The start of February brings with it the start of LGBT history month in the UK – a month dedicated to recognising both the advancements made by activists and the barriers that still stand in our way. It is also a time to amplify the voices and lived experiences of the queer community, to raise their stories and creations to a level that is never usually reached.

Queer is an identity that means something different to every individual. It is personal and intrinsic and, for as long as humanity has existed, it has existed right there alongside it. There is no ‘correct’ way to be, or to express yourself.

Below are fifteen poems by queer poets across a range of topics, from gender to sexuality, activism to oppression. But above all, the majority of these poems are a celebration of what being queer means; of defying the norms and doing so in a way that leaves you standing, not in somebody else’s shadow, but within your own power.

Regardless of whether you are out or not, you are seen and you are loved.

For poems marked with a *, please see the content warnings at the bottom of this article

each translation is a transformation by Raquel Salas Rivera

Not Everything Is Sex by Lauren Whitehead

Breathe. As in. (shadow) by Rosamond S. King

On Trans by Miller Oberman

Peanut Butter by Eileen Myles

Ocean Vuong on ‘Seventh Circle of Earth’*

All of This Is to Say by Ever Jones

Things Haunt by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza

The Oracle Was Stoned by Chester Wilson III

Filling Spice Jars as Your Wife by Kai Coggin

Summer by Chen Chen

On World-Making by Nomi Stone

Kudzu by Saeed Jones

Coming Out by Romeo Oriogun**

Trojan by Jericho Brown

Further information can be found on the LGBT+ history month’s website, along with a range of event information, ways to get involved, and news updates.

Content warning for:

* portrayal of hate crime & the real-life murder of two gay men

** talk of targeted attacks & allusions to violence

By Holly Steventon, SGO Project Officer