Gay male love stories

The 20 Best Queer Romances of All Time

What are the characteristics of a truly excellent queer love story? 

Most linear romance novels are given the stamp of approval when their two main characters — regardless of circumstances — end the book with a happily ever after. Judging gay romances by this criteria is a petty more complicated, mostly because so many of the early narratives to even begin to stroke on queer love could often only mention them peripherally to avoid censorship and public decency laws. Even when queer romances were explicit, many were steeped in trauma, malaise, and hand wringing, matching the real world repercussions of being gay in less accepting times. Nowadays, finding a queer romance can be as easy as spotting two cartoons of the same sex on the front of a book’s cover. But will that tactic really bring you the top results? 

Queer love stories are more than just romantic plot points They’re about a vibe — which makes them both hard to quantify and infinitely exciting when you discover another great one. Pride month isn’t just the time

When we were growing up there were few (if any) gay love stories around for us to be exposed to, whether in real life,  on TV, or anywhere else in the media.

We would have absolutely loved to have been able to learn that gay admire stories do exist and that gay relationships and gay romance could be real, true and loving.

That’s why in this blog post we wanted to share some real-life homosexual love stories from some of our followers on Instagram in the expectation that we can spread the message that cherish really is for all. [no_toc]

Real Life Gay Treasure Stories

Branden and Stephen

Our first gay love story is from Branden and Stephen:

‘It was , Branden was in the closet, looking to find a affair on an online dating website site; Stephen, also inquiring a relationship replied.

We talked online for several days, then we finally made the leap to join in person.

Our first hang out was at a local brewery where we talked for hours and played pool. We hit it off immediately, both growing up in the rural parts of Alberta and this being our first gay relationship, we had so much in comm

The world of same-sex attracted romance novels is, if not quite as vast as the world of m/f romance, still quite expansive. Are you looking for a royal-commoner romance? A fake marriage? Something dark and gritty, or something that&#;s the literary equivalent of a basket of puppies? Whatever it is that floats your romance boat, I guarantee there&#;s an m/m romance out there that will satisfy. In making this list, I&#;ve highlighted as many #ownvoices authors as possible. There&#;s a misconception that the only people who write m/m relationship are straight women, and while it&#;s true that some of the biggest names in same-sex attracted romance are unbent women, there are also dozens of queer men writing fantastic gay passion. But because of the biases and shortcomings of publishing (and a slew of other complicated factors), it&#;s unbent women who often get the most recognition in the genre. This is not to tell that straight women can&#;t, or shouldn&#;t, write gay relationship novels. You&#;ll come across several (including some of my absolute favorites!) on this list. You&#;ll also find many marvelous books by lgbtq+ men

Gay love stories in historical fiction

What was it love to be a same-sex attracted man in Paris in ? While researching my novel The Beasts of Paris, I couldn’t uncover much in 19th-century writing about homosexual love, and even later there are strangely few literary, homosexual, period-set love stories (shout outs to Sarah Waters and Mary Renault), so I’m pushing the boundaries of both ‘love story’ and ‘historical’ here. All I found in 19th-century accounts is an occasional minor character – e.g. in Zola’s Nana – or documentary reports of police raids, or porn (thank you, Jack Saul). I delved into novels, paintings and photographs as well as history. And if my historical period stretches from Ancient Greece to the early s – well, you accept what you can get.

Maurice by E.M. Forster

The daddy of all gay adore stories. Although written in , Forster’s book was not published until after his death, in He was inspired to note it after meeting the writer and activist Edward Carpenter and his long-term partner George Merrill. It’s a deeply sympathetic picture of a man who experiences intense pass