Books & Audiobooks
Today we’re celebrating Trans Day of Visibility! It is about being visible but also recognizing that not everyone has the ability to transition, and that not all trans people want or need to, either. Transness isn’t just about medical transition and hormones, particularly for those who are non-binary trans and who do not experience gender dysphoria the same way that someone like myself, who is binary trans, does. One of the best parts of being trans is realizing just how much space there is for all of us to be ourselves.
Advocacy in public libraries is not limited to the celebration of months of recognition or days or celebration. It is a 365-days-a-year endeavor. Around Trans Day of Visibility however, I see this work as a clarion call wherein the collective sound of “you belong, you’re cared about, you’re loved and you matter” is louder than the silence of ignorance for a generation of kids and young adults so they don’t have to wait until 36 or later to be themselves (as was the case for me). It is about providing resources and access to resources that allow everyone to better understand what transness means, and to create public spaces where trans joy is more en vogue than stories of trans people barely surviving. What we talk about are public libraries, but what we mean are the spaces made for trans people and others to be free, and fully themselves.
While coming out and transitioning, I shared with folks that the world made less sense because I finally made sense in it. What made less sense was the intensity of the hatred and denigration of the trans community, including the lengths that people go to in order to try and erase, silence, or render trans people otherwise invisible just because we exist. Recent years have brought hateful ideologies to the doorsteps of once-neutral public spaces like libraries. Adjacent to Freedom to Read Week this year, more news emerged of anti-2SLGBTQ+ American interest groups permeating advocacy circles in Canada, with libraries in their crosshairs.
I cannot imagine a better response to increases in calls to ban trans, gender diverse, and two spirit centric books than to keep them accessible. It’s stories like the linked one above that remind me of why working in a public library is so deeply meaningful. 2SLGBTQ+ people, transgender people in particular, have always been here. We always will be, no matter the depth or breadth of disdain that meets us. And both we and our allies will always find ways to make space and knowledge available. I am reminded of the Minecraft library where censored journalism and books were made available to the public in the videogame so those from countries or states where the literatures were suppressed, were still able to read them and have the freedom to read.
Transness always makes, and finds a way.
The lines from Maya Angelou’s poem Still I Rise come to mind:
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
It is the privilege of a lifetime to serve the community in a public library job, where we help so many to “rise” as goes the poem. To my trans community and family, I hope that Trans Day of Visibility sees you proud of who you are and savoring the equal privilege of this lifetime to know and be our fullest selves. I am so grateful to work at a public library in a community shaped by many trans people before me, and many yet to come.
Looking for ways to celebrate Trans Day of Visibility with us? Check out our reading list blog and visit any of our locations to complete a Trans Day of Visibility scavenger hunt featuring profiles on wonderful Canadian changemakers, many of whom are from Ontario!