This unique comic anthology takes its readers on a journey through different art styles and queer perspectives, from first Prides to multi-generational friendships to finding community among chosen families. The comics in Queer Compassion offer kaleidoscopic insight into the colorful, heartbreaking, empowering, funny, and diverse lives of queer people around the world by centering compassion as a way to inhabit and build community.

These comics are created by queer artists for queer audiences and with the intent for queer self-expression and representation. Social science researchers spoke to diverse members of LGBTQ+ communities to explore their beliefs about and experiences of compassion. Fifteen queer comics were commissioned to illustrate those stories, making the process of creating each comic a unique collaboration between researchers and artists, blending data exploring the meanings of compassion for queer folks with the creativity, passion, and understanding of a queer comic artist.

These stories reflect not only the harsh realities that many queer people face but they also uplift queer voices, illustrate strength, and capture queer resolve to make life more compassionate. Queer people, living in a cis-heteronormative world, often face experiences of marginalization, discrimination, stigma, trauma, and invisibility in everyday life. Queer Compassion shows that its titular emotion can be the bridge that brings understanding and creates community connections — a bridge that is particularly needed at this time.

Phillip Joy is Assistant Professor at Mount Saint Vincent University.

Andrew Thomas is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology and working as a research assistant at Mount Saint Vincent University and Dalhousie University.

Dr. Megan Aston is a Nursing Professor at Dalhousie University.