Queer Science Fiction Teaches Us How to Dream of Something Better

Stories where the world falls apart, and stories where we build it back even better

Earlier this month I hosted an event on queer science fiction and what it has to teach us about survival and thriving and it was so much fun. I had such a great time, and I got to recommend so many of my favorite books that I figured I would turn it into an article for you all because this is my soapbox, and you all seem to really like it when I nerd out. So let’s freaking do it!!

(I know there’s a lot more news stuff that needs reporting on this week, and I promise that will come in a day or two once I have more time to sit down and write, but I was eager to get this piece out into the world!)

It turns out I have A LOT to say about queer science fiction, so I’m going to be breaking this up into a series (assuming there’s interest!)

Once I start talking or writing or even just thinking about books, I immediately feel my blood pressure cool. This also applies to the magical companion playlists for many of my favorite science fiction stories. If you want to increase the calming sci fi magic while you read this article, check out the playlist for Monk and Robot, my favorite series of all time.

So, why science fiction?

I tell people that I read all the time, and sometimes they assume that I only read nonfiction because they’re like, “oh, you know a lot about these things. It must be from all reading nonfiction”. And I do absolutely love a good nonfiction, but the bulk of my reading time is usually spent with what’s called speculative fiction, the combination of science fiction and fantasy. This talk was about science fiction in particular (don’t worry, there will be a follow up queer fantasy list one of these days), which I absolutely love for a variety of reasons.

People who think science fiction is pure escapism with no connection to our current world make me laugh. It has everything to do with it. At its core, science fiction allows us to take our problems and put them into fictional situations with aliens and spaceships and all this crazy stuff so that we can dream up better solutions without someone immediately saying, well, here’s why that wouldn’t work. No one’s going to debate me on realism when my book is about a bunch of aliens deciding how to become friends. It allows us to brainstorm totally radically different ways of being, of relating to each other, and I think that’s awesome. Then once we’re thoroughly inspired, we can start to brainstorm how to bring these big ideas into the real world.

Why the focus on Queer Sci-fi?

I love science fiction, and I love queer science fiction in particular because even when I need an escape from the problems of my day to day life, I don’t need to escape from my transness. My transness isn’t a problem. It’s the rest of the world that I’m trying to leave behind. Now I’m not someone who’s loved queer science fiction my entire life because I’m not someone who’s *known about* queer science fiction my entire life. But in 2020, I was gifted by my family a private browsing session at my local bookstore, Left Bank Books in Saint Louis, and everything changed.

2020 Ben in his favorite nerd outfit: a Captain America christmas sweater, ready to have his mind blown

I went in for my browsing appointment, and I looked around for a little while. I had just started getting back into reading and wasn’t sure what would reignite that childhood book devouring that had defined my young life. Nervously, I went to the front desk and said,

“Hey. I know this might be a little weird, and it’s totally fine if not. But I was just curious. Are there any science fiction or fantasy books that have trans protagonists? And and it’s okay if that doesn’t exist. You know? I don’t even know if that’s a real thing.”

The person there started to laugh and I was like, oh, shit. Other shoes are dropping.

And as she started to laugh, she said, “buddy, everyone who works here is trans.” And all of a sudden, two other people come out from the back of the store, and the next thing I know, they’ve shepherded me downstairs to the science fiction and fantasy section. They’ve plopped me down in a chair and are now running around the store collecting all of their favorite queer and trans books for me, and it was magical. There was so much possibility being formed in that moment. They gave me more books than I could possibly afford, and I certainly didn’t buy all of them. But I did buy more than I could afford. Sooo worth it.

They were so absolutely over the moon at the opportunity they had to show me these incredible stories. I went home and immediately read those books, I fell into the arms of Sarah Gailey and Becky Chambers and NK Jemisin, and pretty much everything changed. From there, I was all in on queer science fiction and fantasies.

There is nowhere I feel more at peace than buried in the labyrinth of a bookstore, like I had the good fortune of doing yesterday

These books and countless others brought me tremendous joy, tremendous peace, tremendous inspiration as a movement leader, and a vision of myself as an author with books that local booksellers can’t wait to hand to someone wondering if there are any stories about people like us.

If you take nothing else away from this article, by the way, I hope you internalize that independent bookstores are a gem, and change and save lives in very real ways, and librarians and booksellers are the closest things we have to superheroes. If you read this newsletter and are a bookseller or librarian, you are basically a celebrity to me. If you want to order any of the books I’m going to recommend in part two of this newsletter, I hope you’ll order them from Left Bank Books in St. Louis or go pick it up from your own neighborhood indie bookstore!

The Role of Queer Sci-Fi in the Movement

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that when I talk about joy in our social movements, I like to break it down into three categories: joyful imagination, joyful invitation, and joyful continuation. Essentially, our ability to dream of a radically better future, our ability to invite as many other people as possible to build and join that world with us, and our ability to make sure that as many people as possible survive to that point rather than building a movement built on burnout and martyrdom. I’m excited to talk about queer sci fi through all three of those lenses!

As is the case with most of my high-effort, low-urgency newsletters like this one, it’s going to start out as a paid newsletter and then become free after 30 days. As a reminder, you can get a free upgrade to paid by leaving a review of my book and sending me a screenshot, referring this newsletter to friends who sign up through the link you send them, or by literally just asking me. I’m not a hardcore businessman, I’m just trying to pay my bills like the rest of us and allow people to support my work if they have the desire and ability to. Not having disposable income shouldn’t prevent you from accessing a resource you think might bring you joy. Just ask, and I’ll comp you as soon as I can! 🙂