This novel follows the coming-of-age story of a young gay man during a dictatorship. Balancing the troubles of big-picture politics and intrapersonal anxieties, this memoir is filled with vignettes, poetry, flash fiction, and other fun literary forms that all-in-all create a fun and touching read.

A follow-up to his successful poetry collection, The Queen Sings the Blues, Baytan explores what it is to be a homosexual man in today’s world, especially in a Chinese-Filipino family. Exploring the meaning (and experiences) of what it is to be a ‘queen’, this short memoir combines beautiful language with heart-warming stories of discovery and love.

A study on the diasporic experience of men travelling outside the Philippines, Global Divas positions the Filipino gay man against the backdrop of globalization and economic strife. Well-researched and crafted, this book is a must-read for those who want to widen their perspective about the LGBT community’s deeply-seated struggles, locally and abroad.

Perhaps the most quoted book on Philippine gay culture (and all that entails), Garcia’s iconic work criticizes homosexuality and all its sociopolitical trappings through cultural theory and historical research. Perhaps the most academic read in this list, Philippine Gay Culture, is an intelligent work that attempts to explore the philosophical side of being LGBT+ through localising social theories by critics like Eve Sedgwick, Adrienne Rich, Michel Foucault, and much more.

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