Buy it from Bookshop.org and support local booksellers
The relationship between sexuality and gender identity is complex, and sadly gay spaces are not always safe spaces for trans people, whether they are trans men or trans women.
That complexity is being prayed upon by some wishing to drive a wedge between LGB and T+ people, often in terms that invalidate the lived experiences of trans people.
I am gay, and among the (many) men I fancy there are trans men – some people would tell me that means I am not actually gay, if I fancy trans men I must be bi – but that is not who I am.
Into that mix Harry Nicholas speaks powerfully and personally – to tell of their journey from Lesbian to Gay Man risks being the ultimate trigger for those anti-trans LGB campaigners.
But what I found most interesting was the reflections on what it means to be a gay man, how “manliness” is defined and policed within the gay ‘community’ - in different ways the gym-toned twink and the bear express a strong maleness and expressions of self, expressions of the body, that hold your maleness more lightly are treated a risky. It felt like permission to worry less and be more myself.
No comments:
Post a Comment