Graphic Medicine
Information on the use of the comics medium to explore issues in healthcare.
LGBTQIA+
Books in the Health Sciences Library
Be Gay, Do Comics by Filled with dozens of comics about LGBTQIA+ experiences, ranging from personal stories to queer history to cutting satire about pronoun panic and brands desperate to co-opt pride
First Year Out by Depicting her experiences from coming out right through to gender reassignment surgery, Lily's story provides vital advice on the social, emotional and medical aspects of transitioning and will empower anyone questioning their gender. *eBook and print* copies available.
Fun Home by A memoir of the author's disjointed and complicated relationship with her closeted homosexual father, her struggle with her own identity, and her eventual coming out in late adolescence. Told through an alternately heart-breaking and funny narrative.
Gender: a Graphic Guide by Examines our shifting understandings of gender: from ideas about masculinity and femininity, to non-binary and transgender people, to intersecting experiences of gender, race, sexuality, class, disability, and more. The authors look to the past and future to explore how we might all approach gender in more caring and celebratory ways.
*eBook and print* copies available.
Gender Queer: a Memoir by Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is a useful guide on gender identity--what it means and how to think about it.
How to They/ThemWhat does nonbinary really mean? What is gender nonconforming? And isn't they a plural pronoun? A they-using genderqueer writer unpacks all your questions in a fun, visual way.
Queer As All Get Out by Featuring biographies of Mary Jones, We'wha, Magnus Hirschfeld, Dr. Pauli Murray, Wilmer 'Little Axe' M. Broadnax, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Carlett Brown, Nancy Cardenas, Ifti Nasim, and Simon Nkoli
A Quick and Easy Guide to They/Them PronounsA short comic guide that explains what pronouns are, why they matter, and how to use them
The Times I Knew I Was Gay by This memoir reminds us that people sometimes come out not just once but again and again; that identity is not necessarily about falling in love with others, but about coming to terms with oneself
Webcomics
- Am I Queer Enough?Who gets to call themselves “queer” and why?
- BindersAn educational comic about chest binders, what they do, who wears them, and the health risks associated with them
- Comfort Levels: The Story of My Medical TransitionArtist B Hayward reflects on her trials and tribulations navigating a health-care system that is only now becoming trans-aware.
- Great Moments in Pride HistoryShort comic that celebrates the major milestones in LGBTQ+ history
- MelahomosA transgender patient with facial cancer has to navigate through the realities of microaggressions, transphobia in medicine, and a social and medical framework that blames patients for their disease, common with melanomas.
- Out of the BoxThe author documents the experience of their first doctor’s appointment as an openly trans person.
- Queer in Common CountryCenters on the stories of queer and trans disabled people with cancer. Explores their experiences navigating the often insensitive medical-industrial complex.
- Trans Kids Need Room to GrowTrans kids responses to news and legislation that wants to erase their legitimacy and ability to access care
- Wedges: Stories as Simple MachinesThis piece of comics-based research (CBR) details the use of arts-based methods in ongoing research with young transgender or otherwise gender diverse children
- What's Normal Anyway?A comic series about being trans male
- Vaccinated at the ball: A true story about trusted messengersA comics journalist tells the story of an effort to increase COVID vaccination rates in Chicago's House Ball community. Addresses the intersections of race, gender, and health. Also discusses the history of and reasons for distrust of the medical system among many members of the Black community
Additional Resources
- Decolonizing Gender: A Curriculum (zine)How did the whole world "get" two genders? The answer has more to do with colonialism and white supremacy than you might think.
- Guidelines for the Primary and Gender-Affirming Care of Transgender and Gender Nonbinary PeopleFrom the UCSF Gender Affirming Health Program
- Queer Comics DatabaseProvides access to comics that contain queer representation.
- Rewriting the Rules - ZinesFree, downloadable zines on gender, including Gender Zine, Mapping Your Sexuality, and Queer Relationships (among many others).
- Trans Student Educational ResourcesTSER’s trans-related infographic series. Topics include Gender pronouns, gender grammar, allyship, and the interactive gender unicorn
- The Trevor ProjectResources to support LGBTQ+ youth
- A beginner's guide to being an ally to trans peopleArchived copy of content from GLAAD.org