Conversion Therapy Dropout

A reading group for people who care about LGBTQ+ literature and the conversations it sparks — the kind of Tuesday night where you actually get to talk about books with people who get it. Hosted at Fabulosa Books in the Castro, this intimate gathering brings together readers and writers who want to dig deeper into queer voices and stories that matter. Expect thoughtful discussion, genuine connection, and the kind of literary community that makes you want to show up again next time.

Joseph Osmundson, author of the award-finalist VIROLOGY, reads from his genre-bending memoir about queer family-making, scientific ethics, and building kinship beyond biology. When a lesbian couple he'd known since college asked him to be their bio-dad and co-parent, Joe thought he'd found his path to parenthood—until questions of race, whiteness, and belonging reshaped everything. An intimate evening exploring grief, caregiving, and what it means to make family in the 21st century.

Noel Quiñones reads from his visceral new poetry collection, a portrait of family, identity, and truth in the North Bronx. Through narrative poems and innovative forms inspired by color theory, Orange explores queerness, lies, and finding yourself within chosen and biological family—centering relationships between friends, cousins, partners, and beyond. Quiñones unflinchingly confronts the contradictions at the heart of love, divorce, gender, religion, and community, unpacking coming out, divorced parents, and generational trauma. Truth, the collection argues, resembles color: something real, yet elusive, and impossible to prove.

Barry Walters, veteran music critic and author, traces LGBTQ+ music's radical journey from the underground dancefloors of the Seventies through the global charts of today. Drawing on decades covering New York and San Francisco's music scenes, Walters examines how queer musicians, industry insiders, and fans reshaped the mainstream—from David Bowie's reinventions to Prince's boundary-shattering sexuality to the Indigo Girls' radical candor. This is music history as personal memoir: a page-turning love letter to the songs and artists that liberated generations and paved the way for today's unabashedly queer hits.

The third anthology from DOPAMINE Books explores the clown in all its forms—from the vulnerability of falling in love to the subversive magic of not giving a fuck. This collection of poetry, fiction, screenplay, and more features work from Megan Milks, Tania De Rozario, Nicole J. Georges, Julián Delgado Lopera, Justin Chin, Andrea Lawlor, and other queer voices who find liberation in the archetype. Michelle Tea hosts an evening that gets under your skin and liberates your own inner clown, be it smart-ass, trickster, or holy fool.