By Ann Travers
$25; New York University Press; 261 pages
Boy or girl?
That's a common enough question, if you're an expectant parent. You might've even wondered it yourself: will you need pink things or blue, and what name will you choose? For generations, it's been an exciting decision for prospective parents, but Ann Travers asks in The Trans Generation if it's a prudent one. Maybe letting the child decide would be a better choice.
Fifty-six years ago, when Travers was born, their mother's doctor unwittingly caused a lifetime of hurt: "It's a girl," he said, and Travers spent years trying to "untangle" what it meant. That, they said, is part of what drives this book. The other part is the desire to improve the lives of trans kids through understanding.
Getting to that point is harrowing: Ninety-five percent of transgender kids on one study felt unsafe in their schools. Many report that physicians misunderstand kids who are gender-nonconforming. Trans kids attempt suicide and/or self-harm at very high rates and, says Travers, "many grow up hating their bodies…" Most employ several kinds of coping mechanisms to live their lives.
In writing this book, Travers says, they interviewed a wide variety of trans kids from the United States and Canada—19 in all, ages 4 to 20, plus 23 parents. The children mostly came from middle-class families, which allowed them privileges such as better access to medical care and chances to change schools if they needed to do so. Other children Travers interviewed lived in poverty, their stories illustrating how being a trans kid can be socially and medically isolating, and how lack of access to needed resources can affect their well-being.
Parents, of course, can affect that well-being, too, but it takes a "phenomenal amount of care, advocacy, and activism … to push back against cisgendered environments," schools, sports, binary-only bathrooms, social activities, medical facilities, and politics. It takes a willingness to learn, listen, and lean in.
Not just for parents, but for teachers, advocates, and loved ones, The Trans Generation is one heavy-duty book.
Writing with a bit of a scholar's voice and occasional, relatively advanced, science and law studies, author Travers also offers readers plenty of eye-opening chats with trans kids, which turn out to be the most helpful, useful, and even entertaining parts of this book. From the mouths of babes, as they say, those interviews give insights that adults will find to be wise and thoughtful, even monumental. They're also heartbreaking but considering the kids readers are introduced to, and the singular interview with a 16-year-old who made her own hormone treatments in her high school's laboratory, they're a good indication of hope for the future.
While you could be forgiven for skipping to those case studies, you'd be missing out. The thicker parts of "The Trans Generation" are worth reading and reflection and are deeply instructive on pronouns, on gender fluidity, and on being trans in a cisgender-based society. They are also serious and weighty but that kind of rock-solid information could make this book the right choice.
Want more? Then look for Trans Kids: Being Gendered in the Twenty-First Century, by Tey Meadow; or Parenting Beyond Pink or Blue: How to Raise Your Kids Free of Gender Stereotypes, by Christia Spears Brown.
