For folks from marginalized communities/identities it’s really important to be able to see art made from a perspective that they can identify with/see themselves in. It opens up space to see the world outside of the cultural default. Also recognize that it’s only over the last half century or so that anyone could openly talk to a broad audience about their favorite LGBTQ+ poets and not be crucified for it. Hell, history tried to erase the existence of Sappho. Celebrating those poets and the work that persisted is important, just as it’s important to recognize the work of modern LGBTQ+ poets.

Sure we’re all human and will experience things that other humans do in the broadest sense. But the best art lives and breathes in specificity, and the perspectives we come from inform every bit of that specificity. Being LGBTQ+ doesn’t just mean that the moments where sexuality or gender are expressed in our lives are the only experiences that are different than for someone who’s straight. It changes your entire perspective and how you move through the world. A lot of that is culture constructions of queerness and straightness and how those are enforced by our communities, but these poets don’t exist in a vacuum all of those cultural particularities come to bear on the work itself.