Growing up gay, I found very few books about the gay experience. I think it was late into my senior year in high school when I finally got around to grudgingly reading some Danton Remoto, and it was only four years ago that I finally got to read gay classics like James Baldwin’s “Giovanni’s Room” or E.M. Forster’s “Maurice“.
While I didn’t exactly have a difficult gay childhood, I sometimes wish that I had these books around when I was grappling with my sexuality. I feel like it would have made things so much easier for me and probably shortened my time in the closet considerably.
But if I had any trouble, I’d think it wold be so much more difficult for transgendered teens. I don’t think the transgendered experience has been written about a whole lot, and I am struggling to think of a book in the Western canon that does so.
Which is why it’s a good thing that there are now books coming out that tackle this particular experience. In 2004, we had Julie Ann Peters’ “Luna“. And just recently, Brian Kathcer’s “Almost Perfect” won the Stonewall’s Children and Young Adult Literature Award, given out at this year’s Newberry Awards. Of course I had to get a copy.
