A Quick & Easy Guide to Queer & Trans Identities

In one sentence: This book should be in every library, school, and Human Resources office. If you care about creating an inclusive space for your students, employees, and/or customers but don't know where to start with understanding all of the terms and definitions used by the queer community, this is the book for you. It is exactly what it says on the cover.

As with the last title in this series, A Quick and Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns, this graphic novel is approachable, funny, and educational. I like to consider myself fairly well versed in queer terminology, but this book has given me a few easy ways to explain things to my peers. I've referred a few romance novelists to it (even though it's not out yet!) as a reference as they show more work to make their books more inclusive and welcoming.

While nothing can compare to actually being queer and/or having a queer community around you, this is a primer for anyone who feels confused and/or needs to explain their community to an outsider. In this way, I think it's a helpful (and fun) resource for people both in the queer community and outside of it.

Chapters include:

What is Queer?
Gender Identity
Gender Expression
What Does Dysphoria Mean?
So, What is Asexuality?
Here are Some Relationship Basics (This chapter seems aimed at teen readers and covers things like self-esteem, recognizing abuse, and more)
What Does it Mean to Come Out?
The last couple of chapters of the book are aimed at the queer or questioning reader, but they're helpful for anyone to read. If you have a child, friend, or coworker who hasn't yet come out or is in the process, it can be invaluable to read a bit about how intimidating the process can be.

As with any educational text, the contents of this book will likely be out of date within a decade, but the book acknowledges that everything is fluid and changing. It also stresses the point that each person is an individual, so we shouldn't set expectations or make judgments of a person's queer identity and/or performance thereof.
Overall, the tone is optimistic, hopeful, and encouraging. It's a lighthearted book but contains the depth and nuance we need.

And it's full of adorable "sproutlings" and queer snails! The art is super cute and makes the density of information much more palatable.

Suzanne received a review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. show less

I LOVE THIS BOOK! Someone help me decide whether it's the illustrations or the easy-to-understand information inside that's what I love best - together, they're perfect for what they're trying to do (and okay, won't lie, those illustrations tho...). This is a wonderful book for educating anyone who needs help (in a loving, and friendly way), for parents whose children are navigating a queer and/or non-binary world, and also for young people or fresh-out folks who "feel different" and are just starting to figure it out A fun and easy-to-read book like this, especially with all its happy happiness and encouragement toward self-love, also gives them language they can use. Honestly? This book needs to be everywhere.

I think my ONLY "not show more girly-screamingly-excited" feedback, perhaps, would be that the title is a little bland for the rest of it. Maybe could have been a little more exciting - "quick and easy" is definitely important, so people understand it's not written for academics, but "queer and trans identities" sounds kind of "undergrad gender studies".

Thank you, NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. show less

I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Isn’t that cover amazing and beautiful? Yes, it is!

This graphic novel, as the title says, is all about explaining queer identity. It sort of focuses on transgender and nonbinary people, but it has more general sections on gender identity vs romantic/sexual orientation, a section on coming out, discussions of self-love, and even a section on red flags in relationships.

I didn’t expect to learn anything new from this booklet, and yet it made me realise that social dysphoria exists (up until now, I only knew about physical dysphoria) and that I definitely have been experiencing it.

You see so much gatekeeping nowadays that I am wary about most guides like this, but I show more found this one refreshingly inclusive, with recognising that not every trans person experiences dysphoria, talking about how nonbinary people might experience transness differently from binary trans people, and an entire section on asexuality. Also, both the intro and the outtro talk about the importance of inclusivity, and “making our quilt bigger” if someone doesn’t fit under it.

Other perks of this book include accessible language, fun illustrations with snails, a section at the end where you can write a letter to your past or future self, and more.

That being said, I do have two concerns.

1) The definition of bisexuality used here is “attraction to the same gender and other genders”. This is definitely better than insisting bi people can only be attracted to binary genders or only two genders, but not every bisexual person is attracted to the same gender (e.g. a woman only being attracted to women and nonbinary people can be bi), and the concept of “same gender” might not mean much to a lot of nonbinary people anyway.

2) While there is an entire section asexuality, aromanticism is only mentioned in one sentence in the asexual section, and it’s even phrased in a way that implies that only asexual people can be aromantic. This is not true, and there is a bad tendency of only mentioning aromanticism as a “subset” of asexuality when they are different things and not necessarily go together. Since my copy was an ARC, I do hope that the publisher will consider and maybe change this.
Other than those two things, I was pleasantly surprised and content with this guide. show less

This is one of those books that, almost by definition, is going to attract both praise and reasonable criticism. On the whole I think this book serves a purpose, namely, to help people, however they or others want to identify them, better understand the dynamic and ever-changing world. People are largely what we have always been, but we are starting to be more open and coming to understand ourselves, and hopefully others, better. The ever-changing has to do with terminology and definitions. I started in queer theory in the late 80s and many of the terms I used, and some I still prefer, are outdated. Some for good reason and some because part of taking control of ourselves when society isn't always helpful is to tweak terminology and show more then, occasionally, stand aghast that people not in the know couldn't magically guess what word of the week is preferred now. It is empowering, I agree, but also slows down actual progress. And I acknowledge I stand in the minority within my own community about this.

Having said all of that, I think a work that makes an honest effort to engage more people who are open-minded but not sure where to look for information is a good thing. Is this the book I would have written in the same situation? Probably not. Nor would anyone else probably. Those are personal differences based largely on what our personal histories would have us emphasize or deemphasize.

This is well worth reading, take from it what you can, look for better options where you think the book fell short. But if this book helps any people to begin to try to better understand those around them then I think it is well worth it, warts and all.

Reviewed from the publisher via NetGalley. show less

A nice, breezy read concerning an introductory approach to non-cisgender identities. The art itself is quite decent, but seems too reliant on the shades of pinks. This style and color scheme sometimes makes my eyes glaze over instead of highlighting the quality of the art. Other than this minor complaint, everything else about it was great. However, this comic would be more useful in the hands of a beginner curious about the LGBT+ community, or somebody who is "new" to it. The section with an abusive hermit crab was meant to be serious, but made me howl with laughter. Crabs really do have a habit of acting like assholes for no reason other than waking up and choosing violence.

I found this very worthwhile and educational. It was good to reinforce the things I already know, and I found out about other things of which I was ignorant and still need to wrap my mind around, particularly the spectrum of asexuality and the role of libido. ("Plenty of asexual people still masturbate or even have sex with their partners.)

The cartoonish art, snail narrator (snails are hermaphrodites), and color scheme were off-putting at first, but I grew to appreciate the lightness they brought to what could be some pretty heavy material. I never warmed up to the Sproutlings though with their sickly sweet Fraggle Rock/Smurfs vibe.

I did not expect this book to hit me quite as hard as it did. I went into this book, thinking it would be a fairly shallow basic guide the definitions, and some cute photos. I was incredibly pleasantly surprised and overwhelmed with the wealth of information provided in this book broken down in a way that helps to explain everything that every human should know

I am incredibly glad that this challenge pushed me to pick this book up because I think I’m going to get more children’s and picture books in the future. I really enjoyed the art in this one and I also really enjoyed the concepts the teaching this just healed part of me and I don’t feel like I get that often from the darker reads. I get sometimes and so it’s nice to have show more , my cup filled by a book

If you are looking for a good short, read to add to your challenge or you want to learn more about the basics, you definitely should pick this up and read it. I thought I knew everything and I did not. show less