We’re celebrating at IHS Headquarters this weekend!
Saturdays are when we round up all the sapphic book news from the previous week into one convenient location. Think of it as your personal queer reading directory! After all, we know the weekend is when so many of us are able to unwind for a minute and want to get lost in a good wlw book. What could be better?
Today is the 6th Anniversary of IHS and TB’s Birthday
Six years ago, (on her birthday so she wouldn’t forget the date) TB launched I Heart Lesfic. Last year at the five-year anniversary, we changed the name to I Heart SapphFic. To learn more about why we changed the name, click here.
Six years ago, TB was living in Dublin, Ireland. Since the site launched, she has had two major moves, first to the UK and then back to the US.
It’s not just her location that changed over these years. IHS has become a community of readers and authors. It’s been such a lovely journey and it warms TB’s heart to see so many people come together to celebrate sapphic fiction.
TB is old enough to remember when it wasn’t so easy to find books with lesbian, bisexual, and other women loving women characters and themes. She came out during a fraught time in Colorado. It was 1992 and her state was voting on Amendment Two. This was a law that sought to prevent municipalities (Denver, Boulder, and Aspen, for example) from enacting anti-discrimination laws protecting gay, lesbian, or bisexual people.
On her college campus, the quad was flooded with hateful people. Many held signs saying things like: God made Adam and Eve, Not Adam and Steve. Sometimes the signs had depictions of hell, and the people holding the signs would be screaming that TB was heading to fiery damnation. At the time, TB was 18 years old. For weeks she had to wade through these haters just to attend her college classes.
Much to her dismay, voters (including many people in TB’s own life) passed the amendment. For a while, Colorado became known as the “Hate State.” It was beyond deflating. Thankfully, in 1994, the Supreme Court ruled this amendment to be unconstitutional.
Several years later, TB stood at a candlelight vigil outside the hospital where Matthew Shepard was taken after he was attacked, and where he died from his injuries. With Amendment Two and Matthew Shepard, her home state was in the spotlight for LGBTQ+ rights in the 1990s. This had a profound impact on TB and she knew she could never look away from threats to those rights.
Sadly, three decades later, the LGBTQ community is still battling for basic human rights and hate is rising. Our rights, dignity, and safety are under threat again. Ask yourself, would today’s Supreme Court rule that Colorado’s Amendment 2 was unconstitutional?
This is why TB and Miranda work so hard on I Heart SapphFic. It’s our way to fight back and to ensure our community’s voices are not stifled. Back in 1992, neither TB nor Miranda had ever heard of a book with a sapphic character, let alone read one. Today, when someone is looking for a sapphic read, we can direct them to over 3,600 choices in the BookFinder!
Whether it’s seeing yourself in a favorite character or gaining an appreciation for someone who is different than you, books are a powerful weapon against hate. Why else would so many people be trying so hard right now to ban them? More than anything, we want to make it easy for readers to find the sapphic books they desire.
It’s our sincerest hope that when a new generation of sapphic readers looks back on our present times from thirty years in the future, they will do so from a place of true equality. We know that it will take relentless dedication from countless individuals to get there. All we can hope is to play some small part in shining a light and spreading love along the way so that hate won’t win.
We can’t thank all of you enough for supporting this website as we work toward that goal.
Need a Book for the Weekend?
If you’re looking for something to read this weekend, below you’ll find 19 books on sale. Need more choices? Check out the BookFinder, which has more than 3,600 books for you to choose from, ranging from steamy sapphic romance books, ice queen wlw romances, lesfic audiobooks, queer superheroes, best friends to lovers lesbian romances and so much more!
Don’t see your favorite women-loving-women book in the I Heart SapphFic database? Let us know by filling out this form. We’ll take it from there!
Without further ado, let’s get to all the sapphic book news from this past week!
Here are the links for this week’s posts:
- New Releases
- Best of the Best Sapphic Kink
- Voting for Best Sapphic Dark Romance closes on June 3
- Friday Feels Fun
All About the Books
Join authors as they showcase their new release in a fun and engaging way. Click on each image for a behind the scenes peek!
Meet Cricket! Cricket is the most photogenic black kitty I’ve ever seen. She loves posing for the camera. Submitted by author S.Y. Thompson.
Please click on the images for the details for each announcement.
Have community news you want included in a future edition of this section? Click here for submission details.
Please note, sale prices may change without notice, so please check the price before clicking a buy button. International prices may vary.
