bookshelf' TEGAN QUINFor as long as queer women have existed, they've created gathering grounds where they can be themselves. From the intimate darkness of the lesbian bar to the sweaty camaraderie of the softball field, these spaces aren't a luxury - they're a necessity for queer women defining their identities. Blending memoir, archival research and interviews, journalist June Thomas invites readers into six iconic lesbian spaces over the course of the last sixty years, including the rural commune, the sex toy boutique, the holiday destination and the feminist bookstore. She also illuminates what is gained and lost in the shift from the exclusive, tight-knit women's spaces of the '70s toward today's more inclusive yet more diffuse LGBTQ+ communities.'Pulses with delicious dykes and the spaces we have made for ourselves over the years. I welcome this story' STELLA DUFFY'A wonderfully rangy, conversational, and thoughtful exploration of lesbian geographies' DANIEL LAVERY'Immensely readable . . . A celebration of what was - and can be - built, with all the hurdles and ecstasies' ROSIE GARLAND
We Could Be Heroes
by null PJ EllisReal love is nothing like the movies. BIRMINGHAM, 2024. When American actor Patrick arrives in England, finding love is the last thing on his mind. Starring in a blockbuster superhero movie, he’s on a strict filming schedule, which does not include coming out as gay. But when Patrick meets Will – a local bookseller and drag performer, whose charm is impossible to resist – the temptation for a secret romance has never felt stronger. NEW YORK, 1949. Comic-book artists Charles and Iris aren’t like other married couples. They too are harbouring secrets of a dangerous nature. But together, they are creating a new kind of hero – one who is destined to bring Patrick and Will together… and might just change the world.
Spoilt Creatures: An Observer Best Debut of 2024 - 'compelling, cultish and utterly feral' Alice Slater
by Amy TwiggAn Observer top ten best new novelist for 2024'A simmering debut, heady with the possibilities of language and the righteousness of female rage' Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies'Lush and dreamlike - a sweltering novel, where the sunlight pulses with nightmarish dread'Colin Walsh, author of Kala'This lusciously verdant novel is rich in grit and dirt, in sensuality and oblivion'Lara Williams, author of Supper Club'A modern-day Dionysian cult of women in the woods - haunting and exhilarating'Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne'Emma Cline's The Girls meets Lord of the Flies . . . compelling, cultish and utterly feral'Alice Slater, author of Death of a Bookseller______They thought they knew everything about us. The kind of women we were.Iris is adrift when she meets the beguiling Hazel, who lives on a women's commune. As she is drawn into commune life, Iris is soon seduced by the possibility of a new start away from a world of men who have only let her down. At Breach House the women are free to live and eat abundantly, to be loud and dirty, all whilst under the leadership of their gargantuan matriarch, Blythe.But is Breach House truly the haven it seems? And just how much can Iris trust her new family? When an unforgivable transgression threatens the commune's existence, Iris and the other women find themselves hurtling towards an act of devastating violence.Fierce and unapologetic, Spoilt Creatures is an intoxicating debut that pulls back the skin of the patriarchy and examines the female rage that lies beneath.
A Fairy Called Fred
by Robert TregoningFred the fairy works at a Wish-Granting Plant – and when he's finally given his very first wish to grant, he wants to get it right!Josh only has one wish. He's been invited to a princess party . . . and he needs a dress to wear! With time ticking and the party approaching, it's up to Fred to conjure up the PERFECT outfit, and make sure that Josh is the very best-dressed princess. Can Fred make this little boy's wish come true, and prove himself in the process?A Fairy Called Fred is a funny, joyful Cinderella story that celebrates the courage it takes to be yourself and to do something for the very first time. From the creators of the much-loved picture book Out of the Blue, it's perfect for fans of Grandad's Camper and Julian Is a Mermaid.
The Bump
by null Sidney Karger'Sid Karger has done it again, with this beautifully-written and timely story that resonates in a universal way. The Bump is a smart, deeply funny and heartwarming novel that perfectly captures modern parenthood, family and love. What a joy to read' ANDERSON COOPER Wyatt and Biz are freaking out. Their surrogate is ready to pop and their life as care-free New Yorkers is nearly over. So as a last hurrah, and to get their relationship back on track before the baby arrives, the soon-to-be-daddies embark on a road trip across America to pick up their bundle of joy. But when several unexpected detours cause long-buried secrets to spill, old wounds are reopened and the couple are forced to reexamine the meaning of family. After all, what’s a road trip without a few bumps along the way? 'Tender and humorous … Fans of Best Men will welcome this follow-up' STEVEN ROWLEY Karger makes it easy to empathize with his heroes, bringing impressive emotional depth to their relationship. The twisty road trip plus cameos from Biz’s large, boisterous family add plenty of fun. Readers will root for Biz and Wyatt to make it work' Publishers Weekly 'A touching adventure full of laughs, tender moments, and a ton of not-so-baby bumps in the road' Kirkus
The Big Ask
by null Simon James GreenAlfie Parker has bagged the hottest date to prom … hasn’t he? Bestselling LGBTQ+ writer Simon James Green makes his Barrington Stoke debut with a life-affirming teen romance. Harvey is popular, cool, plays football and has been in a relationship with his girlfriend Summer for as long as anyone can remember. Alfie is not popular, not cool, has a sick note so he doesn’t have to play any sport, and has been in a relationship with his Xbox since forever. So when Summer dramatically dumps Harvey just a few days before the school prom, no one is expecting Alfie to ask Harvey to be his date. Least of all Alfie. But sometimes amazing things can happen when you take a chance …
Lifting Off: A Life in Freefall
by Karen McLeodAn absorbing and often hilarious account of the author's 12 years as closeted cabin crew for British Airways. It's a story of love, creativity and acceptance, the transformative power of lesbian love and more. Told with the wit and verve that characterised her debut novel, Karen's memoir of flying as cabin crew offers a fascinating insight into the profound impact of long-haul life. Having come out as a lesbian she is forced to go back in as colleagues advise her that it is not ok to be gay, unlike male cabin crew. Brimming with vertiginous loops and extreme globe-trotting, against a backdrop of exotic locations, hotel bars and nightclubs, Karen slowly unravels as the inability to truly be herself reverberates. This is the story of how Karen finally came into land. How she learned to look after herself and discovered her true strength.
Lord of the Empty Isles: One curse. Two sworn enemies. Thousands of lives in the balance.
by Jules ArbeauxWinter's Orbit meets The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet in this stunning emotional yet action-packed adult science-fiction novel, perfect for fans of found family and queer-platonic relationships.One curse. Two sworn enemies. Thousands of lives in the balance. Five years ago, interstellar pirate Idrian Delaciel ordered a withering - a death curse - cast on Remy's brother, costing him his life. Now, Remy is ready to return the favour. Only when he casts the withering, it also rebounds onto him. The implications are unthinkable - that Remy is fatebound to his brother's killer. The only way to slow the curse is to close the distance between them, so Remy infiltrates Idrian's criminal crew, hiding his identity as the witherer. But Remy quickly learns that Idrian is the sole provider of life-saving supplies to thousands of innocents. And if he dies, they will perish with him. With more at stake now than just revenge, Remy must find a way to break the curse. Too bad for him - the only way to stop a withering is to kill the witherer. READERS LOVE LORD OF THE EMPTY ISLES 'Oh gods did I love it . . . a heartwarming, eye tearing story of a found family' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Wow! Jules Arbeaux has crafted a masterpiece with this book' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'A beautiful story . . . Probably my favourite book of the year so far!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'A magnificent debut, characterized by a heartwarming story, incredible characters, and a spectacular found family!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'This was one of those books that was addicting . . . It was fast-paced and tense and I was hooked almost immediately. It was incredibly emotional and I was on tenterhooks throughout' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Gender Theory: 'A blazing new voice in Scottish fiction'
by Madeline Docherty'An incredible debut from a blazing new voice in Scottish fiction' Image'Beautifully captures the pain of growing into yourself, and the intensity of all-consuming female friendship' ROSE WILDING'I inhaled Gender Theory in one intoxicating sitting . . . a powerful and necessary novel' RACHEL DAWSONYou lose your virginity to a boy from your gender theory seminar, and the first person you tell is Ella.Ella's with you at the party when you first kiss a girl. And Ella takes you to the hospital the first time you're diagnosed. Over the next few years you have a string of relationships and jobs, but you can always count on Ella to be there for you - until the drinking and the parties, the hospital visits and late-night calls, blur the lines of your friendship into something unbalanced and fragile, at risk of breaking altogether.The worst part is you can see it coming. The worst part is you don't know how to stop.Gender Theory is an incisive, affecting debut about illness, identity and how we care for those around us.
In Search of the Missing Eyelash
by Karen McLeod'Both comic and moving as it explores ideas of self, of gender, identification and loneliness'. Observer. First published in 2008 by Vintage this Betty Trask Award winning novel; a humorous LGBTQI+ coming of age story, is available for the first time in 17 years. Lizzie is lonely. Her parents have gone and her brother, who believes he is a woman, is missing. Most of all, though, Lizzie misses Sally, her former lover, who has gone off with a man with a fat neck. She starts to stalk Sally, collecting bathroom fluff, dust and pubes from Sally's bed – all the things that prove that somewhere life is taking place without her.
Them!
by Harry Josephine GilesThem! by Harry Josephine Giles is a challenging and subversive collection of poems about trans life as it is lived today, through the lenses of work, technology and ecology.Witty, candid, furious, and always compelling, Them! negotiates the fraught and fruitful space between the worlds of ‘online’ and the ‘outside’, and how they fuse and diverge in the imagination.Giles’ visual poetics create an unusually dynamic reading experience as she finds new ways ‘to sing, shout and strike in the cracks of what’s possible’. At a time when trans rights are to the fore in public discourse, Them! is a zestful poetic intervention from one of this generation’s most necessary poets.
Now, Conjurers Freddie Kölsch
by null Freddie KölschA heart-breaking, LGBTQ dark romance for young adults, with star-crossed lovers – perfect for fans of V.E.Schwab and 90s cult-classic The Craft. November 1999, North Dana, Massachusetts. The body of Bastion Attia – high school quarterback, secret witch, and Nesbit Nuñez’s even-more-secret boyfriend – is discovered at the edge of Stepwood Cemetery. As Nesbit and his coven of queer misfits investigate Bastion’s death they discover local folktales of Mr. Nous, a terrifying wish-granting creature, one whose gifts come at a terrible price.The coven must do battle against an age-old evil before it strikes again … Now, Conjurers is a wildly original, spinechilling YA debut about queer found family and a love that outlasts death. ‘This book is charm itself … smart, edgy, funny and heartfelt.’ – Tamsyn Muir – bestselling author of Gideon the Ninth
Nothing Ever Just Disappears: Seven Hidden Histories
by Diarmuid Hester'With originality and subtlety, Diarmuid Hester examines how the gay imagination deals with place and with displacement, allowing for mystery and a kind of magic' Colm Toibin'Hester is a fizzingly brilliant writer' Robert Macfarlane'Haunted and haunting - totally riveting' Chris KrausAt the turn of the century, in the shade of Cambridge's cloisters, a young E. M. Forster conceals his passion for other men, even as he daydreams about the sun-warmed bodies of ancient Greece. Under the dazzling lights of interwar Paris, Josephine Baker dances her way to fame and fortune and discovers sexual freedom backstage at the Folies Bergère. And on Jersey, in the darkest days of Nazi occupation, the transgressive surrealist Claude Cahun mounts an extraordinary resistance to save the island she loves, scattering hundreds of dissident artworks along its streets and shorelines.Nothing Ever Just Disappears brings to life the stories of seven remarkable figures and illuminates the connections between where they lived, who they loved, and the art they created. It shows that a queer sense of place is central to the history of the twentieth century, and powerfully evokes how much is lost when queer spaces are forgotten. From the lesbian London of the suffragettes to James Baldwin's home in Provence, to Jack Smith's New York, Kevin Killian's San Francisco and the Dungeness cottage of Derek Jarman, this is a thrilling new history and a celebration of freedom, survival and the hidden places of the imagination.
Women
by null Chloe Caldwell‘A beautiful read / a perfect primer for an explosive lesbian affair / an essential truth’ LENA DUNHAM The cult-classic novella that intimately explores one young writer’s whirlwind and whiplash affair as she falls deeply in love with a woman for the first time. One of Cosmopolitan UK's Best Erotic Novels of All Time ‘I have meditated repeatedly on what it was about Finn that had me so dismantled.' A young woman moves from the countryside to the city. Inexplicably, inexorably and immediately, she falls in love with another woman for the first time in her life. Finn is nineteen years older than her, wears men’s clothes, has a cocky smirk of a smile – and a long-term girlfriend. With precision, wit and tenderness, Women charts the frenzy and the fall out of love. 'You'll devour it in one sitting' VOGUE 'Her prose has a reckless beauty that feels to me like magic' CHERYL STRAYED 'A contemporary classic of queer women's writing' MICHELLE TEA
Mrs S
by null K PatrickAn Observer Best Debut of the Year A Granta Best Young British Novelist ‘I loved this book’ JULIA ARMFIELD ‘Exhilarating’ MONICA HEISEY 'Astonishing' ANDREA LAWLOR 'Should be on everyone's summer reading list' iNEWS A powerful, sensual novel of the forbidden love between a young woman and the headmaster’s wife, unfolding across a single a heatwave summer. In an elite English boarding school where the girls kiss the marble statue of the famous dead author who used to walk the halls, a young Australian woman arrives to take up the antiquated role of ‘matron’. There she meets Mrs S, the headmaster’s wife, a woman who is her polar opposite: assured, sophisticated, a paragon of femininity. Over the course of a long, restless heatwave, the matron finds herself irresistibly drawn ever closer into the older woman’s world with their unspoken desire blooming into an illicit affair of electric intensity. But, as the summer begins to fade, both know that a choice must finally be made. ‘Atmospheric and daring’ GUARDIAN ‘There’s nothing else like it out there’ THE TIMES ‘Desire crackles through these pages like fire’ TELEGRAPH ‘Entirely captivating’ NEW YORK TIMES ‘Moody, generous and brilliant’ JESSIE BURTON 'Rare and thrilling' SARAH WINMAN
Corey Fah Does Social Mobility
by Isabel WaidnerSHORTLISTED FOR THE ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARD SCIENCE FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024A radical, joyful novel from Goldsmiths Prize-winning author Isabel WaidnerIn flight from a traumatic rural childhood, Corey Fah has come to earth in a one-bed council flat in the capital. Trapped, with partner Drew, in the limited world which late capitalism has allotted them, they are modestly happy but practically futureless.Until, one day, Corey is offered a life-changing prize from out of the blue. Things are looking up – but as Corey soon finds, it’s one thing winning a prize in life’s lottery, and quite another being able to collect it – especially if you are a queer, working class immigrant with all of History working against you.Corey Fah’s pursuit of the elusive prize – and an escape from precarity – is a whirlwind, epic journey through the streets of the city and the time-loops of the past, written with boundless energy and invention.Social mobility, in this radiant, radical novel, is never a simple step up the ladder, but a hopeful leap into the void.Praise for Corey Fah Does Social Mobility:'A head-spinning, mind-bending roller coaster of fun, horror, and subversion' Kamila Shamsie'A radical, rebellious novel . . . [Waidner] brings a fresh lens to our troubled world' Observer[The] writer everyone is talking about . . . and deservedly so' Bernardine Evaristo'Filled with wickedly sharp commentary and well-aimed digs at hypocrisy and injustice' Times Literary Supplement
Great Queer Provocation: The Seriously Playful Recognition Game (translated from German by Henry Holland) (Queer Studies #43)
by Martin J. GösslQueer cultures are vibrant components of the constantly transforming societies of the 21st century. This is both socially and anthropologically recognizable, as well as individually readable. Categories such as wealth, success, amusement, but also sexuality and beauty have undergone major changes within queer subcultures and have influenced the reality of life for the general public. The entanglements in heteronormative systems and capitalist orders are increasingly putting a queer point of view under pressure, so that the question seems justified: What makes someone or something queer? Martin Gössl reflects on the possibilities of queer recognition in different social contexts.