Feature: What We’re Reading for the Trans Rights Readathon
We have been doing this long enough to remember when trans stories in YA were rare, fragile things. A book here, an anthology there, authors writing characters into existence with one eye on the market and one eye on survival. We celebrated every one. We still do.
Trans people in this country are facing coordinated legislative attacks on their healthcare, their schools, their legal recognition, their ability to exist in public life. Bans on gender-affirming care for minors. Book challenges and removals targeting stories that center trans joy or trans struggle. Executive actions that erase trans people from federal policy. The pace is relentless and the intent is clear. This is not a moment of political disagreement. This is a sustained effort to make trans people disappear.
So we read. And we buy books. And we shout about them. And we show up for the Trans Rights Readathon because that is one small thing we can do that is also, right now, a real thing.
The Trans Rights Readathon is an annual call to action founded by author Sim Kern, running March 17 through March 31 and ending on Trans Day of Visibility. The idea is simple: read and uplift books by and about trans, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, and Two-Spirit authors and characters, and donate to trans-supporting organizations while you do it. It is decentralized, which means you participate however you can. In 2023 alone it raised over $234,000 for trans organizations with nearly 2,700 readers across 43 countries. You can learn more and sign up at transrightsreadathon.carrd.co.
Here is what we are reading.
Kelly is reading:
One of the Boys by Victoria Zeller. Grace Woodhouse was a star kicker with a Division I future before she came out as trans. Now she is navigating senior year, a new identity, and an old game that might still have room for her. A NYT bestseller, written by a trans woman from Buffalo who used to play football herself.
Transmogrify!, edited by g. haron davis. Fourteen fantasy stories by trans and nonbinary authors featuring trans and nonbinary characters. Magic used to survive, resist, and claim space. This is the anthology we needed.
Christy is reading:
A Wild Radiance by Maria Ingrande Mora. Josephine Haven has spent her whole life being told how to wield her magic in service of the House of Industry. When she is exiled to a remote mission, she starts to question everything she was taught and falls into something messier and more honest than Progress. Anti-capitalist, abundantly queer, and radically hopeful.
This Wretched Beauty by Elle Grenier. A transfeminine retelling of The Picture of Dorian Gray set in 1867 London, where freedom and safety don’t come together easily. Gothic, gorgeous, and an act of resistance by a trans author writing the books she wished she had.
I Wanna Be Your Girl Vol. 1 by Umi Takase. Hime has been in love with her best friend Akira for years, and she was the first to know that Akira is a girl. Now Akira is starting high school as herself, and Hime is figuring out what that means for both of them. Tender and grounded, and exactly the kind of story that belongs in the hands of queer kids right now.
We are not okay with what is happening to our trans siblings in this country. We are not okay with their stories being pulled from shelves and their existence being legislated away. We are going to keep reading, keep recommending, and keep showing up.
This year, we are donating to:
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