Hugh Ryan
@hughryan.bsky.social
Author & queer historian. The Women’s House of Detention (2022) and When Brooklyn Was Queer (2019). I also teach nonfiction in the Bennington MFA program. Support my work: https://www.patreon.com/HughRyan
Joseph McCarthy must be shooting heroin in hell right now
November 5, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Joseph McCarthy must be shooting heroin in hell right now
Great day for a protest
October 18, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Great day for a protest
So excited for it to finally be spooky season! @peppermint247.bsky.social and I are diving into Brooke Palmieri’s incredible BARGAIN WITCH - head over to Allstora to join our club allstora.com/pages/queer-...
October 18, 2025 at 6:04 PM
So excited for it to finally be spooky season! @peppermint247.bsky.social and I are diving into Brooke Palmieri’s incredible BARGAIN WITCH - head over to Allstora to join our club allstora.com/pages/queer-...
I didn't put alt text on my cover like an idiot so here goes:
October 14, 2025 at 6:26 PM
I didn't put alt text on my cover like an idiot so here goes:
For years, I've been thinking about everything we gained and lost as the queer community (writ large) went mainstream. MY BAD is an accounting; a reckoning with the past we're still mired in; and a journey through so many past selves that even I have a hard time recognizing myself sometimes!
October 14, 2025 at 4:30 PM
For years, I've been thinking about everything we gained and lost as the queer community (writ large) went mainstream. MY BAD is an accounting; a reckoning with the past we're still mired in; and a journey through so many past selves that even I have a hard time recognizing myself sometimes!
It's official: MY BAD: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE QUEER 90S AND BEYOND has a cover! I love how the yellow feels like a run over hazard sign, and the mixtape is perhaps my personal 90s icon. As for those sexy statues? You'll have to read it to find out...
October 14, 2025 at 4:30 PM
It's official: MY BAD: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE QUEER 90S AND BEYOND has a cover! I love how the yellow feels like a run over hazard sign, and the mixtape is perhaps my personal 90s icon. As for those sexy statues? You'll have to read it to find out...
I already love the community that's showing up in our comments <3 <3
October 7, 2025 at 12:53 PM
I already love the community that's showing up in our comments <3 <3
You think that's a joke but... ;)
September 6, 2025 at 1:06 PM
You think that's a joke but... ;)
Can’t wait to start @emotrophywife.bsky.social ‘s demon novel HERCULINE. Perfect hot day for it!
August 13, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Can’t wait to start @emotrophywife.bsky.social ‘s demon novel HERCULINE. Perfect hot day for it!
I picked up this beautiful book (NEW YORK: NOT SO LITTLE AND NOT SO OLD, from 1926) last year at the Austin Book Shop in Richmond Hill, Queens, and finally got around to posting about it on my Patreon www.patreon.com/posts/135241...
July 29, 2025 at 7:05 PM
I picked up this beautiful book (NEW YORK: NOT SO LITTLE AND NOT SO OLD, from 1926) last year at the Austin Book Shop in Richmond Hill, Queens, and finally got around to posting about it on my Patreon www.patreon.com/posts/135241...
Every time I clean my office I have to throw out so many rainbow things it looks like Target after Trump got elected
July 22, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Every time I clean my office I have to throw out so many rainbow things it looks like Target after Trump got elected
Pre-order just arrived - can’t wait to dive in to ARCHIVE OF UNKNOWN UNIVERSES by @rubenwrites.bsky.social
July 2, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Pre-order just arrived - can’t wait to dive in to ARCHIVE OF UNKNOWN UNIVERSES by @rubenwrites.bsky.social
In 1999 he was arguing that Stonewall was when the LGBT movement was hijacked. He's just a reactionary conservative bootlicker (and I don't mean that in a cool, literal sexual way, just metaphorically) www.thefreelibrary.com/Man+in+the+h...
June 26, 2025 at 6:02 PM
In 1999 he was arguing that Stonewall was when the LGBT movement was hijacked. He's just a reactionary conservative bootlicker (and I don't mean that in a cool, literal sexual way, just metaphorically) www.thefreelibrary.com/Man+in+the+h...
You know when the movement really went off the rails? Stonewall! At least, that's what Sullivan said in 1999 www.thefreelibrary.com/Man+in+the+h...
June 26, 2025 at 5:58 PM
You know when the movement really went off the rails? Stonewall! At least, that's what Sullivan said in 1999 www.thefreelibrary.com/Man+in+the+h...
Remember when he said Stonewall was the downfall of the LGBT rights movements? Such a serious thinker! www.thefreelibrary.com/Man+in+the+h...
June 26, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Remember when he said Stonewall was the downfall of the LGBT rights movements? Such a serious thinker! www.thefreelibrary.com/Man+in+the+h...
He has been saying the same stupid things for decades. Here is telling Sarah Schulman in @theadvocatebr.bsky.social in 1999 that Stonewall was when the LGBT movement lost its way www.thefreelibrary.com/Man+in+the+h...
June 26, 2025 at 5:49 PM
He has been saying the same stupid things for decades. Here is telling Sarah Schulman in @theadvocatebr.bsky.social in 1999 that Stonewall was when the LGBT movement lost its way www.thefreelibrary.com/Man+in+the+h...
I absolutely love the art @valhal.bsky.social created, giving us past, present, and future queer magnificence!
June 20, 2025 at 8:13 PM
I absolutely love the art @valhal.bsky.social created, giving us past, present, and future queer magnificence!
And today, we're announcing our June selection: SO MANY STARS, a collected oral history of queer, trans, and gender nonconforming elders of color, put together by the fabulous novelist and historian @caroderobertis.bsky.social - the perfect book to read this pride season
May 15, 2025 at 5:51 PM
And today, we're announcing our June selection: SO MANY STARS, a collected oral history of queer, trans, and gender nonconforming elders of color, put together by the fabulous novelist and historian @caroderobertis.bsky.social - the perfect book to read this pride season
Most recently, we turned to @littlepuss.net, the up-and-coming feminist press run by trans women, to highlight a groundbreaking collection of essays by the brilliant @vivianblaxell.bsky.social - part deep philosophy, part scathing gossip session, ALL incredible.
May 15, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Most recently, we turned to @littlepuss.net, the up-and-coming feminist press run by trans women, to highlight a groundbreaking collection of essays by the brilliant @vivianblaxell.bsky.social - part deep philosophy, part scathing gossip session, ALL incredible.
For our next selection, we had our first NYT bestseller! @thebobthedragqueen.bsky.social's imaginative queer Black history fantasia, HARRIET TUBMAN LIVE IN CONCERT. This was also our first book that reimagined queer history into the present moment, in the most serious & playful ways possible
May 15, 2025 at 5:51 PM
For our next selection, we had our first NYT bestseller! @thebobthedragqueen.bsky.social's imaginative queer Black history fantasia, HARRIET TUBMAN LIVE IN CONCERT. This was also our first book that reimagined queer history into the present moment, in the most serious & playful ways possible
Then we decided to switch it up again, bringing readers an historically important book that was being translated into English for the first time: the 1940s memoir of dancer, artist, spy, and revolutionary, Josephine Baker (with an introduction by the incredible @ijeomaoluo.bsky.social)
May 15, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Then we decided to switch it up again, bringing readers an historically important book that was being translated into English for the first time: the 1940s memoir of dancer, artist, spy, and revolutionary, Josephine Baker (with an introduction by the incredible @ijeomaoluo.bsky.social)
From there, we took a dive into fiction - and the 18th century - by reading @ajwestauthor.bsky.social's wild, murderous romp through "molly" London, THE BETRAYAL OF THOMAS TRUE.
May 15, 2025 at 5:51 PM
From there, we took a dive into fiction - and the 18th century - by reading @ajwestauthor.bsky.social's wild, murderous romp through "molly" London, THE BETRAYAL OF THOMAS TRUE.
So in January, we read the profoundly beautiful ANOTHER WORD FOR LOVE, the memoir by journalist, podcaster, and - honestly - philosopher of the self, Carvell Wallace. This was the first of our books to make me cry in public as I read it!
May 15, 2025 at 5:51 PM
So in January, we read the profoundly beautiful ANOTHER WORD FOR LOVE, the memoir by journalist, podcaster, and - honestly - philosopher of the self, Carvell Wallace. This was the first of our books to make me cry in public as I read it!
From there, we stayed in England for a moment to talk to @sachacoward.bsky.social about QUEER AS FOLKLORE, an encyclopedic romp through centuries and continents worth of trans ghosts, gay pirates, lesbian vampires, and the mythic histories that are so often the only repository of suppressed stories
May 15, 2025 at 5:51 PM
From there, we stayed in England for a moment to talk to @sachacoward.bsky.social about QUEER AS FOLKLORE, an encyclopedic romp through centuries and continents worth of trans ghosts, gay pirates, lesbian vampires, and the mythic histories that are so often the only repository of suppressed stories
Our first title was @willtosh.bsky.social's STRAIGHT ACTING, a deeply researched history of the queer world of William Shakespeare - all the places he would have learned (and experienced!) the same-sex desires and mutable gender identities he popularized in his poems and plays.
May 15, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Our first title was @willtosh.bsky.social's STRAIGHT ACTING, a deeply researched history of the queer world of William Shakespeare - all the places he would have learned (and experienced!) the same-sex desires and mutable gender identities he popularized in his poems and plays.