The Transgender Manifesto

Malone succinctly knocks down a wide swarth of talking points anti-trans activists use to attack trans folks. Her perspective is unique and refreshing, brutally honest, but ultimately hopeful. You know those tracts fundie Christians leave in bookstores, bathrooms, etc.? If Malone's brief chapters were printed as individual tracts, I'd be leaving them all over the place for cis people to find. This is a fantastic little book.

The Transgender Manifesto is very honest and practical about what is means to be transgender. Malone has a compelling argument for those who are not supportive of trans people. She points out the fact that even if these “birthers” are not agreeing with our views, they are not denying the face that we exist. We are here and we are proud. This short book has many inspiring points for its lgbtq+ audience and a practical perspective for all the skeptics out there.

5* The author's certainly impacted on me with her writing style - in your face, from a transwoman's personal perspective and with real, everyday life arguments to back up her assertions, opinions and beliefs.

This book hit me initially as rather aggressive in how short and succinct the 'chapters' were and in how blunt, to-the-point and in-your-face (not a criticism at all) the author's responses were. Some chapters are no more than a page long, but each and every one takes stuff that heterosexuals, bashers, birthers, the uneducated, the uninformed and others might interpret a certain way and shows them from a lived, i.e. a transgender person's perspective.

Some of it is very sad, some has snark and humour, but all of it made me think and feel. I happened to finish the book on the International Day of Transgender Remembrance, which was unintentional, but which culminated in me reading about some of the transgender people who've been murdered in the US this year, and I think I got hit by a deluge of information, in a good way.

At first, I admit that the author's 'aggression', as I perceived it, turned me off a little, but I went nosing on her website and as I read more and more, I realised that she is just passionate about her life, about experiences good and bad that she's either experienced or known via others. The examples cited, of so many things that het people take for granted, but that a transgender person can't, were humbling. It saddened me and also made me appreciate the 'rights' that I have, simply for being born het and in the UK. Compared to the US, where not all states allow transgender people to change their sex on their birth certificates post-transition, the UK has many protections and rights for all its people. Would that this happened all over the world.

The author puts out some great truths in this book - I just hope that people read it, talk about it and make lots of noise about it. It's the kind of book that 'tells it as it is' and it needs to be read to educate people.

ARC courtesy of Green Muffin Publishing and NetGalley, in return for my reading pleasure.

A thought provoking read. Malone breaks down the “birthers” arguments one by one in such a clear and precise way in each bite sized chapter. The style of the writing is one that is infused with such wit and snark and character that it’s akin to conversing with a friend while still bringing forth incredibly nuanced points about the validity of the existence of the transgender community. While this book speaks directly to the transgender experience, I found that it also spoke more generally on the LGBTQ+ experience as well. This book is definitely something to put into the hands of my library’s youth and adults alike.