A Gender-Friendly Primer on What to Know, What to Say, and What to Do in the New Gender Culture
Author: Lee Airton, PhD (pronouns: They/Them)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review by: Giselle Bloch, Pflag Parent
I picked up a copy of Lee Airton’s new book Gender: Your Guide because I knew that Lee is knowledgeable on all things gender-related. Little did I know that I was about to embark on a journey of unlearning, while learning new ways of understanding gender. I have a transgender child, and volunteer with Toronto Pflag to facilitate peer-support meetings with hundreds of parents/families of transgender folks, so I thought I knew all about gender. This book opened up a world of understanding for me as I began to put myself into a gender diverse person’s shoes while developing the knowledge to better understand trans, non-binary and gender diverse identities.
Gender: Your Guide talks about trans identities, how to find out a person’s pronouns without being intrusive, what to do if you get it wrong, how we make assumptions about people we meet, and building what they call our gender-friendly toolkit.
The book starts with the basics on gender, and moves on to more advanced and nuanced topics. I had already understood the difference between sex assigned at birth, gender identity and gender expression. I knew how to use the gender neutral pronoun they/them for a singular person. But one of the things I learned from Gender: Your Guide was how we all participate in gender according to how we have been socialized.
The best part of this book is that it doesn’t merely educate us on terminology; it provides real and meaningful ways to best support our transgender, non-binary and gender diverse loved ones. The author offers practical situations and examples of how to be better allies, and how we can all help push the boundaries on how we view gender. I highly recommend Gender: Your Guide to everyone -- whether you are just beginning a journey with gender or if you have been on this path for some time. We can all learn a few new things from Lee Airton’s fabulous book!
