On Birth of a New Witch: Trans in YA

Today, a great post is coming to you from Usagi and Ashleigh of Birth of a New Witch. They previously discussed non-binary gender in YA on their blog and today they’re taking the conversation further by getting into the trans area of the LGBT community, and how it’s being represented (or lack thereof) in YA books. Today's post is actually going to be on their own blog; they both really wanted to take part, but due to me not being clear enough, there was some crossed wires. So you have to head on over to Birth of a New Witch for the whole post, but here's something to get you interested.

USAGI: 2013 so far has been a big year when it comes to LGBT releases, specifically in the trans field. So far we have “Freakboy” (out in October), “Two Boys Kissing” (out in August), and “Pantomime” (released in February). It’s really great to see all of these books coming out of the woodwork and so quickly, especially since 2012 kind of got the ball rolling with “Beautiful Music for Ugly Children” and “Every Day”. So it’s good we’re seeing an expansion. For pre-2012 releases, you can go here to see a good list of trans within YA lit. Your thoughts, Ashleigh?

ASHLEIGH: Agreed! I kind of hate to agree because there are only three major LGBT releases we can think of right now for 2013, but it’s a step forward not unlike the Supreme Court’s decisions to strike down part of the Defense of Marriage Act and Prop 8 in California. (Speaking of which, hallelujah! Now if only we could get gay marriage made legal in the rest of the country…)

Read the rest of this post over on Birth of a New Witch here.