Transgression

A sort-of sequel to Bornstein’s Gender Outlaw, this aptly subtitled The Next Generation collection includes comics, poems and essays both anthropological and personal about what it’s like to live outside gender binaries. It’s even more complicated than it might seem; the old canard about being “born into the wrong body” doesn’t even come close to covering the incredible variation in gender perception, experience and identification. Simply assuming that transpeople will automatically transition to fit into the gender binary is a reinforcement of the gender binary—and a number of these kids don’t want to reinforce it; they want to send it flying in all directions. Imagine, for instance, that you’re a female-to-male—or FTM—Muslim who wants to make a hajj (Zev Al-Walid’s “Pilgrimage” discusses the complications), or that Miriam, who offered a room to Jesus for a particular Passover meal, was a transwoman (“Transgressing Gender at Passover With Jesus!” by Peterson Toscano). Yeah, it’s that interesting.