The first out gay teenager in a Disney movie is hitting the big screen in Strange World, an animated adventure film with comedian-rapper Jaboukie Young-White in a leading role. The story, notes Metro, “manages to balance a casual ‘not a big deal’ approach to the character while also making him integral to who he is and an element of his personality that’s never brushed under the carpet.” 

This month’s artist is Tschabalala Self, a New Haven-based painter whose work, along with that of Keith Haring, Kehinde Wiley, Christina Quarles, and others, is included in the opening show at the Rubell Museum, a stunning new contemporary art museum in Washington, DC. She is known for her depictions of the Black female body in contemporary culture:

My subjects are fully aware of their conspicuousness…Their role is not to show, explain, or perform but rather “to be.” In being, their presence is acknowledged and their significance felt.”

Consistent with JusticeAid’s mission to promote justice through the arts, throughout the year we will feature films, artworks, songs, and books that address important issues to the LGBTQ community. We hope they offer inspiration, deepen our collective understanding, and prompt candid conversations with family and friends.

We welcome your reactions and suggestions and look forward to taking this journey with you throughout 2022 as we strive to forge greater empathy and deeper commitment to providing access to justice and protections for the civil rights of all persons.

Banner art by Tschabalala Self

Strange World

2022

“It’s ‘Avatar’ meets ‘Fantastic Voyage,’ and it also looks really good on a big screen.

—rogerebert.com

DIRECTED BY

Don Hall, and Qui Nguyen

STARRING

RELEASE DATE

November 23, 2022

SEE IT

In Theaters

MUSIC THAT MATTERS
A Taste of Heaven is a thrilling, feature-length documentary about Raymond Anthony Myles, the electrifying Gospel Genius of New Orleans. Listen to Go to the Rock from the album of the same name.


QUEER ART FILM ARCHIVE
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

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.


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.