Juno Dawson - Whats the T?: The Guide to All Things Trans And/or Nonbinary

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Books . Change . Lives .

Copyright 2022 by Juno Dawson

Cover design 2022 by Sourcebooks

Design copyright Hodder & Stoughton Limited, 2021. All rights reserved.

Illustrations 2021 by Soofiya

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systemsexcept in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviewswithout permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.From a Declaration of Principles Jointly Adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations

This book is not intended as a substitute for medical advice from a qualified physician. The intent of this book is to provide accurate general information in regard to the subject matter covered. If medical advice or other expert help is needed, the services of an appropriate medical professional should be sought.

The website addresses (URLs) included in this book were valid at the time of going to press. However, it is possible that contents or addresses may have changed since the publication of this book. No responsibility for any such changes can be accepted by either the author or the publisher.

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Published by Sourcebooks Fire, an imprint of Sourcebooks

P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410

(630) 961-3900

sourcebooks.com

Originally published in 2021 in Great Britain by Wren & Rook, an imprint of Hachette Childrens Group.

Names: Dawson, Juno (Young adult fiction writer), author.

Title: Whats the T? / Juno Dawson.

Description: Naperville, Illinois : Sourcebooks Fire, [2022] | Originally published in 2021 in Great Britain by Wren & Rook. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Audience: Ages 14 | Audience: Grades 10-12 | Summary: Discover what it means to be a young transgender and/or nonbinary person in the twenty-first century in this frank and funny guide for teens-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021061192 (print) | LCCN 2021061193 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Transgender people--Juvenile literature. | Transgender people--Identity--Juvenile literature. | Gender nonconformity--Juvenile literature. | Gender identity--Juvenile literature.

Classification: LCC HQ77.9 .D39 2022 (print) | LCC HQ77.9 (ebook) | DDC 306.76/8--dc23/eng/20220107

To whoever needs to hear this.

J.D.

To Umber, Mika, and Zed
(I will always be thankful).

S.

NOTE FOR PARENTS AND CAREGIVERS

Hello! If youre the parent or caregiver of a young transgender or nonbinary person, please turn to on page 291 where youll find special advice just for you!

NOTE FOR ALL READERS

In this book, Ive used LGBTQ+, queer, and trans as shorthand for the entire spectrum of sexual and gender identities. Its not the intention for anyone to feel excluded by those terms. Essentially, I mean anyone who isnt straight and/or cisgender.

For a definition of cisgender, turn to page 314.

Contents

BECOMING ME

Hello, its nice to meet you. My name is Juno Dawson, Im an author from Brighton, UK, and I am a woman. Only one of those things was true to begin with.

When I was born a ridiculously long time ago, I was actually from Bradford, and I wasnt an author, because I was a tiny baby. Also, my parents called me James.

BUT I WAS ALWAYS A WOMAN.

Its true. I was. It just took me some time to figure it out.

You see, the doctor who oversaw my birth made a whoopsie. It really wasnt his fault. As far as he could tell from a quick scan of my body, I was a baby boy. What he couldnt have known all those years ago is that, for a tiny fraction of people globally, their eventual gender identity does not match their biological sex.

Its like a box of assorted chocolates: you cant always tell whats in the middle from looking at the outside.

Its super rare, but it does keep happening. It is a thing. We call it (at this moment in time) being TRANSGENDER or sometimes just TRANS . These days, it makes up the T in LGBTQ+.

L IS FOR LESBIAN

G IS FOR GAY

B IS FOR BISEXUAL

T IS FOR TRANSGENDER

Q IS FOR QUEER

It took me almost thirty years to piece together the clues that I might be one of these mythological unicorn people Id dimly heard about.

You see, the 1990s, when I was a teenager, were a different time. For one thing, we didnt have the internet.

In some ways, without trolling, sexting, and Russian bots, the world was a nicer, simpler place, but it was also a less informed place.

When I was an infant, my parents had no access to information about trans children. As a child, I asked many, many times when I was going to turn into a girl. I was told to stop being silly. When we played games out on the suburban cul-de-sac where I lived, I was always a girl character. I was Sheila from Dungeons & Dragons or Teela from He-Man. I had a Barbie doll that I used to make believe was Penelope Pitstop by constructing elaborate traps with string and toilet paper rolls. My parents were concerned about this strange behavior (even though it was actually perfectly natural for me), because they had no notion that this happens all the time, all over the world.

By the time I was ten or eleven years old, thoroughly shamed into silence and secrecy by pretty much every adult and peer in my world, I certainly wasnt telling anyone I wanted to be a girl. I was worried Id get my head kicked in. But I did used to dream of the teenage girl I might magically turn into. I would lie in my cramped single bed each night and make a deal with God. If Im good, tomorrow can I be a girl? And I could picture exactly the woman Id grow intoId look like April ONeil from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Peri from Doctor Who.

Sadly, my wishes didnt come true. At least not yet.

Later, as a queer teenager, I didnt have access to the litany of amazing role models youll read about in the Transgender Hall of Fame segments that separate each chapter of this book. I didnt have Laverne Cox or Janet Mock to aspire to. By 2005, the only trans person Id ever really seen in the media was Nadia Almada, the winner of