Facebook adds 51 terms to its choices for gender. Rev. Joel uses the terms cis and trans in his sermon to refer to people, terms I had previously only heard in the context of chemistry or genetics.
Nina Here Nor There: My Journey Beyond Gender by Nick Krieger, appeared on the book cart during social hour and I decided this was a topic I wanted to understand better. This book is dedicated to “The Boys,” a group of the author’s friends who were born girls, but aspire “to pass” as boys and refer to each other as he.
Nick Krieger was born Nina and for 20 years was recognized by others as a girl. This story begins when she arrives in San Francisco. She describes how she never totally identified with her capital L-lesbian friends or wanted to date them. As she spends more time with transgendered people she realizes that her body image is that of a guy. This memoir chronicles Nina’s journey and interactions with family, roommates, and friends as she recognizes that she identifies more as transgender and decides to take the steps to be accepted as male. The story is well written and engaging and gives a glimpse into the life of some of the young transgendered community of San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood. I’m glad I read this book. I couldn’t put it down and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to better understand what it means to identify as transgender.
Lorraine Olendzenski, April 2014