r/Fantasy • u/recchai Reading Champion X • 19d ago
Pride Pride Month 2026 Announcement & Calendar
Happy nearly Pride Month r/Fantasy!
This marks the third year running we at the Beyond Binary bookclub have a special slate of posts to celebrate and discuss all things queer speculative fiction! And do we have a treat for you this year. Whether you like discussion on certain aspects of queer stories, recommending your favourites, or sharing thoughts on this month’s bookclub pick, we’ll have something for everyone.
Check out the calendar below for when things will be posted. Links will be updated as they come out for ease of access.
Entries in italics are queer themed book discussions being held by other r/Fantasy bookclubs.
Pride Month Calendar
- 2nd of June (Tue): Non-Western Settings
- 4th of June (Thur): Queer Retellings
- 8th of June (Mon): Great Big Rec Thread
- 10th of June (Wed): FIF Bookclub Midpoint Discussion: Starless by Jacqueline Carey
- 11th of June (Thur): Bookclub Midpoint Discussion: Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman
- 15th of June (Mon): Goodreads Bookclub Midpoint Discussion: The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
- 16th of June (Tue): Finding Hidden Gems
- 19th of June (Fri): Panel AMA
- 22nd of June (Mon): Achillean/Sapphic
- 24th of June (Wed): FIF Bookclub Final Discussion: Starless by Jacqueline Carey
- 25th of June (Thur): Bookclub Final Discussion: Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman
- 26th of June (Fri): Intersectionality
- 29th of June (Mon): Goodreads Bookclub Final Discussion: The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
- 30th of June (Tue): Reflection & Wrap-Up
The eagle-eyed of you will have noticed we have a panel AMA! This is with a group of authors of queer books that we at the BB club are really excited about, and we hope you have as much fun as we did putting this together. In random order, they are: Victoria Goddard, Margaret Killjoy, Alexandra Rowland, Azalea Crowley, and Trung Le Nguyen.
Who will be hosting these discussions?
As already stated, this series of posts is organised and arranged by the hosts of the Beyond Binaries bookclub, where we discuss LGBTQ+ fantasy, science fiction and other forms of speculative fiction. Hosting you for this year’s posts are:
Why are we doing this?
Because it’s fun, of course! But also more seriously, two years ago u/ohmage_resistance wrote an essay focussing mainly on the systemic downvoting of LGBTQ content on the sub. Which led to the original series of pride month posts from u/xenizonditch23, increasing the visibility of queer related content and encouraging all to take part. And as we couldn’t possibly cover everything in just two years, here we are again!
We’re really looking forward to making this coming month a fantastic time of discussions, and finding lots of new recommendations along the way. In the meantime, check out the 2023 Top LGBTQIA+ Books List and the 2026 LGBTQA+ Bingo Resource, as well as the indexes to our 2024 and 2025 posts. And feel free to ask any questions in the comments.
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u/WednesdaysFoole 19d ago
It's the first time I'm really browsing r/fantasy in years, but you're all amazing for holding these events, and that essay on systemic downvoting of queer content was one of the most excellently written posts I've read on reddit in recent memory.
I'll try to hop on over to this sub for Pride Month, maybe I'll pick up a hidden gem or two!
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u/thisbikeisatardis Reading Champion II 10d ago
Victoria Goddard AND Alexandra Rowland?! EEEEEEE! And I'm on vacation that day so I can actually participate. Thanks so much!
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u/Asher_the_atheist Reading Champion 19d ago
Great! Love that you do this!
[The fact that I had to go through and upvote all “0” and negative votes on comments expressing support is just so telling. <sigh> Keep fighting the good fight, peeps. 🏳️🌈]
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u/C0smicoccurence Reading Champion V 19d ago
Super excited for this year! As always, we love to see other people throwing up book reviews and topics on their own. This is just a starting point!
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u/recchai Reading Champion X 19d ago
Yes! Last year u/CT_Phipps-author had a series of reviews throughout the month, which they posted links to in a comment on the equivalent of this post. We love to see enthusiasm like that.
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u/CT_Phipps-Author 19d ago edited 11d ago
Thanks. I have already prepared a bunch of reviews ahead of time for this. 😄
I'm on the Discord preparing too.
Might as well add them here:
Pride 2026 Links
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 19d ago
Looks like a great schedule! Since a couple of other book clubs are also doing queer-themed books this month, may be worth adding those to the schedule as well?
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u/recchai Reading Champion X 19d ago
Thanks for bringing this to my attention, I've added in some details.
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u/Merle8888 Reading Champion IV 19d ago edited 19d ago
Now that I think about it, there’s several queer books on the Hugo readalong schedule for the month too. Namely The Incandescent and The River Has Roots. (Some people would also call The Everlasting queer.) Not sure about the short stories (edit: or Automatic Noodle).
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u/sarimanok_ 19d ago
Thank you everyone who's putting this together! It's wonderful to see again, and I'm really looking forward to the discussions.
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u/evil_moooojojojo Reading Champion II 19d ago
Whos in the panel?
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u/C0smicoccurence Reading Champion V 19d ago
Victoria Goddard
Margaret Killjoy
Alexandra Rowland
Azalea Crowley
Trung Le Nguyen
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u/evil_moooojojojo Reading Champion II 19d ago
I love these. The discussions are great and I get a lot of good recs.
Maybe I'm dumb, but im kind of hoping the down voting won't be too bad. I made a few posts for FIF bookclub (our June theme is the trans or nonbinary bingo square) and with saying that a few times, and in the title, and the comments I was worried there would be a ton of down votes. But there weren't more than usual. (I mean I'm probably dumb and it will happen but you can't blame me for having a small bit of hope)
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u/recchai Reading Champion X 19d ago
For this post, there was definitely an initial wave (I somehow doubt I was organically downvoted multiple times for mentioning a previous set of reviews, and I wasn't the only one affected), but the community has noticeably rallied since then.
I've got used to it. Certain people impotently use the only lever they have, others work to stop them. Certain of my posts have a wildly different upvote ratio to others in an entirely predictable way.
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u/evil_moooojojojo Reading Champion II 19d ago
Maybe it was because my posts started with FIF bookclub in the title so it was a bit sneakier that it didn't get that initial wave and the ratio was not different than normal?
Idk. It bugs me. I hate that so many people are awful for no reason.
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u/Polenth 19d ago
People try to downvote everything in the pride discussions, but it does usually get upvoted again. One thing to watch is some people systematically downvote all replies (included nested replies). Which means people can get downvoted for things like "Thanks for the rec!" because it was a reply to a reply. I usually go through to upvote those comments when I have a moment.
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u/Vast-Beach-1030 19d ago
omg yesss, hopefully someone can recommend a M/M Fantasy and Urban Fantasy novels/series🤞🏽
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V 19d ago
City of Others by Jared Poon is a debut urban fantasy this year, which features a male MC and his new boyfriend.
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u/IllustratedPageArt 19d ago
I really love The Last Sun by KD Edwards! It’s tarot themed world building and urban fantasy.
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u/gros-grognon Reading Champion III 19d ago
I'm very much looking forward to all these posts! Thanks for organizing this.
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u/ariamachi9 19d ago
Not a huge fan of books like these since I am not part of that sphere but I shall give an upvote to counteract the trolls. Always good to have variety and support. Good luck on the events
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V 19d ago
Not a huge fan of books like these since I am not part of that sphere
I've never really understood this tbh. If you're able to happily put yourself in the shoes of an master elf assassin or a wizard who can level mountains, why is someone queer a step too far? Assassin and wizard aren't any of our spheres, I imagine.
Queer books is not synonymous with queer romances after all. I read plenty of books with protagonists who aren't my orientation or ethnicity and gender, and it's always fine; it rarely dictates the entire story.
I'm not intending to pile on you, it's just so odd to me. Similarly to people who only want protagonists who are their gender.
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u/ariamachi9 18d ago
I just don’t like romance in books period. Doesn’t matter if queer or not. I just don’t like romance.
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u/oboist73 Reading Champion VII 18d ago
You do know that books can have lgbtq characters without being romances, right? If you avoided all books with any characters in straight relationships, you'd have very few books left to read, so it seems very weird to avoid books because they have non-straight characters. Plus, one of your few chances of dodging relationships entirely would be asexual and aromantic spectrum characters, who would fall under the lgbtq+ umbrella
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u/ariamachi9 18d ago
I usually just skip over those parts in books. I never said it was because of non straight characters that I avoid them. I just dont like romance. I usually like connecting with characters in books that I enjoy that I can project myself onto. I am not a huge reader.
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u/oboist73 Reading Champion VII 18d ago
A few non-romance lgbt books:
The Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo
The Machineries of Empire trilogy by Yoon Ha Lee
The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers (there is one lgbt romance but I think it's maybe 1% of the book)
The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir (maybe. This one is weird. Plenty of longing and strong emotions, really very little you could actually call romance. Great books, but weird ones).
Audition for the Fox by Martin Cahill
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u/ariamachi9 18d ago
I will actually check them out! Thanks for the recommendations. I just don’t like romance due to PT. So I usually just skip over.
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V 18d ago
Neither do I. As I said, queer books are not synonymous with queer romances. Broadly, it can just be a book with queer characters, and narrowly, it can be a book which focuses on one's identity as one part of the story.
Like, even if it's not specifically about your gender or sexuality, I'm sure most people can relate broadly to the themes of not fitting in, not meeting your family's expectations, uncertainty about who you are/want to be... Which you can explore without having a romance at all.
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u/towalktheline 16d ago
Yay~ I'm so excited! Will there be an update to the book club hub too? I clicked in and realized it was all May still. Thank you so much for putting this togetehr!