In my comic book reading group this week we read Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe -- yk, the graphic novel that keeps getting held up and banned by anti-trans lunatics citing great harm to children. And I knew that was nonsense, but y'all it's a wholesome, earnest, illuminating and wildly human delight.
The way this book gets talked about, I figured it would be confrontational in at least some sense -- I've heard/read plenty of intentionally provocative gender-abolitionist screeds, zines and books, I have no quarrel with that, they're great ofc. But it's not remotely that at all! It's fuzzy vibes!
So I highly recommend everyone, especially cis folks like me, read it if you haven't already, just for the sheer enjoyment and enlightenment of a great book about being a human being. But also to challenge your assumptions. But even more to be able to use it to pick apart the whole anti-trans panic.
By freaking out about such a wholesome, lovely book that almost anybody can see themselves in (I really believe), the right leaves itself vulnerable to, frankly, humiliation. I can't wait to tell everyone I know to read it, and leave them to consider for themselves what kind of person would ban it.
