I chose this book for the August selection of Reading Rainbow Queer Book Club. It’s an older book, published in 2014, so I wanted to see what the group would have to say about the differences between the trans experience almost ten years ago and the trans experience now.
And then I had a terrible cold on book group night so I missed our discussion entirely. So here are only my thoughts, also caveat, I am a white cisgender woman, hence there’s a lot of privilege I am coming from and trying to be mindful of.
By virtue of when this book was published Janet Mock was obligated to do a lot of ‘trans 101’ info dumping since this book was going to be received by a very cis audience. So the book was almost half memoir and half ‘educate yourself on what it means to be trans (and queer, and black, and poor). Janet did a fantastic job of discussing intersectionality and where she held privileges so that she was able to invite empathy and understanding.
She spent a lot of time moving around as a child, going between parents and between locations (Chicago to Texas to Hawaii). Her father tried to help her learn to exist in the world as a black man because that was the only way he knew to keep his child safe. In doing so he was causing harm, despite his best intentions. Janet’s mother was supportive in a different way, not policing gender, but at the same time being largely absent as she chased boyfriends.
It was well written and I’d love to read a book published more recently to see how the experiences change.