An inspiring guide for parents navigating new, sometimes difficult terrain when a child comes out.
A collection offers interviews with LGBTQ+ people and their families.
When her 11-year-old daughter announced that she was a lesbian, Schwartz-McKinzie “did not have a map.” What she had instead was love for her child and a determination to support her. In the introduction to this engrossing and stirring collection of personal stories, she explains that LGBTQ+ children are more vulnerable to mental illness, suicide, and homelessness than their straight, cisgender peers and that kids with parents who affirm their sexuality and gender identity fare much better than youngsters rejected by their families. Faith is a stumbling block for many of the folks who share their experiences in this illuminating, valuable volume. Georgette Brown, who grew up in Jamaica, had parents who were “very religious, strict, and rigid Evangelical, Pentecostal, First Assembly of God.” She wouldn’t admit that she was a lesbian even to herself until she was 29. Teri Augustine speaks candidly about how much she did not want her son, Peter, to be gay—in part because she was an evangelical Christian and she didn’t want the bullies who taunted him on the playground to be proven right. Teri’s husband, Steve, describes his disappointment that his son “chose” to be gay, wondering what he had done wrong as a father. Peter himself was reluctant to be gay. But ultimately, the Augustines worked together to reconcile their faith and Peter’s sexuality. Alice and Nathan had a very different experience with their son, Dee. Members of a Universalist Unitarian congregation, they belonged to a religion that is inclusive. Despite having supportive parents, Dee suffered from depression and social isolation as a teen. This compelled Alice to turn to activism. Her efforts inspired Dee to become a mental health professional who works with LGBTQ+ youth. Jenny Goldstein admits to feeling a sense of loss when her tomboy came out as nonbinary and changed zir name to Mordechai. But she acknowledges that her child is so much happier now that ze is zir authentic self. Mordechai underscores how necessary zir transition was by detailing years of gender dysphoria. Although each of these vivid testimonies is different, they all clearly and frankly show how family support—or lack of it—affects LGBTQ+ youth.
An inspiring guide for parents navigating new, sometimes difficult terrain when a child comes out.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-940724-27-0
Page Count: 324
Publisher: Gival Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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