When I do public events someone always asks how I write the way I do, or come up with my ideas or approaches. The answer is always that everything I do is created in community.

Everything I’ve written or said has come out of conversations, readings, and collaborations with other people, many of whom paid much more than I have to get their thoughts and words out there and acknowledged. Many are still not getting the acknowledgement they deserve because people are more likely to credit a white person who looks like a guy than queer disabled BIPOC people. 

My books are all collaboratively produced and I never have the time or space to credit all the people who have contributed to them. But I’m often asked about people whose work I turn to, or people who have influenced my work. So here is a very incomplete, and always growing list.  There are lots of people on this list I’ve never met, spoken to, or corresponded with, but their work continues to teach and change me.  Others are close friends.  At least one is my therapist.  Presented in no particular order.

Zoe Wool
Bianca I. Laureano
Fiona Smyth
Patricia Berne
Fran Odette
Veronica Liu
Betty Tank
Del LaGrace Volcano
Morgan Holmes
Rebecca Picherack
Daniel Heath Justice
Hilary North
Annanda DeSilva
Jessica Abraham
Morénike Giwa-Onaiwu
Linda Crabtree
Farzana Doctor
Karen B.K. Chan
Maria Palacios
Leroy Moore
Linda Mona
Stacey Milbern
Jake Pyne
Allison Howell
Kristyn Dunnion
Aidan Key
Alejandra Ospina
Carol Queen
Alison Kafer
Eli Clare
Chloë Atkins
Stevie Forbes-Roberts
Catherine Fitzpatrick
Carol Camper
Susan Ludwig
Venita Ray