Trans(formations) and Tenderness

How can adults and allies most effectively support transgender young people, especially amongst the harmful rhetoric surrounding issues of gender identity?

Being an adolescent comes with challenges regardless, but for young trans people, gender dysphoria, transition, and political grandstanding can create additional obstacles to their quality of life. In Trans(formations) and Tenderness, professor and child advocate Prathim-Maya Dora-Laskey unpacks the most common harmful rhetoric that we might encounter about gender identity, and how to counter it. Written with the tenet of tenderness for human beings at its core, this book explores the three key spaces that can be formative for transgender youth – family, school, and community – to equip the reader with resources to provide effective – and tender – support for the young people they care for.

Vital reading for parents, teachers, social workers, clinicians, and care providers in practice and in training, this book will also be of interest to higher education students and scholars of Queer Studies, Child Development courses, Social Work Studies, Sociology, Women’s Studies, Gender Studies, Cultural Anthropology, and related courses.

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Epigraph Page
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Table of Contents
• 1 Introduction
  • I “Protect Trans Youth”: Unpacking the Rhetoric of Trans Issues with Tenderness
  • II What We’re Up Against: Rhetorics of Hurt and Harm
    • 1. Disinformation: Litter Boxes in Schools?
    • 2. Silencing: “Let Her Speak”
    • 3. Erasure: “Don’t Say Gay”; But Why?
    • 4. Practice: Identifying Rhetorics of Hurt and Harm
  • III This is How we Figure Things Out, Fight Back, and Fix Things: Rhetorics of Care
    • 1. Listening to and Learning from Trans Youth: They Know What They Know
    • 2. Storytelling and Speaking Up: Hearing from Trans Youth and Their Advocates
    • 3. Critical Media Literacy: Who Tells the Story and How? (and Also: Why?)
    • 4. Practice: Rhetorics of Care
  • IV Resources
    • 1. Glossaries
    • 2. National Advocacy Organizations
    • 3. Social Media for Support and Learning
    • 4. Trans Legislation Watch and Legislative Awareness
    • 5. Developing Critical Media Literacy
• 2 Family Matters
  • Chapter 2: Family matters
  • I Bringing Up a Trans Child/Bringing Up a Child Trans: Theories and Themes
    • 1. The Difference Between Parenting Rights and Parenting Privileges
    • 2. In Their Own Time: Developmental Timelines and Queer Temporalities for Transgender Children and Youth
    • 3. Are You My Family? Family and Chosen Family
    • 4. Minority Stress and Communities of Trans Care
  • II What If It’s a Phase? What If It’s a Phase? Rhetorics to Support Trans Youth
    • 1. Responding with Love
    • 2. Empowering Gender Learning in the Family
    • 3. Dialoguing and Learning for Caregivers
    • 4. We’re Coming Out: Developing Plans for Sharing with Family
  • III Campaign for Love: Rhetorics to Advocate for Trans Youth
    • 1. Announcements to Extended Family
    • 2. How to Mediate and When to Intervene
    • 3. Preparing Family for Advocacy
    • 4. How to Start, How to Say It: Practice with Prompts, Scripts, and Dialogues
  • IV Resources
    • 1. Trans-Friendly Media for the Whole Family
    • 2. Trans-Positive Media for Youth (aged 3 to young adult)
    • 3. When You Want to Explore Gender Some More
    • 4. Key Assistance, Aid, and Service Organizations
• 3 Making Ye Olde School Cool
  • I Windows and Mirrors: The Personal is/as Political
    • 1. Building a Ladder of Safety and Support: Physical, Social, and Curricular
    • 2. What is Right? What Are Our Rights?
    • 3. Disrupt DARVO Rhetoric
    • 4. A Note on College and Finding Trans-Positive Colleges
  • II Educating the Educators: Notes for Trans Youth and Their Families
    • 1. Conversations in the Family
    • 2. Make a Checklist, Check in Often
    • 3. What to Expect (and Expectations): Communicating with School Personnel
    • 4. How to Start and How to Say It: A Space to Practice (Peers, Educators, School Boards)
  • III Building a Welcoming School: Notes for Educators and Administrators
    • 1. Best Practices and Principles
    • 2. Questions to Ask; Answers to Look For
    • 3. Campus as a Safe Zone
    • 4. Practicing with Scripts (Trans Families, Conservative Families, Boards, Politicians)
  • IV Resources, Readings, and Research: Trans-Positive Resources for Youth and Families
    • 1. Trans-Positive Learning Resources for Schools
    • 2. Resources on Supplementary Issues (Homeschooling, Counseling)
    • 3. Additional School-Adjacent Services for Trans Youth
• 4 Building the Beloved Community
  • I Working Together For All of Us
    • 1. Cosmopolitanism: Circles of Caring
    • 2. Queer Liberation Instead of Rainbow Capitalism
    • 3. Not Born This Way
    • 4. Binary Gender as a Colonial Construct
  • II Living la Vida Local
    • 1. Neighbors and Your Neighborhood
    • 2. Donating to Trans Organizations
    • 3. Volunteering/Creating a Resource Directory
    • 4. Scripts (Introductions, Educating/Learning, and Volunteering)
  • III State and National Arenas
    • 1. Voting and Vetting Representatives
    • 2. Writing to Representatives
    • 3. Participating in Open Houses, Forums, and Hearings
    • 4. Scripts and Resources (Introductions, Networking, Gratitude)
  • IV Global Wisdoms and Visions
    • 1. The State of LGBTQIA+ Rights Worldwide
    • 2. Collaborating With LGBTQIA+ Activists Worldwide
    • 3. Providing Support and Advocacy to Global Trans Rights from Within the United States
    • 4. Scripts and Resources (Learning, Donating, Volunteering, and Raising Awareness)
• Notes
• Index

Prathim-Maya Dora-Laskey DPhil is a professor, writer, and child advocate living in Michigan, US. They teach English Literature and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Alma College.