There is something inherently subversive and anti-authoritarian about a printed book: A compact, relatively durable vessel for transmitting knowledge, that needs no battery or charging cable, that cannot be hidden behind paywalls, that can be passed from person to person without a trace, that cannot be edited invisibly to meet the changing demands of dictators and their imitators. There is a very good reason why authoritarians put such a high priority on destroying and restricting books: Books are the weapons of rebellion, and when we read, we build a fortress in our minds that tyrants cannot destroy. Even when the State dominates every other aspect of life—when bodily autonomy is denied, relationships are invalidated, and we are called wrong, broken, and perverse—for queer people, books can be the lifeline to keep our identities, and sanity, intact. So, it should come as no surprise that across Wisconsin, in communities large and small, queer booksellers are agents of resistance.

In Madison, we’re lucky to have well-established queer-owned bookstores like A Room of One’s Own playing a role in queer culture building and resistance, along with smaller bookstores like Kismet Books in Verona who purposefully host LGBTQ-inclusive spaces and events like their Queer Joy Book Club. For the purposes of this article, I chose to focus on newer and smaller operations in other parts of the state.

WordHaven BookHouse, Sheboygan

When CJ Arthur (they/them) opened WordHaven BookHouse, a independent bookstore and writing center in Sheboygan, they weren’t expecting picketers and death threats. After years of fighting for justice as a social worker and educator, they were just looking for a quiet place to start over. But when you’re a trixic, trans, nonbinary person running a queer bookstore in smalltown Wisconsin, just being yourself is an act of resistance, and CJ wasn’t shy about being themself.

“If you’re not pissing off white supremacists,” they quipped, “you can probably be doing more.”

Rather than just having a “queer shelf” or two, CJ interspersed books with queer topics and queer authors liberally through their store, paying special attention to books that were getting banned in the local schools. But that was just the beginning. WordHaven hosts Drag Story Time, a Trans Support Network, a Banned Book Club, and more. CJ also organizes assorted keynotes, workshops, and retreats through WordHaven Ignites, a consulting business they run on the side, focused on creating safe spaces for conversations about equity, advocacy, and “learning how to be healthy with ourselves and each other.” Much more than a book shop, WordHaven has become a hub for queer community and connection.

Baldwin’s Books and Records, Madison

Lily Someson (she/they) and Micah Robinson (they/he) met in an undergraduate poetry program in Chicago. Both were from small, conservative Midwestern towns where their queer identities were suppressed, and both had turned to books from an early age as a way to understand themselves.

“The library was a sacred place for me; it allowed me to learn about people who I didn’t see in my world,” Micah said.

“I feel like books are the difference between surviving and thriving,” said Lily. “Books put us in a place where we can see other options. It’s a way to find out more about yourself and the world around you.”

Together, Lily and Micah began exploring ways to spread literacy, especially with the rise of the second Trump administration. In January 2025, they launched Baldwin’s Books and Records as a pop-up venture. Named after Black author and queer icon James Baldwin, Baldwin’s specializes in “rescuing literature” by buying books at estate sales, library sales, and online auctions, refurbishing the books, and offering them at an affordable price.

“All of a sudden it became very apparent that this work could not wait,” Lily said. “During the first Trump presidency, things like censorship felt like they were coming but not quite here. This time, things started getting censored immediately.”

They had their first booth in February, at Femmestival at the Garver Feed Mill in Madison. “We applied for it before we even had the name figured out,” Micah said. “We started buying up any kind of radical literature we could find and piling it into a suitcase Lily’s grandma gave us.”

Lily and Micah organize their finds into samplers of different parts of the queer experience: Black voices, Asian and Pacific Islander voices, etc. Many of their books and magazines have been out of print for decades, and represent unique moments in queer history.

Baldwin’s does not yet have a storefront, but they continue to table at events around southern and central Wisconsin, including the Fox Valley Pride event. They are also regular attendees at Picnic on the Patio, a recurring event at the Northstreet neighborhood collective in Madison.

“We think a lot about what our place is in the revolution, and this is it,” Lily said. “Reading things like James Baldwin, we really want people to come into our space and leave inspired to do better.”

Bound to Happen, Stevens Point

A hundred miles further north in the small city of Stevens Point, Bound to Happen Books opened in 2021. The three owners—Lyn, Nicole, and Rachel—all identify as queer, and none of them had prior experience running a bookstore.

“We recognized a resource missing in our community,” Lyn said, “An independent bookstore where you could come in, meet people, and take on some of the larger issues that are going on in the world.”

Originally sharing a building with another business, Bound To Happen soon outgrew their initial space, and by 2023 occupied the entire building. They stock a wide variety of books, from comfort reads to texts that challenge, provoke, and expand the reader’s worldview. They host a number of book clubs: Some centered on popular genres, and others that focus on specific themes like radical politics or dealing with grief.

“Books are a way we can find community with others,” Lyn said. “We feel isolation or alienation until we have a common vocabulary and people who share it. Around here, it’s not always an accepted thing to be queer, so having books available where people are talking about their feelings and experiences is an incredibly powerful way for people who feel alienated and forgotten, and wrong.”

The shop’s owners are also not shy about using their platform on social media. “We have kicked things up a notch in the last year or so,” Lyn said. “We’ve been pretty explicit about what it’s going to take to fight back against those in power who are attacking trans rights—not just Trump, but also Democrats who are looking to abandon trans rights to appeal to the center.”

Like WordHaven in Sheboygan, Bound to Happen has faced protesters for their support of trans people and drag performers. “Drag Storytime was our first time being protested—for at least a week before, religious people were coming in and sticking tracts into books, sometimes damaging the books in the process. They also protested outside of the store. But we immediately flipped it around: We put a call out to our community through social media, and had 15–20 people come to stand outside the store and cover the windows, so the protesters couldn’t come in. For every tract we found, we pledged to donate $10 to a pro-LGBTQ+ nonprofit. We found more than 100 of them, but I worry about how many we didn’t find that ended up leaving the store.”

Still, Lyn believes that their most important work comes in the small conversations they have every day with their customers. “We talk about the attacks that are going on,” they said. “We need to find this joy, and this love, but also anger, and justice, so we can build a more just world.”

The Well Red Damsel, Milwaukee

Understanding history and politics is crucial for resistance, but if there’s a single defining aspect of queerness, it’s love: Who we love, how we love them, and how we love ourselves and our own bodies. In light of that, it’s appropriate that Wisconsin’s newest queer book shop is dedicated to love in all its myriad forms. The Well Red Damsel (WRD) opened the doors of its first brick-and-mortar location in June 2025, billing itself as Milwaukee’s first romance-only bookstore. Owner Natasha Meyer (she/her) is a bisexual woman, a Milwaukee native, and a lifelong reader. She credits her love of romance novels with helping her to figure out her own sexuality later in life.

“Seeing love stories in books that didn’t match what I had experienced piqued my interest,” Natasha said. “My hope is that anyone who comes into our bookstore will find a love story that fits their experience.”

Natasha strives to make WRD a safe, comforting and inclusive space for everyone. She makes a point to showcase books that offer a wide variety of love stories: Gay, straight, asexual, trans, and others.

“We’re only three weeks in,” she told me in mid-July, “but I work really hard to promote queer love stories and queer authors. We just had a ‘Pride’s Not Over’ book event with six queer authors, and we had 300–400 people show up. I want to do more events like that.”

WRD opening its doors this year may prove to be timely for another reason. Milwaukee is home to Romance Con, a very large convention that has recently come under fire for its associations with the Harry Potter fandom and, by extension, transphobic author J.K. Rowling. As a result, some fans and authors have announced their intention to boycott Romance Con as a show of support to the trans community.

Support your Local, Queer Bookstore

Of course, not every town in Wisconsin is lucky enough to have a queer, independent bookstore. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t support these amazing booksellers. Each of the organizations I spoke to offers the option of purchasing books online, either directly through their websites or through Bookshop.org. Buying audiobooks is also an option thanks to a service called Libro.fm. Just select a bookstore you want to support, and they will receive a payment for each purchase you make.

“Books have saved my life, in so many ways,” says WordHaven owner CJ Arthur. “That’s not hyperbole. We become the healthiest when we are owning our shit and connecting to others’ stories. That’s the way we make the world a better place.”

Editor’s Note: We’ve profiled a few queer bookstores here; please reach out to [email protected] to suggest stores for future profiles.