The Trans Rights Read-a-thon is an annual event from March 17-31st, the two weeks leading up to Trans Day of Visibility. The Read-a-thon encourages people to read books by and about trans/nonbinary people and donate to trans organizations. This year, Emil (FORGE) volunteered with the Read-a-thon and Oliver (LGBT National Help Center) reached out to the read-a-thon about collaborating around mental health resources. With the help of another volunteer, August, we decided that a joint blog post about books, mental health, and visibility would be a fun project. Below five of us share our experiences with books in our lives.
What’s a time that you have felt seen by a book?
August, Trans Rights Read-a-thon volunteer
When I first read Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas, I was in a place of so much confusion and denial about my gender identity. I knew I was a trans guy, but I didn’t want to accept it. I hoped I could somehow convince myself to remain a cis girl, or find evidence that I was wrong about being trans. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t working, and my mental health was suffering as a result.
I picked up Cemetery Boys to satisfy that part of my heart that, despite everything, kept insisting that I needed to invite this feeling in. I don’t think I really intended to let the feeling stay. But one chapter in, the character of Yadriel had already captivated me. Reading about him moving through the world as a trans boy brought me such a profound sense of comfort, and for the first time I was able to envision a future where I could be a boy, too. I had never before read about a character who shared these complicated feelings I had been holding on to, and the experience of being seen was exhilarating. I understood his sorrows and anxieties, and I felt his joys as if they were my own. When he fell in love, I was overwhelmed with the realization that I could have that, too.
The entire book embraced me with so much warmth and understanding, I hardly knew what to do with this newfound gender euphoria. By the time I reached the end, I knew I wouldn’t be able to go about my life denying my identity. While I still had a difficult path ahead, reading Cemetery Boys gave me the clarity I needed to begin welcoming the trans person I knew myself to be.
Oliver, LGBT Hotline
In Chef’s Kiss by TJ Alexander, the character Ray was so real and relatable to me. (Slight Spoilers ahead). As someone who spent many years in food service jobs that didn’t pay well and definitely didn’t offer health insurance, I felt so seen in their panic when they thought they would lose their job and not be able to get top surgery. The author did such a great job of evoking the very real emotions of finally having a job that enables you to get the care you need and the panic and preemptive grief at the thought of losing it.
Mika, LGBT Hotline
What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher, the book is a remix of one of my favorite stories by Poe, the narrator is a gender nonconforming POC and their story isn’t about their ‘gender’ or how other people react to them. They’re normalized, people react organically and they have to go deal with some crazy supernatural stuff. It’s awesome, I feel like too many stories that are currently peddled to trans and nonbinary identities center around the idea of ‘finding one’s self’ or those pivotal ‘coming out’ moments and not enough of just nonbinary people being people. So the fact that the narrator in What Moves the Dead is just out here dealing with spooky phenomena is lovely.
Emil, FORGE
I was deep in grief-fueled depression when I read H is for Hawk, a memoir by a person who becomes a falconer after her father dies. There’s this scene (that I’m paraphrasing from memory) where she’s been closed in her house for weeks with the shades drawn, just her and this hawk she’s trying to train and bond with. And her reality feels so completely and utterly split from the reality of other humans. That captured how my grief felt – like I was in a totally separate world that no one else could come into. And for a little bit I realized that my grief, though wholly and uniquely mine, was also common, something others had been through. I felt a little bit closer to the reality of the people in my life in that moment – like our worlds could co-exist.
michael, FORGE
Our Bodies Our Selves, Boston Women’s Health Book Collective. This book was “hidden” in the public library. I found it when I was in middle school and the world lit up for me. People actually TALKED about bodies, about feelings, about choice, about having agency over our bodies. It felt like no subject was untouchable and that all bodies were embraced and celebrated.
Although the copy I had access to in the library was the original edition, with no references to trans folks or anything other than binary sex and gender, it was still liberating to read. It would be another 43 years before the groundbreaking Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community (edited by Laura Erickson-Schroth) was published in 2014.
What are some of the ways that books have been important in your life?
August, Trans Rights Read-a-thon volunteer
I have always been a person who reads a great deal of books, and I’ve especially found that I fall back on books during times of change, confusion, or difficulty. For example, I read so much when moving from middle school to high school, and again when moving from high school to college. Books have always offered me a sense of comfort and stability.
Perhaps most important to my life, though, has been the way that books have inspired me. When I was around thirteen or fourteen, my love of books guided me into a love of writing. I began crafting my own stories, and since then I have written around seven and a half full-length novels. While none of them are published (yet!), these characters and worlds have made a profound impact on me. Through my own books, I have been able to explore facets of myself and my world in a way I would never have been able to otherwise. My books are a channel for my creativity, my passion, and my excitement, as well as my worries, conflicts, and fears. They both tell the story of who I was when I wrote them, and who I was hoping to become. I cannot envision my life if I had not picked up writing, which I owe to the inspiration I found in my favorite novels. I hope above all else that my books may someday be a source of inspiration for others as well.
Oliver, LGBT Hotline
In a story all too common, I grew up very sheltered and in a conservative religion that prevented me from even beginning to figure out I was trans until my late 20’s. But books were always my escape and my way to learn about things outside of the bubble I was kept in. I’ve always been motivated to learn about experiences outside of myself, and I learn best thru observation and reading. Reading was a big part of the reason I was able to get out of that bubble and begin to explore my own identity fully.
Some of my earliest memories are of my grandma reading to me, and I attribute those nights of “one more book” to the many “one more chapter” nights that followed as I learned to read myself and continue to this day. I will forever be grateful that the value of reading was instilled in me by her and that I can always come back to books to learn more not just about myself, but experiences beyond my own.
Mika, LGBT Hotline
Books are quite literally magic. How else would you describe a collection of words written on paper and bound together that create a world- a story, a movie, and a bajillion other things. They are escapes, survival manuals, our history, our legends- literally I love books. If for no other reason than for 300 pages I get to step into another world.
Emil, FORGE
Hahahaha, all books ever! I think the Elemental Logic series by Laurie J. Marks has made the most difference in my life. It’s brought me endless conversations, deep friendships, a name, and adventures (like meeting the author and reading books out loud in the woods). I think this book has been the most community building for me.
Oh wow, I wrote these questions, and then I misread this one as which book, not the ways that books…. Lol, let’s try again. Books have shaped my perception of the world, have taught me a ton of stuff from random facts to deep seated values I hold, they give me something to talk about, to be excited about, they are there for me when I am too sad to do anything but read. The worst summer of my life I read a book a day and won a library award. Books have been one of the primary ways I access new ideas, new language, and new skills.
michael, FORGE
The role of books in my life is possibly different from many folks whose goals are often to immerse themselves in stories, seek out books that have characters they identify with, or engage with books for primary pleasure/affirmation/escape. There is precious joy when books play a role in bringing people together.
Strengthening relationships: For the 26 years of my primary relationship, my partner has read to me – in the car as we drive up to our family cottage, while I’m making dinner, when I have been hospitalized, and other moments when we have wanted to share space, share an experience, share a story together. The bonding of this process of reading/being read to – as well as the quest for which book to read next – has been so beautiful. These moments have allowed us to escape together, to share in new ideas, and to stop the constant noise of the world for just a while so we can build our relationship.
Building community: FORGE has long fostered community-building around books. We know that many folks don’t have the funds to buy books, and many folks don’t know about all of the amazing trans-focused books and authors that exist. For at least the past 20 years, we have held in-person or virtual book events where we select a book and send paper or electronic copies to those who would like one. This has allowed us to share space with others, reading together, discussing, and making space for people to connect and explore.
What books by trans/nonbinary folks do you recommend for thinking about mental health, healing, trauma, or survival?
August, Trans Rights Read-a-thon volunteer
I highly recommend American Teenager by Nico Lang, which is a nonfiction journalism book that provides a look into the lives of eight trans teenagers and their families living across the United States. Each person’s story featured unique joys and challenges, but the entire book maintained an overall thread of trans resilience and finding hope through difficulty.
I also recommend the novel The Lilac People by Milo Todd, a historical fiction novel set in Germany at the time when World War II had just ended. It follows a trans main character dealing with immense grief and guilt as he processes the horrors his trans friends endured during the Holocaust. This book is definitely not an easy read, but it is full of healing, survival, and strength, and the profound importance of honoring the trans people who had lived, loved, and fought before us.
Oliver, LGBT Hotline
I am a big advocate for reading both fiction and non-fiction for things like mental health. Nonfiction is helpful because it’s factual and informative. Fiction is also helpful because you can see yourself in an experience and some people learn better from this form of observation. Summer Love Strategy by Ray Stoeve is one example of this for me. It is a YA book but it’s portrayal of mental health and neurodiversity are so well done and even as an adult I learned things and felt seen by it. Bellies by Nicola Dinan is another good example, particularly its depiction of anxiety, OCD and gender dysphoria.
As far as nonfiction I recently picked up GenderQueer Menopause by Lasara Firefox Allen. While also about physical health, there is a huge mental health component to menopause especially in queer bodied people, due to most resources being so gendered. I have not finished this book as of yet, but so far, I have found it to be affirming, informative, and well written.
Mika, LGBT Hotline
I Hope We Choose Love is a heart-rending but wonderful read.
Emil, FORGE
Sorry I Keep Crying During Sex by Jesse James Rose
Beyond Survival by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Unlearning Shame by Devon Price
The Remedy by Zena Sharman
The Future is Disabled by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Falling Back in Love with Being Human by Kai Cheng Thom
Care of by Ivan Coyote
Hello, Cruel World by Kate Bornstein