Our December film selection stars Cate Blanchett as a virtuoso composer in Tár, a Golden Globe nominee that dives into issues like cancel culture, the notion of separating art from artist, lines of consent in relationships, and the question of straight actors playing gay roles (Them). With reviews ranging from masterful and enthralling to regressive and pretentious, Tár is the most talked about movie of the year. And, if you can’t get enough of Blanchett, see her with Rooney in the 2015 romantic drama, Carol—a terrific holiday pick.
Notwithstanding its locale at the center of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, Art Basel Miami, held December 1-3, 2022, showcased a vibrant, diverse group of queer artists. Among them was Leslie Martinez, a trans artist and Latinx individual with ancestral ties to the Rio Grande Valley, who explores ambiguous spaces and boundary permeation in their vibrant tactile paintings influenced by borderland existence.
“I want people to be able to touch with their eyes and see with their fingertips,” Martinez said.
“Bad Habit,” Steve Lacy’s funk-pop smash hit from his second album, Gemini Rights, is about missed opportunities with love (“I wish I knew you wanted me.”) Released in June 2022, the song dominated Tik Tok and went on to score three Grammy nominations and top the Billboard Hot 100.
We welcome your reactions and suggestions to the Queer Art series and look forward to continuing this journey with you throughout 2023 with new arts content and themes. (See Queer Art archive.)
Banner art by Leslie Martinez
Tár
2022
A tale of ambition and its cost — and its collateral damage.
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY
Todd Field
STARRING
AWARDS
Gotham Awards
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
Venice Film Festival
Golden Globe Nominee
SEE IT
In Theaters
MUSIC THAT MATTERS
“Bad Habit,” Steve Lacy’s funk-pop smash hit from his second album, Gemini Rights. Music video.
QUEER ART ARCHIVE
November, 2022, Strange World
October, 2022, Heartbreak High
September, 2022, A League of Their Own
August, 2022, The Sandman
July 2022, Fire Island
June 2022, Everything Everywhere All at Once
May 2022, Heartstopper
April 2022, Angels of America
March 2022, Blue Is the Warmest Color
February 2022, Flee
January 2022, Moonlight
Also Recommended
Looking for books to gift in the holidays?
New LGBTQ Fiction for Pride 2022 from the New York Public Library (circulated June 2022)
States Emily Pullen, Manager of Reader Services, “We are fortunate to be living in a golden age for LGBTQ literature, where any list you make is bound to have incredible queer voices. So being able to make a list made up entirely of those voices is such a treat.” More
The Stonewall Generation: LGBTQ Elders on Sex, Activism, and Aging
By Jane Fleishman (forward by Kate Bornstein and Barbara Carrellas)
In the Stonewall generation, coming out took courage. It was a turbulent time, a time of fear, a time of secrecy. Intimate lives hidden in the shadows. And yet, in the midst of it all, the Stonewall Generation has continued to fight for freedom, for rights, for love, and, yes, for sex. Sexuality researcher Jane Fleishman shares the stories of fearless elders in the LGBTQ community who came of age around the time of the Stonewall Riots of 1969. More
Gender Queer: A Memoir
By Maia Kobabe
Telling Kobabe’s story from adolescence to adulthood, the 2019 fully illustrated memoir is a de facto guide on gender identity that grapples with the hardships of coming out, the confusion of adolescent crushes, and the trauma of being nonbinary in a society that largely sees gender as limited to two categories: man and woman.
Gender Queer was the most banned book in the U.S. in 2021. Read the book and Emily Bazelon’s New York Times article, How a Debut Graphic Memoir Became the Most Banned Book in the Country.
The Battle Over Gender Therapy
By Emily Bazelon
More teenagers than ever are seeking transitions, but the medical community that treats them is deeply divided about why — and what to do to help them. More
She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders
By Jennifer Finney Boylan
The bestselling story of a transition—for its author, as well as the woman who loves her. Updated 10th anniversary edition contains new introduction, new update chapter, and a new epilogue by Deirdre “Grace” Boylan.
“Beautifully crafted, fearless, painfully honest, inspiring, and extremely witty. Jennifer Finney Boylan is an exquisite writer with a fascinating story, and this combination has resulted in one of the most remarkable, moving, and unforgettable memoirs in recent history.”
Framing Agnes (documentary film)
After discovering case files from a 1950s gender clinic, a cast of trans actors turn a talk show inside out to confront the legacy of a young trans woman forced to choose between honesty and access. Director Chase Joynt blends fiction and nonfiction to tell the story of Agnes, the pioneering, pseudonymized, transgender woman who participated in Harold Garfinkel’s gender health research at UCLA in the 1960s, bringing to life groundbreaking artifacts of trans healthcare. An official 2022 Sundance Film Festival selection. Watch the trailer.
Stonewall Book Awards in Children’s & Young Adult Literature, 2022 Winners (American Library Association)
The Stonewall Book Awards are presented to English language books that have exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered experience. “Too Bright to See” by Kyle Lukoff (children) and “Last Night at the Telegraph Club” by Malinda Lo (young adult) are the 2022 recipients. More
Becoming Nicole
By Amy Ellis Nutt
The inspiring true story of transgender actor and activist Nicole Maines, whose identical twin brother, Jonas, and ordinary American family join her on an extraordinary journey to understand, nurture, and celebrate the uniqueness in us all. A New York Times bestseller. More
The Argonauts
By Maggie Nelson
Her genre-bending memoir, a finalist for Thanks.e National Books Critic Circle Award, offers fresh, fierce, and timely thinking about desire, identity, and the limitations and possibilities of love, language, and family. More
Pose
An American drama television series about New York City’s Black and Latino LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming drag ball culture scene in the 1980s and 1990s. More
41 Queer & Trans High School Movies All Teens Should See
These selected films from Out magazine explore the teen experience, and that jungle known as high school, with humor and compassion. For a long time, LGBTQ+ teens haven’t been able to see their experiences in movies, but that’s changing. See the list.
Always Jane
This American docuseries directed by Jonathan C Hyde follows two years in the life of Jane Noury, a transgender teenager living in rural New Jersey. Watch on Amazon Prime
JusticeAid leverages the community-building power of art and music to transform awareness into action in the fight against injustice. Each year we identify and raise funds for justice causes by hosting music, arts, and educational events. Since 2013 JusticeAid has granted more than 2 million dollars to nonprofits working to ensure access to justice for the disenfranchised and marginalized. Our grantee partners are fighting racist voter suppression and racist policing, working to end mass incarceration and inhumane immigration practices, ensuring access to legal services, and addressing the criminalization and hatred of others.