Gender Queer: A Memoir
Maia Kobabe, author, illustrator
Oni Press, 2019
This was the most challenged book in the United States in 2021 at libraries and school systems, a target of the culture wars on the basis of its subject alone. Kobabe was born female, but was never comfortable with her gender identity. Her first menstruation caused the first of many identity crises. Maia found that although she was attracted to women, she did not feel like a lesbian. But she did not want to be transformed into a male, either. So, what is she? As a nonbinary/queer/trans person em finally settled on the pronouns e/em/eir in place of the frequently used they/them/their. The story is a difficult passage to a comfortable personal identity, but is not without both joy and humor. It is certainly not explicit in any way, apart from frank discussion about physical gender differences. In the end em's comfort with her identity may be the most disturbing thing to those who challenge it (and I daresay very few of them have actually read it).
Replies
I have read about this book in news stories, Mark, but have never known anything about it. Thanks!