Between the pages

Definition: A word for identities, desires, and ways of living that do not fit neatly inside conventional, heteronormative categories of gender and sexuality. Originally, the English word queer meant “strange,” “odd,” or “not normal.” It also has a long history of being used as a slur against same-sex couples and LGBTQ+ people, before communities gradually reclaimed the word for themselves. There is power in choosing how we define ourselves. In saying: “We’re here. We are queer. Get used to it.” Of course, there are also LGBTQ+ people who do not want to use the word queer, because they are more comfortable with the term LGBTQ+. And that’s okay too. Because this is the important thing about reclaiming a word: it means having the right to decide what a word to us, as the people who hold that identity, rather than letting someone else decide what we should be called.

Reclaiming the word queer does not mean we have to forget that it was once used to hurt us. Quite the opposite. We remember its history, and then we choose what we want to do with it next. That is part of why queer culture is so full of playing with language. A word that was once an insult becomes an identity. A word that was once used to push people out of society becomes a way to build community. Take Queer Nation in New York in the 1990s. The group organized protests against violence toward queer people and fought for greater queer visibility. They used slogans that turned the word queer into a source of power, including: “We’re here. We’re queer. Get used to it.” They also continued organizing gatherings and actions that brought queer people together. This is why the organizers chose to use the term Thai Queer Bookfair: to reclaim the word as a marker of pride, resistance, and community. Because language can be a tool that helps us stay alive. It can also be a way for us to find each other. Queer language has its own culture. Letters, stories, magazines, and queer books can help people connect with queer communities. They create opportunities for queer people to come together, support one another, and help each other survive.

Another important point is that queer books have historically been associated with stories of trauma. There is even a well-known trope called “bury your gays.” When gay or lesbian characters appear in media, they are often killed off, given tragic endings, denied the possibility of love, or simply punished for being queer. As a result, queer literature has often been placed inside a very narrow category: stories about suffering. And of course, this reflects the historical reality of a world where queer people faced discrimination, social stigma, and a lack of equal civil rights. But as queer people in many countries have gained greater recognition and equality as citizens, queer literature has also expanded into more genres. It is no longer limited to coming-out stories, violence, or trauma. Queer literature can be anything. Whatever it wants to be. Every genre has a place in the reading ecosystem, and everyone can read queer literature. You do not have to be queer, or have lived through the same historical period, to read Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin or Orlando by Virginia Woolf. The Frankfurt Queer Book Fair in 2025, for example, presented queer books across a wide range of genres. It creates space for queer literature from different countries and communities, including literature from the Philippines and other cultural backgrounds, adding even more diversity to the literary ecosystem.

In this section, we want to focus on the importance of queer literature written by queer writers, and how queer books have a function beyond simply being publications. In Thailand, we can look back at magazines and publications that documented the identities and lives of gay, trans, and lesbian communities. These publications became records of queer life at different moments in history. Historically, queer people being able to write, publish, and create their own publishing houses or magazines was a big deal. LGBTQ+ stories were often told by mainstream society from an outsider’s perspective, or simply silenced altogether. Creating our own publications meant creating our own culture. It also meant creating an archive of queer history, where communities could find one another through words and printed matter. Publishing, therefore, can do two things at once: Representation + Community. One example is The Ladder, published by the Daughters of Bilitis in the United States. First published in the 1950s, it became one of the important publications for the lesbian community of its time, featuring life experiences, fiction, and community voices. Queer publishing therefore has a function beyond distributing stories. It can gather a community together. It gives people a place to find one another.

We want Thai Queer Bookfair to be a space where people of all genders can come together to celebrate queer existence, while also creating a space for the queer community to find one another. Thai Queer Bookfair aims to bring together different parts of the queer literary ecosystem in one place: writers, readers, publishers, bookstores, translators, illustrators, artists, activists, researchers, educators, organizations, and people working across the publishing and cultural industries. Our goal is help lay the foundation for queer literature to have a lasting place within Thailand’s reading culture. Building this kind of culture cannot be done by one festival alone. It should not be the responsibility of the queer community alone either. That is why long-term development requires collaboration across different sectors. The festival is therefore a starting point for an ecosystem. We are here to bring communities together, create visibility for queer literature, build relationships across the publishing ecosystem, and lay the foundation for a queer reading culture that can continue to grow in the long term. We want this festival to be a place where people of all genders can come together, read together, buy books together, talk, connect, and have a good time. Because ultimately, we do not only want to ask: “Where are the queer books?” but rather “When’s the next queer festival going to be?”

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