I was excited to read this book but must admit it's quite disappointing. As a trans person, I was a bit hesitant when I saw it was written by a cis person, as in my experience cis people writing about trans people tend to not know as much as they think they do. Sadly, this book may be another example of that.

The author makes several errors, including explaining how a particular pronoun works and failing to follow his own advice mentioned towards the beginning of the book on how to use respectful language. While it is acknowledged and most of these incidents are quotes, there are ways of editing that would still remain true to source material and the message.

Furthermore, there are several places that misgender trans people. Whether due to lack of knowledge on the individual or poor editing, this is not something that can be ignored. This includes Ho’onani, who the book refers to with they/them, though her teacher refers to with she/her. Having heard of her before, I looked her up and confirmed that she uses she/her. If Ho’onani uses they/them this does not appear to be public information. I found this information at the provided links: https://chipublib.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S126C2189496, https://aplaceinthemiddle.org/blog/details/14838/a-beautiful-look-into-hawaiian-culture-and-living-outside-the-gender-binary-afterellencom

There is also a section on eunuchs and castrati as nonbinary gender categories. To preface this, I am not any kind of historian, and cannot speak on if overall they counts as genders, but the examples given for these categories often had no choice and were forced into this situation, and (again, as a trans person) it is pretty harmful to suggest that a person can be forced into a gender category. Quite honestly, I would go so far as to call these practices conversion therapy, given many of these subjects were essentially forced to change gender.

While small in the relative scheme of the book, I must also take a moment to note the section on reproductive rights, and calling it “women’s right to choose.” This book is literally about trans people, and mentions people who are not women who are also capable of getting pregnant. This is not just a women’s rights issue, and considering the subject of this book I must admit it is incredibly hurtful that the author leaves everyone who is not a woman but could be impacted out of it.

Overall, I must wonder if the author included any trans people in the writing process. This feels strongly like a book on gender identity written by a cis person for other cis people.

An interesting look at going outside the gender binary throughout history.

This is written at a really accessible level and goes over various cultures and times when additional genders were present. I appreciated the depth of research that was done and how the author calls himself out for his own preconceptions and how this is written through his own cis lens. Even so, this is a valuable contribution to queer history, and I learned quite about about other cultures and how gender has tied to colonialism.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

A very relevant book in this time and age, especially with so many people wanted to make the gender binary political and deny the rights of trans people.

I was surprised by how insightful this book was! I had no idea that there were ethnic groups in Indonesia that recognized three genders. I also did not know this about Indigenous cultures. The book pulls a lot of examples of how multiple ethnic groups recognized genders beyond gender binary, such as the Hijras in India and Pakistan, First Nation People in Australia, and the Mahus of Hawaiian and Tahitian cultures. The author also uses news stories and ancient burial sites as resources to explore gender identities and the roles different genders played in different societies and cultures.

Additionally, although I am not religious myself, I've seen countless people using it in order to condemn the LGBTQ+ community. It was refreshing to see it as a tool of empowerment of gender diversity instead of a tool of criticism.

This is a pretty introductory text with some interesting historical/cultural background information about he concepts of gender included as well. I think that this could be a good resource for people new to the topic!

I've never understood why people want to make gender political. Even in elementary school science, we learned that there were variations in sex and gender. That's just basic.
But this book tells about so much more! There was clearly a lot of research done here because there is information from around the world about many cultures that have recognized multiple genders. There are also other topics such as eunuchs, proving that gender identity has so many possibilities. One of my favorites was the women warriors in Africa, and I also liked the section that put the spotlight on remarkable individuals.
Even though this is written simply enough for younger people, it has enough information to keep anyone interested. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley.
A wonderful addition to my lgbtq nonfiction library. Thank you.

I LOVED THIS.

I’m a freelance educator who does short term arts workshops with kids in underserved communities as well as a DEI consultant in NYC and this book will be recommended by me to be ordered by every institution I work with.

This was bright, funny, engaging, honest, factual, and didn’t talk to kids like they’re stupid. We need more books just like this and STAT.