Amongst Rising Queerphobia, Tāmaki Makaurau Has a New Queer Book Club

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Written by Caeden Tipler (they/them) | @caedentipler | News Editor

The past year in Aotearoa has been an uncertain time for trans and non-binary communities. The struggle for queer rights once again came to a tipping point. In Aotearoa, this looked like UK activist Posie Parker travelling here to lead a transphobic hate rally. While huge numbers of counter-protestors came to support queer people, Posie Parker still emboldened hate groups, notably from Destiny’s Church. 

Members of Destiny’s Church have gone on to destroy Rainbow Crossings and picket Drag Queen storytimes until they’re too unsafe to go ahead. Coalition Government partner New Zealand First has introduced transphobic bills to parliament. Following these events, there has been an uptick in anti-trans hate online. 

In a similar vein, the United States reached record-high levels of book bans last year. These book bans target LGBTQ+ books in schools and public libraries. They’re driven by the religious-political in largely Republican states, continuing well into this year. They pose a real threat to queer expression and are part of their attempt to undo the last several decades of progress on queer rights.

It was in this environment that Bookish Ceremony, a book club dedicated to queer literature, was formed in Tāmaki Makaurau.  

Bookish Ceremony co-founder Demi Cox had considered the book bans when they conceived the idea for the book club. As a former English student and now bookseller, creating and protecting spaces to enjoy queer writing had been a consideration for Cox, even before Bookish Ceremony was conceived.

“I was in Ireland last year for a booksellers and publishing conference in Cork. At this conference, I attended some really great sessions on diversity, accessibility and inclusion. But also, upon arriving in Ireland, there were protests happening at libraries against the availability of queer books, like Juno Dawson's ‘This Book Will Make You Gay.’

“Arriving in Ireland was the nudge in the direction of starting Bookish Ceremony. I took the opportunity to visit queer pubs (because why not?) and stumbled on a queer book club in Dublin. I thought “a book club, how cool?” Working with books, it never occurred to me that a queer book club could exist. So much of our culture is centred on partying, clubbing, alcohol.. which have their place but not everyone is into that and that’s not always what being queer is about.”

The book club is hosted at Electric Ceremony and Spooky Ceremony, a queer-owned tattoo studio and barber. Cox chose the location as it’s a “place that affirms the existence of queer people” and prioritises accessibility. To them, there’s an inherent connection between a space like Bookish Ceremony and Electric Ceremony, “what we choose to do with our bodies, how we style our hair, the stories we choose to read and share. It’s about connecting with the right people in a safe space and facilitating that access.”

My first time attending the book club, the book was James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. The group consensus seemed to be that nobody could say they enjoyed it per se due to the subject matter, but everyone was glad they had read the 20th-century classic. Discussions ranged from Baldwin’s internalised homophobia to the reactions towards the book at the time. Baldwin had taken a huge risk when he, an African-American author, wrote a book on a white, queer man at the peak of the civil rights movement. Baldwin is renowned even today for writing about intersectionality in queer communities. Perhaps this is how his work resonates in 2024 Tāmaki Makaurau

However, most of Bookish Ceremony’s picks are not classics or even written by men. Previous picks have included Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg, Olive Nuttall's Kitten, and K Patrick’s Mrs S. This month’s pick is Shilo Kino’s new novel All That We Know. While many of Tāmaki Makaurau’s queer spaces are tailored to gay men (notably the popular bars on Karangahape Road), Bookish Ceremony has carved a space that centres the experiences of women and non-binary people within LGBTQ+ communities. 

For Cox, finding queer books that made them feel understood was an important part of reading queer literature and now they want to share that experience with others. “I will always remember the queer books that spoke to me. As a queer bookseller, I wanted to create a space for people to connect with like-minded folk and stories. There’s so much out there and there are so many stories yet to be written.”

Although the club was only intended to be held bi-monthly, Cox says people are excited about the space and want them to meet more often - a possibility they are open to. 

“The people behind Electric Ceremony and Spooky Ceremony are the kindest people I know and we are so thankful that they have shared their space with us to make this happen. I feel the space ‘disrupts’, if that’s the right way of putting it, our expectations of where a book club takes place and in doing so it feels right. ‘Ceremony’ is a gathering of sorts, a gathering of like-minded people, and we felt queer folk are ‘bookish’ in ways that are varied and diverse, however, we read.”

Bookish Ceremony is hosted bi-monthly at Electric Ceremony in Auckland Central. Updates and more information can be found on their Instagram @bookish.ceremony.