“The gleaming opulence of our freedom”: Fearless New Non-fiction from Shon Faye, Juno Dawson, and Jack Guinness

“Hope is part of the human condition and trans people’s hope is our proof that we are fully human. We are not an ’issue’ to be debated and derided. We are symbols of hope for many non-trans people, too, who see in our lives the possibility of living more fully and freely. That is why some people hate us: they are frightened by the gleaming opulence of our freedom. Our existence enriches this world.”

The Transgender Issue by Shon Faye is a scalpel. It slices white-hot to the core of the eponymous talking point that has so damagingly become the pathological obsession of a select segment of UK media over the last decade.

It’s a torrential read, referencing a rich breadth of resources, which are all listed at the back, and among many things illustrating just how extraordinarily difficult it is to access puberty blockers let alone hormones let alone sex reassignment surgery in this country. The former has a three-year waiting list so the vast majority of children referred for them are already at least 16 by the time they receive them.

Alongside oftentimes deeply moving and harrowing first-hand accounts, another stand-out revelation is a description of just how invasive and archaic the questions are at the gender clinic inquisition, steeped in rigid concepts of gender roles and inevitably particularly prone to racism, in the same way black women are less likely to receive pain medication during childbirth. This gender exam even segues into dream therapy quite literally still based entirely on Jung and Freud.

More than anything, the sheer ascent-of-Mount-Doom ordeal of the outdated draconian moralistic process really illustrates just how hard it all is and conversely just how inconceivably cruel and ignorant it is to ever claim there would be a tidal wave of people undertaking it at all for any other reason than their own health, happiness, and hope for a better future.

There’s also a brilliant section on carceral logic, dipping liberally into Angela Davis.

“The mechanism of the prison industrial complex is clear: as it builds more cages it also finds more people to put in them.” 

Another highlight is the internal exchange between the US office of the Guardian and the UK office, the editors of the former writing to the latter about their concerns re the fundamental divisions between US and UK feminism, the former of which aligns with progressive politics in a way the latter doesn’t with specific regards to trans liberation.

“It is in the interests of those who hate us all for us to be at war with one another; it is no coincidence that the Murdoch media and the American Christian right are very keen to support LGB people who oppose trans liberation.”

The address to British feminism from Irish feminists, slamming their utter disregard for the struggle against empire and chauvinism, and the campaign for abortion rights, had me surging from my chair (or rather seat on the tube).

It’s a searingly accessible and cucumber-cool addition to the canon.

Reading it alongside What’s the T? by Juno Dawson also made for the most deliciously informative week. The latter is written primarily for children but makes a point to explicitly welcome parents, teachers, friends, and all who are just interested to learn more to its riotously joyful and beautifully illustrated pages.

A few particularly memorable quotes:

“You’d think, looking at the papers, that being trans is the WORST CASE SCENARIO. If all you take from this book is that it’s the BEST THING I EVER DID, I’m delighted, and I’ve done my job.”

“We all have a relationship with the notion of gender because we were ALL labelled at birth. Even if you are intersex, the doctor told your parents you were male or female and, from that moment on, a massive cartoon anvil of gender expectations landed on your head.”

“Our world is so disappointingly binary.”

“I’d argue that medieval assumptions about gender are responsible for a great deal of awful in the world today — ‘oh, boys will be boys’ or ‘that’s not very ladylike’.”

“It’s all quite straightforward. I’m really not sure what the fuss is about to be honest. All over the world, a small group of people have made some decisions about their lives. Easy peasy.”

“We all belong to one larger community because a lot of the same people hate us.”

“SCREW THAT NOISE”

“Every day, people identify as all sorts of things that have no relation to their biology: Christians, Jews, Muslims, addicts, godparents, husbands, wives, socialists, gays, lesbians, conservatives, pacifists, vegans … the list goes on and on. There is nothing more important than being free to identify however one feels. It is the very basis of human rights. Are you British? American? Your national ‘identity’ exists only because someone drew lines on maps.”

Thanks must also go to the folks at HQ (another division at HarperCollins Publishers, where I currently work as a fiction editor) for running a wee internal giveaway competition for the eye-catching new tome of essays by LGBTQ+ icons entitled The Queer Bible curated and edited by Jack Guinness. To enter we had to send in who we’d include in such a collection and why, and they then chose their favourites. I of course went for Hayley Kiyoko: “aka Lesbian Jesus, as dubbed by her legions of fans, whose songs and most especially music videos have given a whole new generation the kind of effervescent representation straight people have always taken for granted”.