The individuality of the youth voices in Beyond Magenta makes it clear that we cannot assume that all transgender teens share the same experience. I like to think that’s obvious, but I guess it’s not.” Cameron, who uses the pronoun they, describes themself as pansexual - “I like people regardless of gender” - and their style as “gender fuck” - “blending stuff, having something girl and something boy and something neither.” They are similar in that they are both breaking gender rules.
Being trans is not the next step to being gay. Then there is Cameron, who explains: “Gender is one variable in a person’s identity, and sexual orientation is another variable.
Nat is an intersex youth whose struggle with identity led to serious depression. Mariah was moved between foster homes, treatment centers, hospitals, and a psychiatric center. Christina’s mother, who is also interviewed, warns readers: “Don’t say horrible things to your child. Jesse’s story is positive: His family has accepted him and he is in a happy relationship.Ĭhristina describes her more difficult transition from male to female. First we meet Jesse, who shares photos of himself as a child named Jessica, as a high school student, and then through his transition.
It illuminates the lives of transgender and questioning teens and their parents through photos and interviews. The award-winning Beyond Magenta is for youth, parents, and educators. A year later, when I was leading professional development workshops on gender and sexuality, a colleague pointed me to Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out. (See “Disarming the Nuclear Family,” by Willow McCormick, summer 2014.) Although Families does not include all the kinds of families in my large urban district (e.g., blended families, extended families, or children living with other guardians), we have had great conversations about the book in my early elementary classrooms. Her book Families includes oral interviews and photographs of biracial families, families with divorced parents, gay and lesbian families with children. Susan Kuklin first caught my attention a few years ago when I was browsing at the public library.
How could one human being refer to another with such disrespect? Unfortunately, this is the awful reality for far too many trans youth in our schools. When I heard the story from a friend, it brought me almost to tears. “You have got to come out here and see this!” That’s how a transgender student was introduced to her homeroom teacher at a high school in my district. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out
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