In November 2024, PEN America released its key findings from over ten thousand documented cases of book bans that occurred in the 2023–2024 school year: Thirty-nine percent of reported books included LGBTQ+ content. Concurrently, the United States saw a surge in anti-trans legislation, a trend that continues into 2025. According to the independent research organization Trans Legislation Tracker, at the time of this writing, there are 700 active bills across forty-nine states that would gravely impact the lives of trans people; thirty-two have passed so far. And the current Trump administration has been openly hostile in its stance toward the community: removing content related to LGBTQ+ identity as well as HIV from the White House and CDC websites, erasing nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ federal employees, and threatening essential funding to institutions that promote “gender ideology,” including organizations applying for grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and hospitals offering gender-affirming care for trans youth. It is in this climate that queer authors persevere—not only writing and publishing novels, stories, essays, and poems, but also turning toward the broader community and capturing the wide array of experience and possibility in queer humanity. {read}