Wise and Warm Words from LGBTQ+ Survivors

Here it comes, the last week of Pride Month!

In the past weeks we explored books that cover different topics. We started learning more about LGBTQ+ history, of which books are specifically targeted to children, we met an author dear to me, and now it’s time for… uplifting speeches.

Knowing the growing challenges of the community after decades or slow progress, getting to know its past, being more and more painfully aware of the irrational hate its members get, I wanted to close the week on a positive note.

Mission accomplished? Yes and no.

What it comes from this books highlights once again all the suffering the community had to endure.

Surviving Transphobia
★★★★☆

This is an ACR of a book coming out on the 21st of September 2023 courtesy of NetGalley, the authors, and the publisher.

The curator of the book, Laura A. Jacobs is psychotherapist, activist, and author specializing in trans, transgender, gender nonconforming… any gender identity and sexual expression under the sun. She’s a trans-woman herself – which makes her contribution and insight even more impactful.

This book is an anthology by transgender women, transgender men, and people non-binary or genderqueer who are coming from a lot of backgrounds, and that the author has personally encountered.

That being said, and knowing the purpose of the book, the author still wants to specify in her forewards that

this is also a book for allies, and those who provide empathetic support. It is even for people uncertain about transgender rights.

Again: I had other expectations for this book – I hoped to see some positivity. It doesn’t fail to delivere the expectations, in a way. Sharing their story of survival, these ordinary and extraordinary people highlight the resilience of their community, go beyond fears and doubts, and against the uncertainty of what America has become.

This collection of people’s life experiences is honest, often tough, and always “unapologetically political“. After the 2016 American election things looked dim, and unfortunately rightfully so. We don’t just need to hope, but we need to work hard for things to change again for the better, always improving our society and the sense of security and right to exist every being should experience and be granted.

The Letter Q: Queer Writers’ Notes to Their Younger Selves ★★★☆☆

The title is self explanatory! Although I have to admit, not really inclusive of all genders identity or sexuality – it should have been called Gay and Lesbians Writers’ Notes to Their Younger Selves.

I can’t say it doesn’t bother me, hence the lower rating for a book that is actually pretty cool.

These letters are intimate, and yet they publicably reveal what the authors we know and look up to had to endure growing up.

The book is targeted to teenagers mostly, with the belief that younger queers can have support and comfort from people who grew up experiencing the same incomprehension and often rejection.

It’s interesting how this idea came from the experience the editor of the book, Sarah Moon, had when she was young – letters of people to read in the most difficult moments. It was also really interesting that this letters, compared to the tales of Surviving Transphobia, don’t take place in the near past, but they can give first hand a taste of how it was growing up queer few decades ago.

Summ it Up!

Even if the pieces were everything but easy, I think the could still bring hope to both new and older generations of queer people. Like the authors say

We have survived. Here is how. And if we can survive, so can you.