Books
Queer Visitors: How drag and Oz are inspiring a new adult LGBTQ book club
The new adult LGBTQIA+ book club uses “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” to explore themes of self-acceptance, found family, and community with special drag performances.
When looking at media, few works of literature have achieved the critical success and enduring resonance with the LGBTQ community that “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” has.
From its messages of radical acceptance, home, and belonging, to its subversions of gender norms and its memorable, fluidly gendered characters, “The Wizard of Oz” has remained a queer cultural touchstone more than 125 years after its first publication.
The book itself offered many LGBTQ readers one of their first glimpses of a world that celebrated differences that might otherwise be considered “queer.” The 1939 MGM film adaptation, starring gay icon Judy Garland, further cemented Dorothy—and Oz—into LGBTQ culture, contributing (somewhat debatedly) to the origin of the term “Friend of Dorothy” as a euphemism for LGBTQ individuals and helping to establish rainbows as a queer symbol.
The story also inspired the wildly popular musical “Wicked,” which reimagines the witches of Oz and is rich with LGBTQ subtext.
Given all this, it makes perfect sense that an adult LGBTQ book club would choose to start its journey in the fantastical world L. Frank Baum created with Oz.
Queer Visitors, a book club made for LGBTQIA+ adults and named after a comic strip L. Frank Baum published in 1904 called “Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz,” created by Drag Story Hour—a national non-profit whose goals include “celebrating storytelling through the dynamic art of drag performance”—chose to kick off this new venture with “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”
The Washington Blade had the chance to speak with Jonathan Hamilt, co-founder of Drag Queen Story Hour, about what the LGBTQ adult book club will entail, why now, and why Oz.
When asked what spurred the choice to start an adult LGBTQ book club, Hamilt explained that the club has been a long time in the making.
“‘Drag Story Hour’ is celebrating 10 years of stories this year. We’ve always served families and children reading public books… but we really wanted to expand our programming for an adult-focused book club that was basically a drag story hour for adults only,” Hamilt said.
For years, the organization has worked to inspire children and promote diversity across the U.S.—and the globe. Now, they are venturing over the rainbow into adult territory.
“It’s like Oprah’s book club, but gay, where we will have a monthly book club… with a virtual experience with the drag artist and a subject matter expert of the book.”
For their first month, Queer Visitors went with drag queen (and face of Queer Visitors) Nana Tuckit from Portland, Ore., and Tori Calamito—a self-described “Oz historian” and LGBTQ ally known as “The Oz Vlog” on social media—to stand alongside the club online.
“Nana Tuckit brings a really fun energy to the space… and Tori is an Oz historian and can tell us all the things about that world,” Hamilt said when explaining their choice to go with Tuckit and Calamito. “I think the two of them will be a really amazing powerhouse chatting about this book.”
Calamito and Tuckit both sat down with the Blade to discuss why they chose to partner with Drag Queen Story Hour and Queer Visitors—both going into detail about why “The Wizard of Oz” is a perfect pick for the first meeting of the book club, explaining that LGBTQ people can see themselves in the story.
“‘The Wizard of Oz’ at its core, is a story about self-actualization and achieving self-actualization alongside your found family,” Tori Calamito told the Blade. “And I think those are themes that the LGBTQIA+ community can really relate to.”
She sees “The Wizard of Oz” as a story that resonates universally: “I think it’s a story everyone knows. So no matter where you’re coming from, in society, where you live in the country, where you hail from, everybody can hear Oz and go, ‘Aha, there’s some sort of association in your memory.’”
“Queer people are just naturally drawn to those stories where the interesting oddball characters are accepted and welcomed and present and they’re celebrated,” Nana Tuckit said. “I feel like it’s important right now to tell people’s stories to understand perspectives that are different… there is such a huge range of lives people are living.”
“’The Wizard of Oz’ is such an interesting cultural capstone… all generations know ‘The Wizard of Oz’ in some capacity… there are so many original books and I think they’re so innately queer if you read between the lines,” Hamilt said. “One way to look at it: it’s just so campy and so colorful and so fun… and this idea of queer diaspora… Dorothy being displaced or in a new land, kind of finding her chosen family… it’s kind of like an allegory for the whole queer experience.”
Calamito echoed Hamilt’s points and said her LGBTQ followers—more than 375,000 combined on Instagram and TikTok—helped show her that.
“You know, when I first read the L. Frank Baum original series of Oz books, I didn’t pick up on the very queer, coded themes and the gender fluid themes because reading it through the lens of a straight cis woman—just those things didn’t hit me,” she said. “But interacting with other folks in the broader [Oz] fandom opened my eyes to how obvious those themes are.”
“When we hear stories about those kinds of people [queer], and they aren’t the villains of the story—they aren’t the people who are being scrutinized and condemned or picked apart for those aspects of themselves—I think that’s what gets people so excited,” Tuckit told the Blade. “We need to create some worlds that are super fun for queer people to experience, because we need to know that we can be the main character, the hero, the savior. We can be all of the good things, the magical things.”
Hamilt also noted that the childlike wonder the Oz books and story have been able to provide to people for over a century reflects the need to heal their internal child selves.
“Queer adults have to do a lot of inner child healing… getting back to the magic of books where the excitement maybe first happened for you… it brings a lot of joy at face value with this book club that makes you feel like a kid at heart,” Hamilt said.
Tuckit went on to emphasize how the feeling of community—which has been life-saving for LGBTQ people when families have, and continue to, shun them for coming out—is present throughout the book.
“Even at the end of the book, The Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman all become the king of their own… the people have chosen you to be this figure for them, because they know you’re going to be supportive of them and looking out for them,” Tuckit said.
That community, she explained, can help the reader find what Dorothy was searching for when her house landed in Oz.
“If I think about what feels like home for me, it’s definitely not necessarily the physical place, but it is about who I’m with and the people that I’ve created my community with.”
Hamilt also saw the opportunity for book club members to create real-world connections using the club as a goal.
“It’s really easy as an adult to get sucked into your phone or social media… my hope is that this book club gets a physical book in your hands… gets you to meet other people that are excited about a really dorky topic… bring back this idea of real community.”
The act of drag has long been a community- and family-maker in the LGBTQ world. From ballroom families to the unique feeling of love one can get when watching a truly moving piece of drag, the art form has community woven into its history that adds an additional layer to the complexities of LGBTQ relationships.
“Drag is starting to represent just more of a wide range of people and experiences, just reflecting what we are as people… it’s all the same,” Tuckit said. “Drag artists are just expressing that something inside them that they want to get out and show the rest of the world.”
“I love Drag Story Hour. I take my own daughter, we go to drag brunch. We love drag queens in this household. And it harkens back to classic theater and pantomime in the days of Shakespeare,” the Oz historian said, highlighting that drag has been around for centuries, despite what anti-LGBTQ conservatives say.
“The opposition to Drag Story Hour isn’t new. We’ve been around for 10 years, and there’s always been an ebb and flow,” Hamilt explained. “One common comment we hear from people who are homophobic or transphobic is, ‘Why do you only read to kids? Why don’t you read to adults?’ And the truth is, we do! We read to elderly people, we go into hospitals—we read to a wide variety of audiences. So, if the issue really is age, we’ve even started side projects just for adults. Will there be protests? Opposition? Pushback when it’s only adult-focused programming? Absolutely. Because it’s never really been about children. It’s about control, hatred, and trying to erase the queer experience altogether.”
When asked what she hopes Queer Visitors brings to all fans of Oz, LGBTQ members, or allies, Calamito said she hopes it helps create good feelings during difficult times for members of the LGBTQ community.
“I hope this fosters a safe space for people to have good community outreach,” she said. “I hope this becomes a place where we can dispel fear.”
For Hamilt, the goal is both playful and proud: “Stories are for everybody… the goal is to celebrate self-expression and imagination through glamorous, playful, proud, queer role models… the more we love and accept the diversity of the world, it makes us more empathetic.”
For more information on joining the book club, where to pick up a copy, and how to get involved, visit www.dragstoryhour.org/queer-visitors.
Books
This gay author sees dead people
‘Are You There Spirit? It’s Me, Travis’
By Travis Holp
c.2025, Spiegel and Grau
$28/240 pages
Your dad sent you a penny the other day, minted in his birth year.
They say pennies from heaven are a sign of some sort, and that makes sense: You’ve been thinking about him a lot lately. Some might scoff, but the idea that a lost loved one is trying to tell you he’s OK is comforting. So read the new book, “Are You There, Spirit? It’s Me, Travis” by Travis Holp, and keep your eyes open.
Ever since he was a young boy growing up just outside Dayton, Ohio, Travis Holp wanted to be a writer. He also wanted to say that he was gay but his conservative parents believed his gayness was some sort of phase. That, and bullying made him hide who he was.
He also had to hide his nascent ability to communicate with people who had died, through an entity he calls “Spirit.” Eventually, though it left him with psychological scars and a drinking problem he’s since overcome, Holp was finally able to talk about his gayness and reveal his otherworldly ability.
Getting some people to believe that he speaks to the dead is still a tall order. Spirit helps naysayers, as well as Holp himself.
Spirit, he says, isn’t a person or an essence; Spirit is love. Spirit is a conduit of healing and energy, speaking through Holp in symbolic messages, feelings, and through synchronistic events. For example, Holp says coincidences are not coincidental; they’re ways for loved ones to convey messages of healing and energy.
To tap into your own healing Spirit, Holp says to trust yourself when you think you’ve received a healing message. Ignore your ego, but listen to your inner voice. Remember that Spirit won’t work on any fixed timeline, and its only purpose is to exist.
And keep in mind that “anything is possible because you are an unlimited being.”
You’re going to want very much to like “Are You There, Spirit? It’s Me, Travis.” The cover photo of author Travis Holp will make you smile. Alas, what you’ll find in here is hard to read, not due to content but for lack of focus.
What’s inside this book is scattered and repetitious. Love, energy, healing, faith, and fear are words that are used often – so often, in fact, that many pages feel like they’ve been recycled, or like you’ve entered a time warp that moves you backward, page-wise. Yes, there are uplifting accounts of readings that Holp has done with clients here, and they’re exciting but there are too few of them. When you find them, you’ll love them. They may make you cry. They’re exactly what you need, if you grieve. Just not enough.
This isn’t a terrible book, but its audience might be narrow. It absolutely needs more stories, less sentiment; more tales, less transcendence and if that’s your aim, go elsewhere. But if your soul cries for comfort after loss, “Are You There, Spirit? It’s Me, Travis” might still make sense.
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Books
‘Dogs of Venice’ looks at love lost and rediscovered
A solo holiday trip to Italy takes unexpected turn
‘The Dogs of Venice’
By Steven Crowley
c.2025, G.P. Putnam & Sons
$20/65 pages
One person.
Two, 12, 20, you can still feel alone in a crowded room if it’s a place you don’t want to be. People say, though, that that’s no way to do the holidays; you’re supposed to Make Merry, even when your heart’s not in it. You’re supposed to feel happy, no matter what – even when, as in “The Dogs of Venice” by Steven Rowley, the Christmas tinsel seems tarnished.
Right up until the plane door closed, Paul held hope that Darren would decide to come on the vacation they’d planned for and saved for, for months.
Alas, Darren was a no-show, which was not really a surprise. Three weeks before the departure, he’d announced that their marriage wasn’t working for him anymore, and that he wanted a divorce. Paul had said he was going on the vacation anyhow. Why waste a perfectly good flight, or an already-booked B&B? He was going to Venice.
Darren just rolled his eyes.
Was that a metaphor for their entire marriage? Darren had always accused Paul of wanting too much. He indicated now that he felt stifled. Still, Darren’s unhappiness hit Paul broadside and so there was Paul, alone in a romantic Italian city, fighting with an espresso machine in a loft owned by someone who looked like a frozen-food spokeswoman.
He couldn’t speak or understand Italian very well. He didn’t know his way around, and he got lost often. But he felt anchored by a dog.
The dog – he liked to call it his dog – was a random stray, like so many others wandering around Venice unleashed, but this dog’s confidence and insouciant manner inspired Paul. If a dog could be like that, well, why couldn’t he?
He knew he wasn’t unlovable but solo holidays stunk and he hated his situation. Maybe the dog had a lesson to teach him: could you live a wonderful life without someone to watch out for, pet, and care for you?
Pick up “The Dogs of Venice,” and you might think to yourself that it won’t take long to read. At under 100 pages, you’d be right – which just gives you time to turn around and read it again. Because you’ll want to.
In the same way that you poke your tongue at a sore tooth, author Steven Rowley makes you want to remember what it’s like to be the victim of a dead romance. You can do it here safely because you simply know that Paul is too nice for it to last too long. No spoilers, though, except to say that this novel is about love – gone, resurrected, misdirected – and it unfolds in exactly the way you hope it will. All in a neat evening’s worth of reading. Perfect.
One thing to note: the Christmas setting is incidental and could just as well be any season, which means that this book is timely, no matter when you want it. So grab “The Dogs of Venice,” enjoy it twice with your book group, with your love, or read it alone.
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Santa will be very relieved.
You’ve taken most of the burden off him by making a list and checking it twice on his behalf. The gift-buying in your house is almost done – except for those few people who are just so darn hard to buy for. So what do you give to the person who has (almost) everything? You give them a good book, like maybe one of these.
Memoir and biography
The person who loves digging into a multi-level memoir will be happy unwrapping “Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama” by Alexis Okeowo (Henry Holt). It’s a memoir about growing up Black in what was once practically ground zero for the Confederacy. It’s about inequality, it busts stereotypes, and yet it still oozes love of place. You can’t go wrong if you wrap it up with “Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore” by Ashley D. Farmer (Pantheon). It’s a chunky book with a memoir with meaning and plenty of thought.
For the giftee on your list who loves to laugh, wrap up “In My Remaining Years” by Jean Grae (Flatiron Books). It’s part memoir, part comedy, a look back at the late-last-century, part how-did-you-get-to-middle-age-already? and all fun. Wrap it up with “Here We Go: Lessons for Living Fearlessly from Two Traveling Nanas” by Eleanor Hamby and Dr. Sandra Hazellip with Elisa Petrini (Viking). It’s about the adventures of two 80-something best friends who seize life by the horns – something your giftee should do, too.
If there’ll be someone at your holiday table who’s finally coming home this year, wrap up “How I Found Myself in the Midwest” by Steve Grove (Simon & Schuster). It’s the story of a Silicon Valley worker who gives up his job and moves with his family to Minnesota, which was once home to him. That was around the time the pandemic hit, George Floyd was murdered, and life in general had been thrown into chaos. How does someone reconcile what was with what is now? Pair it with “Homestand: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America” by Will Bardenwerper (Doubleday). It’s set in New York and but isn’t that small-town feel universal, no matter where it comes from?
Won’t the adventurer on your list be happy when they unwrap “I Live Underwater” by Max Gene Nohl (University of Wisconsin Press)? They will, when they realize that this book is by a former deep-sea diver, treasure hunter, and all-around daredevil who changed the way we look for things under water. Nohl died more than 60 years ago, but his never-before-published memoir is fresh and relevant and will be a fun read for the right person.
If celeb bios are your giftee’s thing, then look for “The Luckiest” by Kelly Cervantes (BenBella Books). It’s the Midwest-to-New-York-City story of an actress and her life, her marriage, and what she did when tragedy hit. Filled with grace, it’s a winner.
Your music lover won’t want to open any other gifts if you give “Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur” by Jeff Pearlman (Mariner Books). It’s the story of the life, death, and everything in-between about this iconic performer, including the mythology that he left behind. Has it been three decades since Tupac died? It has, but your music lover never forgets. Wrap it up with “Point Blank (Quick Studies)” by Bob Dylan, text by Eddie Gorodetsky, Lucy Sante, and Jackie Hamilton (Simon & Schuster), a book of Dylan’s drawings and artwork. This is a very nice coffee-table size book that will be absolutely perfect for fans of the great singer and for folks who love art.
For the giftee who’s concerned with their fellow man, “The Lost and the Found: A True Story of Homelessness, Found Family and Second Chances” by Kevin Fagan (One Signal / Atria) may be the book to give. It’s a story of two “unhoused” people in San Francisco, one of the country’s wealthiest cities, and their struggles. There’s hope in this book, but also trouble and your giftee will love it.
For the person on your list who suffered loss this year, give “Pine Melody” by Stacey Meadows (Independently Published), a memoir of loss, grief, and healing while remembering the person gone.
LGBTQ fiction
For the mystery lover who wants something different, try “Crime Ink: Iconic,” edited by John Copenhaver and Salem West (Bywater Books), a collection of short stories inspired by “queer legends” and allies you know. Psychological thrillers, creepy crime, cozies, they’re here.
Novel lovers will want to curl up this winter with “Middle Spoon” by Alejandro Varela (Viking), a book about a man who appears to have it all, until his heart is broken and the fix for it is one he doesn’t quite understand and neither does anyone he loves.
LGBTQ studies – nonfiction
For the young man who’s struggling with issues of gender, “Before They Were Men” by Jacob Tobia (Harmony Books) might be a good gift this year. These essays on manhood in today’s world works to widen our conversations on the role politics and feminism play in understanding masculinity and how it’s time we open our minds.
If there’s someone on your gift list who had a tough growing-up (didn’t we all?), then wrap up “I’m Prancing as Fast as I Can” by Jon Kinnally (Permuted Press / Simon & Schuster). Kinnally was once an awkward kid but he grew up to be a writer for TV shows you’ll recognize. You can’t go wrong gifting a story like that. Better idea: wrap it up with “So Gay for You: Friendship, Found Family, & The Show That Started It All” by Leisha Hailey & Kate Moennig (St. Martin’s Press), a book about a little TV show that launched a BFF-ship.
Who doesn’t have a giftee who loves music? You sure do, so wrap up “The Secret Public: How Music Moved Queer Culture from the Margins to the Mainstream” by Jon Savage (Liveright). Nobody has to tell your giftee that queer folk left their mark on music, but they’ll love reading the stories in this book and knowing what they didn’t know.
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