20 Must-Read Coming Out Stories for National Coming Out Day

This weird tale is about Jeanette, a fictionalized version of Winterson herself. Adopted and raised by a very religious mother, Jeanette is passionately invested in the church and on track to become a missionary. Until one fateful day, when her life’s trajectory shifts as she falls for another girl, one of her converts. Thus begins Jeanette’s attempts to find her own way through the world.

Ijeoma is 11 years old when her father dies, and on top of that emotional loss, she and her mother go from living in an upper-class home to a working-class one. Civil war has broken out in Nigeria, so Ijeoma is sent away by her mother to live somewhere safer. When Ijeoma eventually meets and falls in love with another girl, she has to reckon with that discovery amidst a conservative society. The story continues into Ijeoma’s adulthood, and Okparanta’s dreamy style of writing suits this thoughtful story perfectly.

This is a true story, written and illustrated by Bechdel, the well-known lesbian writer and cartoonist of Dykes to Watch Out For. An out lesbian, she discovered during college that her father was also queer and that he was closeted her whole life. The subtitle “A Family Tragicomic” really sets you up for the rollercoaster of emotions that follow.

Gilda is a 27-year-old atheist and lesbian, totally consumed with death. At a loss with how to spend her time (she can’t keep a job), she seeks mental health support at a church group. Hired unexpectedly by the church, Gilda needs to maintain a ruse that hides her religious (non)beliefs and sexual orientation. Perpetual lying isn’t so easy for the chronically anxious (I speak from experience here), so her awkward behaviour causes further hijinks and shenanigans.

It’s the 1980s, and things are changing: Manhattan is gentrified; the AIDS epidemic has begun; and 25-year-old Phillip has realized that he needs to come out to his parents, Rose and Owen. He and his mother both don’t know that Owen is also gay and has been visiting gay porn theatres weekly for years. Beautifully drawn characters make this a memorable novel that has been a classic since its publication.

Have you ever read Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice? Well, I have, and it definitely seems like it was written by someone pretty darn closeted. Which, as it turns out, is the case. Once Mann’s diaries were found after his death, he was finally found out. Overall, Tóibín weaves an epic story based on Mann’s life, blending fact and fiction to astounding effect.

Baldwin’s classic is so good, set amidst the glamour and squalor of the bohemian bars and nightclubs of 1950s Paris. David is an American living in Paris who has proposed to his girl Friday, Hella. But when she goes away on a trip, David meets Giovanni, a sexy Italian bartender. David and Giovanni’s affair leads to tortured feelings, as David swings between his two lovers until his internalized homophobia results in life-altering violence. And maybe that sounds like a bummer, but holy cannoli, can Baldwin write everything in a way that makes the reader feel like they are there and in it.

Not only does Arjie prefer spending time with girls, but he likes dressing up like them. Because of this, he is considered ‘funny’ by others — not funny haha, obviously, but funny strange. Personal and heartfelt, Arjie’s story is told through interconnected vignettes about his life as he grows up in Sri Lanka during a civil war, learns to accept himself as gay, and eventually immigrates to Canada.

Known as the “Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction,” Bannon introduces Beebo, a butch teen from a Wisconsin town. Poor Beebo was chased away for wearing drag to the State Fair, but she moves to New York and finds support from gay father figure Jack Mann. As with all pulp, the drama is a-plenty and the characters names are ridiculous (Venus Bogardus is a great one).

Noteworthy for being an early example of a book featuring gay characters that got a happy ending, it was published initially by the successful Highsmith under the pseudonym Claire Morgan. It’s an engrossing read, part romance and part thriller, about a young salesgirl who falls passionately in love with a wealthy housewife. This is no mere melodrama; rather, a beautiful and affecting romance of the sort rarely told at the time.

What a difficult book to describe — Babysitter’s Club meets Veronica Mars meets Ghost meets Girl, Interrupted meets Judith Butler? Milks uses a ghost story to examine gender roles, transitioning, and anorexia. Whew. Set in the ’90s, Margaret is an angsty teen detective, still upset by the long-ago dissolution of her Girls Can Solve Anything club. The style jumps all over — preteen Margaret solving crimes with her friends; 17-year-old Margaret struggling with her weight, romantic attractions, and friendships; adult Margaret musing on gender. Overall, this eerie but earnest story brings readers along on a surprising but familiar journey.

This was one of my fave reads of this past summer. It’s the very cute and entirely sad story of two young women in 1950s America, falling in love against the backdrop of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Lily and Kathleen are wonderful and endearing characters, and Lo weaves a beautifully built world around them. The secret lesbian bar scenes made for an original, thrilling setting for this historical fiction romance — it really conjures what it’s like to be in a gay bar for the first time, excited and nervous and hopeful that you are behaving the right way.

An epic love story set in Ireland during the time period leading up to the Easter Rising. Two teen boys, Jim and Doyler, meet and fall in love despite having little in common. While the plot can be cliché in some ways, the book is beautiful and O’Neill is masterful at spinning a yarn while capturing the experiences of falling in love and coming out.