Transparent by Cris Beam
Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagers is the memoir of a lesbian who gets involved with transgendered teenagers, mostly male-to-female. This isn’t a subject I can claim to know anything about, but it’s an interesting one. I learned a lot about the challenges these kids face and you certainly do get a sense for how strongly some of them feel the disconnect between their physical and mental genders. It’s curious how some people feel like they’ve been born the wrong gender while other people simply feel non-stereotypical. For instance, I have many stereotypically male characteristics, habits, and interests, but I’ve never doubted my identity as a woman.
Cris is more patient with the kid she semi-adopts than I would be. Gender issues aside, these kids have a lot of other problems, so kudos to her and her partner for taking on such a troubled teen and sticking with her.