Great LGBTQ+ Speeches

Great speeches that deserve to be known. There is still a lot of work to get done. Thankfully, we have improved quite a lot since some of the speeches. But we have to keep fighting to improve and not return to the dark times.

A lovely and informative book to dip in and out of, which teaches a lot about LGBT+ history in an accessible and engaging way.

I’m so grateful that I got to read this text. I really enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to making some videos for my TIkTok and other social media channels to recommend it to my friends and followers. It was an excellent read! 5/5 stars. I’m going to write a longer and more detailed review on my Goodreads and TikTok and I will link back once I’ve posted.

This is a wonderful compilation of speeches by LGBTQIA folks an allies. The speeches included are by people from all over the world with different backgrounds and identities and it makes a beautiful and moving collection. Also, I received an e-arc of this book BUT the graphics and photos are incredible. I cannot wait to see a physical copy!

I received an advanced reader copy of Great LGBTQ+ Speeches: Empowering Voices That Engage And Inspire by Tea Uglow in exchange for an honest review.

As a self-proclaimed queer and drag historian, I love any opportunity to learn about queer history. When I saw Great LGBTQ+ Speeches on NetGalley two thoughts went through my mind: 1) that cover is spectacular, one that I would love to have on my shelves, and 2) this is exactly the kind of book I would love to read.

Great LGBTQ+ Speeches is a collection of abridged speeches on queer subjects. Each speech is preceded by a short bio of the speaker, as well as a gorgeous stylized photo. I loved the creative ways these greyscale photographs were filled with bursts of color. The formatting of this book is magnificent. It had me as interested in it visually as in its content.

I was thrilled to see that my favorite queer speech in history, Sylvia Rivera’s “Y’all Better Quiet Down,” was featured in this collection. It also had a powerful speech by gay Black poet Essex Hemphill, critiquing the white gay community’s fetishization of the gay Black man. Reading that speech motivated me to look up more of his work. Another quote I loved was from Vito Russo, who said, “living with AIDS is like living through a war which is happening only for those people who happen to be in the trenches.” The majority of figures and speeches in this collection were new to me, so I learned quite a lot from it!

One thing that felt a little strange to me was the presence of non-queer allies like Obama and Hilary being included in this collection. I recognize that the speeches they gave were momentous for mainstream discourse around queer people, but they themselves are not part of the community. Last few pages listed mini biographies of other historic queer figures who didn’t receive a full spread in the book. I really appreciated this section, but I also think a handful of these icons could have been featured in place of ally speeches.

Tea Uglow’s Great LGBTQ+ Speeches is an excellent, informative, and beautiful book, and one I would definitely recommend. Thank you NetGalley, Quarto Publishing Group, and White Lion Publishing for the advanced reader copy.