Happy Leap Day 2012!
Lori B. Girshick is the author of today’s book for review but, in reality, she’s the conduit for 150 voices in the transgender community to be heard. Her book, Transgender Voices: Beyond Women and Men
Why?
It’s those voices. By skillfully drawing her “subjects” (for lack of a better word) out, we get to hear about their lives in stark detail. We learn of coming out, searching for gender identity, bullying, transitioning, discrimination, butch, MTF, FTM, cross dressing and much, much more. Girshhick’s interviewees have been there and done that.
So, what qualifies Lori Girshick to pen such a book? Well, for one, she holds dual doctorates in philosophy and sociology. She self proclaims a passion for social justice. For nearly 12 years she has focused significant time and energy on the issues of same sex sexual and domestic violence. She came at this book project from a deep well of experience looking at, studying, and working towards resolution of all of these issues and more. You can find out more about Dr. Girshick here.
This book in her words:
The book brings together the voices of sex- and gender-diverse people who speak with absolute candor about their lives. Readers hear transpeople speaking in their own voices about identity, coming out, passing, sexual orientation, relationship negotiations and the dynamics of attraction, homophobia (including internalized fears), and bullying. I expose the guilt and the shame that gender police use in their attempts to exert control and point out the many ways the gender binary is reinforced in daily life, from filling out identity documents to gender-segregated bathrooms. By showing readers a variety of descriptions of diverse real lives and providing a thorough exploration of the embodied experiences of gender variant people, I demonstrate that there is nothing inherently binary about gender, that the way each of us experiences our own gender and our own gender variance is, in fact, normal and natural. My analysis of gender as perceived, experienced, and expressed by study participants shows that the common denominators of male/masculine and female/feminine may be illusions.
Interested? Intrigued? I was.
One of the chapters that was the most enlightening for me was Chapter 5 on “Gender Policing”. Now, I’ve been trying to educate myself on transgender issues for the past six months or so. I’ve run across the “bathroom question” more than once and all of the issues that swirl around that. This was the first book I read that really tackled other legal and social policing issues like finding a doctor that will treat you, getting an insurance company to pay for a “female” procedure when you’re technically still male, job protection when transitioning and so much more. It’s really quite staggering the issues even we “traditional” lesbians and gays take for granted.
There’s a lot of commentary here from Dr. Girshick; more so than from the people that she interviewed. Her commentary isn’t to be skipped over though because it is the true meat of this book. She takes the very real feelings and experiences of her subjects and she explains with facts, figures, policies and research just exactly what it all means.
. In their book, they don’t address the typical “how to make your child feel better about himself/herself” psychobabble nor do they pound on the “just wait and you’ll see that they’ll all fade away” theme. No, instead, they offer workable solutions to get the pain to stop 
, was published by Create Space. The reviews so far are good but, she certainly needs more exposure! So; to all you ladies who used to read the daily adventures of drama magnet Lee Harlem Robinson, 
, and I couldn’t wait to dive in. Life has been turmoil lately. I just didn’t feel up to anything that wasn’t upbeat and uplifting. I know it’s the Lenten season but my reality right now is that things are pretty tough for some family members and, being involved to assist, I’m feeling their pain too. I really had been looking for something that would make me feel renewed. I found it!
by Jennifer Bryan happens to be just such a book. It’s designed as a bedtime story for the age 4 and up set. In it, we get to follow Noah along on his nighttime adventures as, through the magic of story telling, he meets a dragon that does not want to be fierce and scary anymore. Noah gets some help from his two loving moms as he works his way through the landscape of the story plot he request (boats, and cats, and dragons – oh my!).
can attest. Perhaps it’s still so popular because it hits so close to home for many of us?!
, a December 2011 publication by summertime Publishing of Great Britain. Jack and his husband Liam are British ex-patriots now living and loving in Turkey. Jack’s book is an inside look at their first year there. I looked the book up and, as a result, was intrigued and said yes. The book arrived a week or so ago and I set about reading it. Fascinating stuff!
authored by journalist and science writer (Johns Hopkins University) Deborah Rudacill. Rudacill began her research all because a friend had decided to transition and she wanted to know more. As a science writer she take a look at the detailed science behind gender make up but, as an investigative journalist she also looks at the very real human emotional issues. She accomplishes the latter by, among other things, interview six transgender “subjects” in depth about their lives and experience. It’s pretty compelling stuff.
by Susan Adams. This 2011 book, is an in depth look at a story much like several of those in the 
by Perry Moore, at first glance has a little bit in common with the 2005 Disney movie 
where high school students are superheros. Maybe the late, very famous Mr. Moore (screenwriter, director and executive producer of 
movie series) got a bit of inspiration for his award winning (Lambda Literary Award) book from that movie. He just took the premise several steps further if that was, in fact, the case. Maybe I’m way of base.
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