The Bellingham Public Library is celebrating LGBTQ+ Pride Month throughout June with book recommendations, display shelves at all locations, and staff picks highlighting a wide range of voices and stories. This week, Public Services Clerk Karen shared her recommendation: "The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes" by Zoe Playdon, a nonfiction account of a remarkable Scottish barony legal battle that touched on trans identity, inheritance law, and the politics of gender in 20th-century Britain.
Karen's recommendation comes as the library's staff compile a full Pride Month reading list available both in branches and online through the library's catalog. The list spans biography, memoir, fiction, and reference, with options for readers of all ages. Library programs tied to Pride are free and open to the community throughout June.
The book itself centers on Ewan Forbes, heir to a Scottish barony dating back to the 15th century. Forbes had been registered as female at birth but lived his entire adult life as a man, and corrected his birth certificate in the late 1950s -- something that was then possible in the United Kingdom. That changed when a cousin launched a legal challenge, arguing Forbes could not be recognized as male and therefore could not inherit the barony. The ensuing court battle had consequences far beyond one family's estate.
As Karen explains in her recommendation, the heart of the story is not the legal dispute but the man himself -- "this remarkable man, and the way his story resists the oversimplifications we love to heap upon the past." Playdon, a professor of medical humanities, spent years researching court documents that had been sealed for decades, and the result is a deeply reported account of how one man's identity became a political and legal flashpoint.
The case also carries broader historical weight. Playdon's research suggests the Forbes lawsuit played a role in shaping UK law regarding gender recognition -- specifically, the legal changes in the late 1960s that made it harder for trans people to correct their records. That context makes the book relevant not just as a biography but as a piece of legal and social history that continues to resonate today.
The Bellingham Public Library operates three locations in the city: the main Central Library on Dupont Street, the Fairhaven branch, and the Barkley branch. All three have Pride Month displays up through the end of June. Cardholders can place holds through the library's online catalog, and new residents can sign up for a free library card at any branch or online.
For Bellingham readers looking for more Pride Month reading ideas, the library's full staff-recommended list includes titles across genres and age groups. Bellingham also hosts a range of Pride Month community events in June -- a look at what's happening locally this season can be found in recent coverage from the library's broader Pride programming announced earlier this month.
