Washington's Gay General

Josh Trujillo is a comic book guy based in Los Angeles. His work covers different genres, including superheroes, history, and children’s fiction. In 2020, he contributed to the Ignatz Award–winning Be Gay, Do Comics (IDW, 2020). Trujillo is also featured in the Eisner Award–winning Love is Love (IDW, 2016), benefiting victims of the Orlando nightclub tragedy, and the Ringo Award–winning Mine! (2018), benefiting Planned Parenthood. In 2021, he co-created Aaron Fischer for Marvel Comics. Fischer, a gay runaway, takes on the mantle of Captain America. You can learn more about Trujillo, his work, and his dogs at JoshTrujillo.com or @LostHisKeysMan. Levi Hastings is an illustrator and cartoonist specializing in natural science, travel, and queer history. His clients include HBO, the Washington Post, BuzzFeed, the Nib, the Stranger, and a variety of other publications. He lives in Seattle.

Washington's Gay General makes clear that queer people have always existed, even before the word "queer" existed. This book doesn't put Baron Von Steuben up on a pedestal, making clear that "America's founding daddy" is lying, self-aggrandizing, and brutal—in other words, a real person. Trujillo and Hastings gently weave their own insightful personal reflections on living as a gay people in America today into their quest to research the life of von Steuben, making clear that it's important to see queer people reflected in our history.