Curated Collections About LGBTQIA

This is a directory of many people's zines, indie games, and other creations on itch.io that have themes of being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, or asexual. I chose and reviewed each of these creations by hand, because even if they are different than my own views or experiences (as a queer person myself), they meet these criteria:

1. Queer positivity. These materials can be about unhappy things, but they're in harmony with the message that all LGBTQIA identities are themselves okay and should be accepted.
2. Queer verisimilitude. Even if it's science fiction, the queerness is as it is in real life. A f-tish made up for straight audiences is not queer representation, for the purposes of these collections.
3. Quality. Queerness is one of the good things about these materials, and they are good materials. The creator didn't use artif-cial int-lligence to g-nerate the art or text. (I didn't use any for this project, either.) They feel complete and functional even if they're short or rough around the edges in that handmade way.

First, I curate these collections of people's itch.io creations for each letter in the LGBTQIA acronym:

• Lesbians and women loving women.
• Gay men and men loving men.
• Bisexual, polysexual, and pansexual people feel attracted to people who have another or the same gender as their own.
• Transgender. This big collection has all sorts of trans identities, and I also have the following collections on specific trans identities.
  • Trans women and trans feminine people.
  • Trans men and trans masculine people.
  • Nonbinary. For anyone who is not only a woman or a man all of the time. For example, agender (genderless), bigender, genderfluid, neutrois, and more.
• Queer. This collection is for creations that are a good introduction to what it means to be queer in general, or has a focus on more than one queer topic, or on a queer topic that I haven't made a specialized collection about yet.
• Questioning. About people who are figuring out whether or how they're queer.
• Intersex people have various sorts of naturally occurring differences from conventionally accepted categories of male and female bodies. (This is not about sexes that only exist in animals or fantasy.)
• Asexual spectrum has orientations where people don't tend to feel attracted to others: aromantic, asexual, aro-ace, demisexual, gray-ace, and more.

Next, I curate these collections of LGBTQIA content around what sorts of materials they are and what else is in them.

• By medium
  • Games, whether or not they're for on a computer
    • Multiplayer games.
    • Puzzle games.
    • Visual novels.
    •  Choose Your Own Gender. Games where you can choose whether you go by she, he, or other options for expressing your gender. Unlike the other collections in this directory, most of the creations in this one are games that I haven't tried and reviewed yet.
  • Books, zines, and written works:
    • Printable zines. These are specially designed with a layout so that you can print and fold them yourself.
  • Other media
  • Pride flags. Many of these are icons and other graphic designs you can use in your own projects, but there are also some zines, games, and interactive art pieces about pride flags.
  • Crafts. For example, instructions for cross-stitch designs with pride flag colors.
• Genre and subject
  • Humor.
  • Nonfiction. Everything about queer people in the real world. History, memoirs, and useful resources.
  • Poetry. Some of this is inspired by the ancient poet Sappho of Lesbos, whereas other poems are entirely new creations by the zinesters of itch.io.
• Media content ratings. I try to give content ratings to everything in these collections so that they are safer and friendlier to explore, and appropriate for whatever audience you want to share them with.
  • Rated G, which is the same rating as Everyone (E). This collection has queer zines, games, and other content that are just as family-friendly as a straight person's story of growing up and getting married. It is suitable for all ages to see queer people simply existing, same as everyone else. If you're looking for something to share with relatives or a classroom, search in this collection first.
  • Rated PG, otherwise known as rated Everyone 10+ (E10+). These would be just as family-friendly, except that there were swear words, mild violence, or something suggestive. Usually just a swear word.
  • Rated PG-13, which is the same as rated Teen (T). That's for audiences age 13 and up who have had a basic sex education, so that they are prepared to encounter non-explicit references to sex that might be humorous, educational, or a part of a person's life story.
  • Rated R, also called rated Mature 17+ (M). These are for adults only because they contain significant violence or sex scenes that serve a narrative purpose.

Furthermore, I curate these collections of people's itch.io creations about other queer topics:

• LGBTQIA BIPOC. About those of us who are also Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
• Xenogender identities don't fit into human understandings of gender. The creations in this collection are about real people who feel that way, or-- unlike other collections in this directory-- speculations about what gender might be like in the future or in other worlds.
• Polyamory. Polyamorous relationships have more than two partners, whether they are closed triads, open monogamous relationships, relationship anarchy, or other bespoke relationship arrangements.

Please enjoy exploring this directory of collections! 

Here is some more information about this directory. This directory and everything in it was created by real people, rather than things g-nerated by machines. The HTML file download is a copy of what you see on just this page alone. The flags in the cover image come from the Mutant Standard emoji (CC-BY-NC-SA). From left to right, they are the flags for lesbian, gay bear, bisexual, transgender, Philadelphia pride rainbow, intersex, and asexual. The background is a rainbow gradient by Codioful (free under Unsplash license). If you want to ask me to add or remove your creations from my collections, or if you have other comments, you can use the forum at the bottom of this page.