** Thanks so much to NetGalley, Tea Uglow, and White Lion Publishing for this ARC! Great LGBTQ + Speeches: Empowering Voices That Engage and Inspire is out now! **

I really enjoyed this collection of speeches about LGBTQ rights. Ranging over decades and countries, the speeches were by LGBTQ folks and our allies. I am a woman who will be marrying a same-sex partner in less than two weeks (!!) and it was fascinating and moving to reflect on how far we have come, and at what cost.

Highly recommended :)

I’m so grateful that I got to read this text. I really enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to making some videos for my TIkTok and other social media channels to recommend it to my friends and followers. It was an excellent read! 5/5 stars. I’m going to write a longer and more detailed review on my Goodreads and TikTok and I will link back once I’ve posted.

A very inspirational book that provides details about people that were very vocal and important in the movement of LGBTQIA+ rights. I enjoyed the inclusion of speeches from the 1800s to current as this helped me to understand that the fight is still occurring and how important it is to understand more about this topic to help others. I also enjoyed the images and bright colours used throughout.

I like the style of this book and how it presents us so many people.
Unfortunately I found it a bit boring after some time, but that's probably on me because I'm not used to read nonfiction.

This is a wonderful compilation of speeches by LGBTQIA folks an allies. The speeches included are by people from all over the world with different backgrounds and identities and it makes a beautiful and moving collection. Also, I received an e-arc of this book BUT the graphics and photos are incredible. I cannot wait to see a physical copy!

I really enjoyed this. I loved the artwork, and the content, and how it highlights everything the queer community has to go through. The only critique I have is that I wanted more variety. I’m looking forward to a part two, though!

I received an advanced reader copy of Great LGBTQ+ Speeches: Empowering Voices That Engage And Inspire by Tea Uglow in exchange for an honest review.

As a self-proclaimed queer and drag historian, I love any opportunity to learn about queer history. When I saw Great LGBTQ+ Speeches on NetGalley two thoughts went through my mind: 1) that cover is spectacular, one that I would love to have on my shelves, and 2) this is exactly the kind of book I would love to read.

Great LGBTQ+ Speeches is a collection of abridged speeches on queer subjects. Each speech is preceded by a short bio of the speaker, as well as a gorgeous stylized photo. I loved the creative ways these greyscale photographs were filled with bursts of color. The formatting of this book is magnificent. It had me as interested in it visually as in its content.

I was thrilled to see that my favorite queer speech in history, Sylvia Rivera’s “Y’all Better Quiet Down,” was featured in this collection. It also had a powerful speech by gay Black poet Essex Hemphill, critiquing the white gay community’s fetishization of the gay Black man. Reading that speech motivated me to look up more of his work. Another quote I loved was from Vito Russo, who said, “living with AIDS is like living through a war which is happening only for those people who happen to be in the trenches.” The majority of figures and speeches in this collection were new to me, so I learned quite a lot from it!

One thing that felt a little strange to me was the presence of non-queer allies like Obama and Hilary being included in this collection. I recognize that the speeches they gave were momentous for mainstream discourse around queer people, but they themselves are not part of the community. Last few pages listed mini biographies of other historic queer figures who didn’t receive a full spread in the book. I really appreciated this section, but I also think a handful of these icons could have been featured in place of ally speeches.

Tea Uglow’s Great LGBTQ+ Speeches is an excellent, informative, and beautiful book, and one I would definitely recommend. Thank you NetGalley, Quarto Publishing Group, and White Lion Publishing for the advanced reader copy.

The latest instalment in the recent influx of coffee-table books featuring prominent, historically important individuals. "Great LGBTQ+ Speeches" contains speeches of- well, of great LGBTQ+ persons (and their allies). By compiling and editing this collection, Tea Uglow fills the massive void of LGBTQ+ history that so much of the world has missed out on.

I consider myself a fairly well-informed person about slightly-more-than-basic queer history, but this collection was engaging and introduced me to many new figures I had never heard of. Much effort has been made to include persons from non-Western countries.

The illustrations are delightfully camp, and I imagine the hardcopy, hardcover, full-colour product must be a beautiful book to behold.

Unfortunately, people who give important speeches, are sometimes a bit long-winded, meaning that many of the entries in this collection are excerpted from the original speeches. In several cases, the missing information between excerpts, causes the speeches to lose some of their meaning.

What sets this apart from similar collections, is that Uglow uses more than biographic facts for the write-ups of her orators: instead, she elaborates on the impact of their lives on our present day, and provides insights into what is to come.

Basically, this is a “Rebel Girls” for queer people, and I recommend looking into it for your next coffee-table splurge.

Previous reviews have commented on format/editing etc...
It serves as an excellent primer and source for research and there are texts here that will be very helpful in studying rhetoric with students. An excellent selection from a number of perspectives. I will be purchasing a copy of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tea Uglow and the publisher for providing me with an E-Arc in exchange for an honest review.

A great educational introduction to many important LGBTQIA+ figures dating back from the 1800s to the present day.

Important and wonderful but only excerpts, and that meant they lacked a certain punch. This is more of a tour of a book, a little whirling piece that one could casually flip through--I would love to see another edition without the color and coffee-table feel (I don't actually know what this book looks like as I read an electronic version) so I can read the wholeness of these speeches.

In contrast though, I could see this playing an important role as a book for browsing in my classroom or for my eleven-year-old (who is gender fluid and looking for pieces to fill their sense of community). More of this, please. More, more, more. (Indeed, I think I'll have to put this under the holiday tree for my oldest--I want to flip through it in person too.)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader's copy in exchange for an honest review, and thank you Tea Uglow for doing this work.

Thank you for the advanced copy. Will be purchasing a copy of this without a doubt.

Like many, I wish I had access to this when I was in my teens and even early 20s, incredibly powerful and a must read for any LGBTQ+ and ally, I have read some of these over and over and will no doubt do so over the coming years.

I adore books like this - they are one of my favourite types of non fiction. Such inspirational words in every speech, and a fantastic introduction to LGBTQIA+ history.

What. A. Book.

To read such inspiring, emotional and heart-driven speeches from all around the world was heartwarming and inspirational, in the least. From Sylvia Rivera's 'Y'All Better Quiet Down' (which I had to listen and watch in full on YouTube after reading on the book), to Sir Ian McKellen, or Harvey Milk and Arkham Parsi, every single one of these spoken and written words opened my heart, my eyes and my mind to a world I could not see before.

Tea Uglow did such an amazing work, gathering these speeches and sharing them with the world. I did not know of most of these, and my mind is still mad at that ignorance, but this book and its messages helped me understand struggles I did not know existed, and encouraged me to delve deeper into the history of my community.

Forever grateful for such an extraordinary reading experience. Thank you Tea Uglow, and thank you Quarto Publishing Group for allowing me to read this.

Signing off,
B.

An introduction to LGBTQ+ history, as a book I imagine that it is beautiful the arc was tricky to read at times, many of the speeches have been edited to fit the allocated page or half page in some instances. I really liked that the book went back in time to remind us that people were campaigning for LGBT rights even in the 19th century. The book also includes people campaigning in various parts of the world which I also appreciated. This book would make a lovely primer into important people and times in LGBT history and includes a list of important figures from today at the back on the book. I would recommend buying the book, rather than the e-version.

With thanks to Netgalley and to the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A fantastic primer for introducing anyone to figures in the pre-Stonewall and modern LGBTQIA+ emancipation movement. The speeches are powerful, succinct, and the art is gorgeous.

My only, very small nitpick, is how a few of the longer speeches were edited down to fit one page. In a few places it felt cut off as momentum was swelling to an emotional point or conclusion.

Overall, a beautifully designed book that reminds us of our history past & present.

This book contains several pieces by both queer people and allies, which, in their majority, made me tear up. I wish I had read this while I was a teenager, too scared to think of myself as anything other than cishet even if I knew from a young age I wasn't.
I only have one criticism is that, even if it had BIPOC voices, it still felt predominantly western.
Overall, I would recommend this to every LGBTQAI+ person and everyone who considers themself an ally.

A beautiful look into some of the speeches that have paved the way throughout the journey LGBT+ activism. All important, all inspiring, all made their mark.

"... it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken" - Audre Lorde

This was such a thrilling collection of speeches from a wide range of queer voices as well as some allies (I was shocked to see Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton in this book, I'm not gonna lie!)

I will say that this collection features over 50% of queer people in America, so it definitely would have been nice to see a bit more variety. It did feature some people from Australia, the UK, the Philippines and more so I probably shouldn't complain!

There were a variety of speeches from queer icons that I know as well as many that I don't. But now that I've heard about them, I definitely want to read up about them all!

I think a few of my favourite, or the most memorable speeches for me came from Audre Lorde, Olly Alexander, Dan Savage and Terry Miller (from the It Gets Better Project) and, Alison Bechdel! But honestly, there was such a decent variety of speeches that there will definitely be something for everyone!

A huge thank you to the publishers for providing me with an eArc in exchange for my honest review.

A pioneering collection of over 40 empowering and influential speeches that chart the history of the LGBTQ+ movement, Great LGBTQ+ Speeches provides an excellent introduction to the history of the queer movement, charting the 19th century to contemporary issues. The essays are all short and accessible, with a nice introduction given to each individual. Mostly the text is US-centric, although there are some contributors from other countries e.g. the UK, South Africa, Germany, Canada, Australia, and Iceland. I particularly enjoyed the speeches by Harvey Milk and Ian McKellen, which felt incredibly contemporary considering they were delivered decades ago. There are also some speeches delivered by allies, mostly politicians, which I think is reassuring to see those in power who are fighting for this cause. Overall, a very good introduction that I would recommend to others.

The voices: Audre Lorde; Harvey Milk; Munroe Bergdorf; Sir Elton John; Sir Ian McKellen; George Takei; Sylvia Rivera; Bayard Rustin; Elizabeth Toledo; Alison Bechdel; Loretta E. Lynch; Hanne Gaby Odiele; Vito Russo; Tammy Baldwin; Hillary Rodham Clinton; Barak Obama; Senator Karl Heinrich Ulrichs; Robert G. Ingersoll; Theodora Ana Sprungli; Franklin "Frank" Kameny; Sally Gearhart; Harry Hay; Sue Hyde; Mary Fisher; Essex Hemphill; Simon Nkoli; Urvashi Vaid; Eric Rofes; Justice Michael Kirby; Evan Wolfson; Paul Martin; Ian Hunter; Dan Savage and Terry Miller; Rabbi Kleinbaum; Penny Wong; Arsham Parsi; Anna Grodzka; Debi Jackson; Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir; Lee Mokobe; Ban Ki-moon; Geraldine Roman; Cecilia Chung; Olly Alexander.