Susan KuklinBeyond Magenta: Transgender and Nonbinary Teens Speak Out

Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out tackles the difficult subject of transgender teens. It provides a glimpse into the lives of five transgender teens and young adults. At this point, I believe it is important to go through the basics of sex, gender, and transgender before I review the book. Although a majority of people use the terms "sex" and "gender" interchangeably, they are vastly different concepts. The term "sex" is purely biological and it refers to the physical characteristics of genitalia, chromosomes, and hormones. Someone who has male genitalia, XY chromosomes, and primarily testosterone is referred to as male. A biological female has female genitalia, higher levels of estrogen, and XX chromosomes. Intersex individuals can have any number of combined male and female physical characteristics and ambiguous genitalia. Now these physical attributes have nothing to do with gender, which is a societal context, internal feeling and identity. A person's gender is how they identify in terms of being man/woman, pronouns they prefer (he/she), bathrooms they use, and countless other thoughts, feelings, and sense of who a person is. Now a majority of people are cisgender, meaning their intrinsic gender identity matches their biological sex. However, for a small minority of people, their intrinsic gender identity doesn't match their biological sex or have ambiguous biological sex. This is what the term "transgender" means and it is an umbrella term for any gender identity which doesn't precisely match a person's physical characteristics. For example, a person could be born biologically female, but, identify as a man or F to M. Of course this is just one example under the general umbrella term of transgender. Like I mentioned at the beginning, Beyond Magenta briefly examines the lives of five transgender individuals. I think the book succeeds in several aspects. For starters, I felt the author gave each person the respect he or she deserved and it seemed like the author genuinely tried to understand each person. Often times transgender people face violence and discrimination because people are ignorant, do not understand the differences between sex and gender, and are afraid of such a foreign concept for them. I also liked how the author shared each person's story before, during, and after their transition, if applicable. Additionally, I thought the author did a fantastic job presenting each person as the gender they identified with. She used the appropriate pronouns, even before the person transitioned, and showed more pictures of each person as their preferred gender. In fact, I wasn't sure of the biological sex of one of the people (no that this matters of course) and actually guessed wrong. Clearly, the author took great care in presenting each person correctly.Despite these positive qualities, I thought the book was weak in two main areas and these are the reasons I am giving it a mediocre star rating. First, I wish the author spent more time dealing with the thoughts and feelings of the coming out process for everyone involved. I felt this aspect of each's person's story was glossed over in a couple of paragraphs. I also wish the author spent more time discussing each person's life while they were growing up and working through their thoughts and feelings until they reached the conclusion they were transgender. Overall, I guess I just wish each story was told in more depth. This wasn't my biggest problem, however. My biggest problem with the book is she included one, if not two, people with many other psychological issues. One person went back and forth on whether or not they were transgender and ever described one instance as a phase. This person was engaging in sexual activity, starting at 6 years old, spent several months or years, on a few occasions, in hospitals or group homes due to emotional instability. They were forcibly removed from their guardian's house twice due to violent outbursts and threatening people with a knife. At one point in the hospital, this person stuck their hand in someone's pants (and more) and the author left out whether this was consensual sexual activity. Regardless, I don't think their story should have been included because it is not representative of the general transgender population. Transgender people already have enough trouble with discrimination and violence due to misperceptions and false beliefs without the author adding, to the already common notion that transgender people are mentally ill. The other person clearly suffered from clinical depression and I am ambivalent on their story being included for the same reasons. Although it is common for transgender people to struggle with clinical depression, so this person's story was probably more relevant and representative of the struggles of being transgender than the first person I mentioned.

I bought this book for my women & gender studies class and it was a very informative, well-written book. Gave me a lot of perspective on the trans and non-binary experience and I am glad I read it!

This was my response to S.C. Sue, who recommends some alternative books that I think may serve a different purpose. You'll have to read the comments on her review to see those, and it may be worth it for those titles if this book isn't what you want. My response to Sue is below:Thanks for responding. I can understand why you might not like the format. It does NOT seem like a book for someone looking for advice on how to deal with these issues on a personal level. Given the number of books you have read, maybe you know someone who deals with some of the issues that the kids in the book deal with. I probably know someone too, or many people, but I am not aware of their struggles and wasn't looking for any information that would help me or them.I looked at this book as serving a different purpose. I felt each section was short and could be read by a teenager, or maybe even a pre-teen like my 12 year old son. Kids who may not have any significant gender identity issues and whose only exposure to this material is to whisper about the effeminate seeming boy or the two girls making out during recess. Well, that, and to hear me explain how prevalent these things are, and that they aren't abnormal.Even reading just the first story is enough exposure to start kids thinking about how difficult it can be to deal with gender issues. That's a pretty huge thing. I probably wasn't exposed to these issues until medical school.I read this and it made me think of the kid in my middle school who was shunned a bit because he was different. I had no classes with him and only knew his name, but I didn't make any effort to understand him at all or even to say hello to him when I walked past him. He was different from the "cool kids" I wanted to be associated with. As far as I know, his issues weren't related to the subject matter of this book, but after he committed suicide, I always wondered if a few of us had been more tolerant of "different", and had made some effort to acknowledged him as a person, if that might have made a difference. To this day I feel bad I didn't have the courage to invite him to join us playing volleyball, or to walk to ice cream truck when he sat alone at our community pool. Instead, I stuck with my group of friends and agreed with them when they said "he's so weird". I wish I hadn't.This book seems perfect to expose kids who don't struggle with their gender, to some of what kids who do struggle with it have to deal with. Hopefully enough teach them more sensitivity than I had when I was younger. Enough that they aren't scared to say hello to and to talk with, the boy wearing a dress or the girl who "acts like a boy". Enough that they won't snicker and agree that they're so weird. If it does that, I'll be more than satisfied with it.

I found this book at my library after searching “transgender.” Normally I wouldn’t be drawn to a book aimed at teens and young adults, but in an effort to educate myself (upon learning a family member was transitioning) I took the plunge. The value to me was that the stories of various trans teens were told in their own words. The authenticity, pain and resolution spoke to me. I am saddened that the “trans issue” has become a political football. These fellow humans deserve better.

It is easy to see why Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out was designated an honor book. Author Susan Kuklin has produced a book that transgender teens, especially, can embrace. While I was disappointed that the physical process of transition is not discussed as much as I would have liked in order for me to understand it, I was very surprised to see that there is an entire spectrum of transgender experiences. Far too many of us ill-informed think it is simply a process of believing your body doesn’t fit your mindset and a change is needed from biological male to female or biological female to male. It stands to reason—and thank goodness this book is here for teens who are not understanding themselves well at all—that the human mind is complex, and there are many variations in the transgender experience. Kuklin interviews teens who are male to female, female to male, intersex, and kids who refuse to be labled. I leave it to the reader to discover these many variations and to be impressed by these interviewees who are so honest and informative.

Appreciated learning more about something that I was not that knowledgeable

Great book, as a mum who was now struggling to some to terms with her son coming out as transgender, and having read as much material I could lay my hands on, its a great book to read from the young ones personal point of view, quite moving and powerful, but a fantastic read, thank you !

absolutely brilliant - these teenagers are putting transgender issues on the map and going for public debate - not before time - I read it twice straight off.

Good read, quick delivery, easy read.

Fantastic resource.