This publisher is releasing these LGBT+ books for free
Have you been suppressing the urge to delve into Alan Turing’s life, polyamory or what animals are known to be gay?
Never fear, there’s a range of free queer reads that are shaping theory today.
To celebrate UK Pride Month, one esteemed publisher will be offering a series of journals, books and excerpts on the most groundbreaking queer theory the world has.
Some of the selections available
Books and journals, such as In Defense Of Plural Marriage, Alan M Turing and Animal Sexuality can be read from Cambridge University’s Press’ archive.
One of the academics, Professor Susan Golombok, has documented the changing battle to redefine the family in her work Modern Families: Parents and children in new family forms.
“The magazine I read had an article about lesbian mothers losing custody of their children when they divorced,” the professor said.
Comedian Rhona Cameron and political activist Peter Tatchell help to hold a banner at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride event, London, 4th July 1998. The banner calls for an end to Section 28 which refers to the teaching and promotion of homosexuality by local authorities. (Photo by Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The custody cases, which the mothers always lost, were really based on prejudice and assumption rather than any concrete data. Judges didn’t have any evidence so they tended to go for more traditional families and the fathers would often have remarried.
“The article asked for someone to volunteer to study the effects of growing up with lesbian mothers on children’s development. I was writing a masters on child development at the time. It brought together my interest in feminism and child development, so I volunteered to do the research in the UK, which turned out to be one of the first such studies in the world.”
A very nice library (Getty)
Golombok is pleased that queer readers will have a chance to read these works today.
Professor Golombok said: “Having so much freely available for Pride Month is a very positive thing for all of the authors who are working on LGBT+ issues. It’s great that Cambridge University Press is promoting our work.”
The books and journals will be available here throughout July.
