| Title | : | Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1558968962 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781558968967 |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 400 |
| Publication | : | First published May 2, 2023 |
So often trans and nonbinary people’s stories are told only through the lens of their struggles and challenges, including their political battles for legal rights, but trans and nonbinary people live rich and fulfilling lives full of joy and community too. Authentic Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families is a sweeping compilation of life stories and portraits of trans and nonbinary people, as well as their partners, parents, children, siblings, and chosen family members. The compelling stories in Authentic Selves provide a glimpse into the real lives, both the challenges and the triumphs, of these remarkable people and their families—people like Senator Sarah McBride, disability justice advocate Parker Glick, drag entertainer TAYLOR ALXNDR, September 11th first responder Jozeppi Angelo Morelli, model Lana Patel, youth activist Elliott Bertrand, and so many others—all of whom are working to create a more just, diverse, and compassionate world. Developed in collaboration with PFLAG National and Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund.
Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families Reviews
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An excellent book to better understand
This book is such a help, particularly for cishet folks, to better understand what it means to be trans or nonbinary, in the words of those living these lives. -
Beautiful, amazing collection of families and individuals sharing their stories of authenticity, transformation, relationship, and hope.
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A diverse collection that includes experiences and identities that will speak to many trans and non-binary readers/families, but that could have been arranged more coherently/less randomly.
The best part is definitely the mixture of ages, race/ethnic backgrounds, family structures, religious traditions, etc. among those featured in the book. Other books of this kind often had sparse representation beyond certain groups that were easily accessible to the editor. This depicts a broader swath of the community by far.
Less awesome, some of the essays felt like recruitment pitches for PFLAG and less authentic for that. It's a great organization, but it just popped up in odd places, and, yes, I know they had a stake in the book, but that doesn't mean the drop-ins were not awkward AF in some spots.
The framework also seemed to lean slightly toward religiosity in a positive way, even though that is not the lived experience of most LGBTQ people. It's a bias in the selection, IMHO, possibly arising from featuring so many people from the South (especially Georgia...WTF?). I'm trans and from Georgia and have seen the Williams Institute stats for where transgender people live in the US, but this still seems disproportionate and weird to me.
Overall, it is a great collection and reading about trans lives in the context of their families is informative, and I hope parents of transgender children and youth are able to find this book and have more understanding for their kids because of it. -
This book was so affirming and lovely. I am a queer nonbinary person and I very deeply appreciate the work and bravery that went into this book. Thank you with all my heart to the people who shared their stories. You have inspired me to keep on being visible and live my life as my authentic self.
