This article argues that the management of the tension between discretion and disclosure can be understood as queer labor: an ongoing negotiation between relating to others while defining the self. Through an analysis of selected writings by two lesbian authors, Tove Jansson and Audre Lorde, this article contributes to an understanding of the discursive management of queer experiences, the labor involved in this management, and the relation between this affective work and literary work. I argue that both Jansson and Lorde draw on their life experiences as lesbians in their elaboration of this tension and its negotiation, but that Jansson advances a more individualistic view, seeing discretion as a source of respite from the public, while Lorde sees self-knowledge and the disclosure thereof as steps toward the collaborative work of social justice.