beyond magenta transgender teens speak out by susan kuklin

Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology-what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. Informative, revealing, powerful and necessary.Ī miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.Įli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. The collective portrait that emerges from these narratives and pictures is diverse, complex and occasionally self-contradictory-as any true story should be. Similarly, sex and genitalia are discussed frankly but are rarely what matters most. Images of the young people before their transitions are often included but, appropriately, do not serve as focal points for their chapters. Christina, who attends Fashion Institute of Technology, is pictured shopping for clothes, proudly displaying a school project and hugging her mother. In photographs, readers see Nat, who attends a performing-arts high school in New York City and uses the personal gender pronouns them and they, carrying their violin on New York’s High Line. Their stories are told largely in the teens’ own words, with only a few italicized interpolations to clarify or contextualize a point or to describe a facial expression or inflection readers cannot see or hear. They hear from teens who identify fully as female or male, teens who identify as neither male nor female, and one teen who is intersex.

In verbal and, when the subjects have given permission, visual profiles, readers meet transgender teens with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. Kuklin ( No Choirboy, 2008, etc.) brings her intimate, compassionate and respectful lens to the stories of six transgender young people.

Beyond magenta transgender teens speak out by susan kuklin