Today is Transgender Parent Day, a time to celebrate and honor transgender parents! Here are some great children’s books that star kids with trans parents, a guide for kids with trans parents, and several memoirs by trans parents and/or their spouses/partners.
I wish all transgender parents a wonderful day—and many days to come—full of love and happiness.
Click through for details and full reviews!
For Kids
- In She’s My Dad!: A Story for Children Who Have a Transgender Parent or Relative, by Sarah Savage and illustrated by Joules Garcia (Jessica Kingsley Publishers), the child protagonist introduces readers to their dad, a transgender woman, and their fun and loving life together.
- He’s My Mom!: A Story for Children Who Have a Transgender Parent or Relative, by the same two creators, offers a similar but appropriately adjusted story about a child with a trans man parent.
- In Rachel’s Christmas Boat, by Sophie Labelle (Flamingo Rampant), a child whose parent has just come out as transgender cleverly solves the problem of changing the name on the parent’s Christmas gift.
- For somewhat older children, My Trans Parent: A User Guide for When Your Parent Transitions, by Heather Bryant (Jessica Kingsley Publishers), is a thoughtful, practical guide with lots of support and tips for anyone (especially youth) with one or more transgender parents. The author, who was in fifth grade when her parent transitioned, has gathered and synthesized stories and information from conversations with more than 30 people who have transgender parents, transgender parents themselves, and therapists and experts working with trans families. The focus is on families with parents who have transitioned after becoming parents, though there may be parts that resonate for those who were born to or adopted by post-transition parents as well.
For Grown-ups
- How We Do Family: From Adoption to Trans Pregnancy, What We Learned about Love and LGBTQ Parenthood, by Trystan Reese (The Experiment Publishing), is part memoir and part parenting guide—a thoughtful and inspiring book that manages to tell a story that is specific to the author’s experience as a gay, trans dad while offering universal advice on parenting, relationships, and more.
- I Have Always Been Me: A Memoir, by Precious Brady-Davis (TOPPLE Books & Little A), is a memoir of resilience and triumph by transgender advocate, communications professional, and public speaker Precious Brady-Davis, from her childhood growing up as a biracial, gender-nonconforming child, shuttled between abusive foster homes, through finding purpose and then rejection in the Pentecostal faith, to the drag community and coming into her identity as a trans woman, to meeting Myles Brady-Davis, a trans man, whom she married. The two of them had and are raising a child together.
- Love Lives Here: A Story of Thriving in a Transgender Family, by Amanda Jetté Knox (Viking), is the author’s story of having her child come out as a transgender girl and her spouse come out as a transgender woman—but keeping the family together by remembering to “lead with love.”
- In Stuck in the Middle with You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders, by Jennifer Finney Boylan (Broadway Books), the New York Times bestselling author tells of her experiences as a mother, father, and in between. This is not a story about the details of her gender transition, however (which she has shared elsewhere), but rather about her family relationships. Boylan’s brilliance is that she not only shows us her particular experience as a transgender parent, but also helps us to reflect upon the whole venture of parenting in general.
- Where’s the Mother? Stories from a Transgender Dad, by Trevor MacDonald (Trans Canada Press), is a funny yet informative memoir from a transgender man who birthed and chestfed his children.
- Blood, Marriage, Wine, & Glitter, by S. Bear Bergman (Arsenal Pulp), is full of thoughtful and compelling essays on parenthood, family, and more by Jewish transgender author, activist, and educator S. Bear Bergman.
- Queerly Beloved: A Love Story Across Genders, by Diane Anderson-Minshall and Jacob Anderson-Minshall (Bold Strokes B00ks), is not exclusively about parenting, but about Jacob’s gender transition more broadly and its impact on the authors as a couple. Along the way they become foster parents, however, and a section of the book explores how this experience shaped them as well.
Remember, you can also search and filter my database to see what’s new and to find other children’s books with trans characters who may not be parents!
