This collection is part of my directory of other people's creations on itch.io, Curated Collections of LGBTQIA, where you can find more collections about other topics, and on specific sorts of transgender identities. I personally select and review each creation in them, even if they are different than my own views or experiences as a queer person myself.
Content: Rated G. Except for drug references on page 56.
Medium: Comic book.
Genre and subject: Fiction. Comedy. Furry.
About: As described by the cartoonist,
"This book collects the first year of Rae the Doe comics, chronicling the life and times of Rae the Doe, from meeting her girlfriend Mimi to coming out as trans to unionizing a haunted house. This book has it all: off-beat, wholesome jokes, a cast of loveable characters and lots and lots of puns. With over 200 pages, five never before seen book-exclusive comics, character bios, and a few other bonuses, this book has it all. Wait, I already said that. Ah, it's worth repeating. This book has it all."
Queer themes: Many characters are various colors of queer. The main character is a gay transgender woman who has a bisexual girlfriend.
Vibe: Laugh-out-loud funny.
Content: Rated R.
Medium: A tabletop role-playing game for two (or more) players.
Accessibility: Screen reader friendly.
Length: A 2-3 hour session.
Genre: Comedy.
About: You are a skeleton. As described by the game designers,
"Sometimes when two people meet, sparks fly. Sometimes two of those people meet guarding a sorcerer’s castle, being called to arms on an ancient battlefield, or emerging from a damp and musty crypt. When you met, you were both skeletons. You’re both down to bone. Unfortunately, while you remember puns, you can’t quite remember how to do sex. You’ve been dead for eons, and barely remember what sex is like, let alone how to make it happen. [... This game] is a very silly, surprisingly deep, and safe way to explore sex, consent and gender together."
Vibe: Laugh-out-loud funny.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: A point-and-click adventure computer game.
Genre and subject: Mystery. Comedy. Musical. Film noir. Stop-motion animation.
About: You are a private investigator trying to find a missing person.
Queer themes: Nonbinary protagonist.
Vibe: Delightfully bizarre humor.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: Mini comic. There is a version for reading on screen, and another for printing.
Genre and subject: Comic or picture book.
About: Being lonely and then finding one's community.
Queer themes: Bisexual.
Vibe: Warm and positive.
Content: Rated PG. Swear words.
Medium: Computer game. It runs in your web browser.
Genre and subject: Platformer. Comedy.
About: Inspired by the designer's personal experience! Run and jump to pick up all the estrogen pills that you spilled. With some surprising twists.
Vibe: Humor. Cute.
Content: Rated PG because sometimes there are swear words.
Medium: A random word generator that runs in your web browser.
About: The creator explained in one of the comments,
"Gender has meaning but for me and a lot of others that meaning changes depending on context. In this context specifically it's kind of being thought of as an intimate definition of self, not so much just what literal gender you are or whatever. Although honestly it was just me and some friends having fun thinking of different things that could be somewhat considered a 'gender.'"
Vibe: The sort of queer humor by queer folk that is sort of tongue in cheek while also being sort of all too real and relatable.
Content: Rated PG. Some body horror and gore.
Medium: Illustrated fiction book.
About: A science fiction zine of interviews with mostly queer aliens.
Relevance: Most of their genders and their society's ideas of what constitutes a gender are very different from those in real human society. Still, their personal struggles and anecdotes echo those of the queer folk who we know in real life.
Vibe: Tongue in cheek humor. Fun, silly, weird, and feel-good. Queer positive.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: Computer game. Runs in your browser.
Duration: The game continues for as long as you want to play. It doesn't have an ending. You'll probably see all of it in about ten minutes.
About: You are a government worker. At your desk, you receive paperwork and other items. Put each into an appropriate pneumatic tube.
Queer themes: You have to sort everything into either "male" and "female." What do you do with things that aren't either one? This game uses a satirical scenario to poke fun at the gender binary. The more carried away you get with trying to sort everything in the world into one of two categories, the sillier it gets.
Vibe: Humor.
Content: G.
Medium: Zine.
About: Satirical prose and photography about hormone replacement therapy (HRT) pills, describing them as though they're reviewing the cuisine at a very fancy restaurant.
Vibe: Humor.
Content: Rated R, 18+. These are memoirs, not porn, but they do have explicit sexual content as part of people's life stories.
Medium: A comic book.
About: An anthology of the true life stories of several people, retold in comic book format.
Queer themes: All of these true stories come from queer trans men.
Vibe: Some humor, some of which is about hard experiences too.
Content: Rated PG-13 for sexual humor in dialog, as typical in a comedy movie with that rating. Content warning for needles: this short story is all about getting a shot. The characters describe the shot in detail and their anxieties about it, but it's not shown in images. There's also some dialog about food.
Medium: A computer game that simulates a video chat call with fictional characters. It can run in your web browser. It has voice acting.
Duration: One play through is about ten minutes. You can choose a few different dialog options, but there is only one story-line and ending. (The ending is a loop, it's not glitched.)
Story: You just came home from the pharmacy, and you're anxious about injecting yourself with your medicine. You call up your friends and they talk you through it.
Queer themes: Transgender men taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT, Testosterone) by self-injection. Queer community.
Vibe: The exact feeling of getting cheered on by your best buddies who know when to goof around and when to support you. Anxiety, trans joy, and laughing out loud.
Content: Rated PG because it's all about flirting.
Medium: Tabletop role-playing game. For two partners to play, but it says you can adapt it for more if you're polyamorous.
Story: You and your partner are dragons. Use puns, treasure, and over-the-top sappy flirting to tell each other how much you love each other.
Queer themes: This is based on a comic about a gay dragon couple, so that's what it is by default. ("Bro" doesn't mean a literal brother.) The game says you can adapt it for other genders, if you prefer.
Vibe: goofy, playful, sincere, affectionate, and just celebrating that with no shame.
Content: Rated PG.
Medium: Zine. Full color picture book.
About: A fan-made spin-off of the classic picture book Goodnight Moon. The bunny is a grown-up now, and though his life has changed a lot, he is still fond of the moon.
Queer themes: The bunny is trans masculine and getting top surgery. He says goodbye to what he leaves behind, and thank you to everyone who helped him get there. All profits from the sale of this book will be donated to the top surgery fund of a trans man in the zinester's family.
Vibe: All of the feelings. Innocent and flirty. Silly and serious. Joy and sadness. Dysphoria and euphoria. Gratitude and grief. It's respectful to the source material even while handling topics that it would not have. It has space for complicated feelings without oversimplifying them, while still being essentially very positive.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: Zine. Designed for reading on screen. Collage and poetry.
About: Gay frogs.
Vibe: Some of it is silly and some of it is a heavy mood.
Content: Rated PG.
Medium: A short comic book zine. Black and white. There are separate versions for reading on screen, and for printing and folding. Not screen reader friendly.
About questioning whether you are asexual.
Content: Rated PG.
Medium: A full color book, hand-lettered, with cartoon illustrations. 11 pages, with cover. Not screen reader friendly.
About: Short, easy definitions for some LGBT identity words. The definitions themselves are accurate, it's just that the tone is tongue-in-cheek in response to quarrels that people have had about how to define them.
Queer themes: The queer identities this covers are asexual, aromantic, bisexual, pansexual, lesbian, gay, trans, questioning, and queer.
Vibe: Queer joy. Choosing not to let the haters waste your time.
Content: Rated G.
Medium: Zine. Full color. Designed for reading on screen.
About: An introduction to what bisexuality is. It corrects common misconceptions, points out the perks of being bi, and gives a list of some bisexual men in current events, history, and fiction.
Vibe: Lighthearted, slightly silly humor, and very queer positive!
Content: Rated R. References to sex and drugs.
Medium: Nonfiction. Personal zine. Full color.
About: Anecdotes of a few conversations from the zine author's personal experiences in gay culture.
Content: Rated PG. Suggestive humor.
Medium: A computer game that runs in your browser.
About: Two players each control their character's arms. Try to make them have a normal handshake without accidentally hugging or making out.
Relevance: Each match has a random pair of characters. They can be the same or different genders. The designer submitted this game to Yuri Game Jam 2017.
Vibe: Goofy, silly, second-hand embarrassment, giggly, laugh out loud.
Content: Rated R for references to some sexual topics.
Medium: Full color illustrated zine. Designed for reading on screen.
Genre and subject: Nonfiction. Memoir. Humor.
