gender nonconformity: 4 Articles

Support Your Teen with Pride

As teens navigate the waves of personal, intellectual, and physical changes brought on by puberty and adolescence, they are, at the same time, working to figure out who they are. They need resources. Having role models and resources that support positive views towards sexual orientation and gender identity will help tweens and teens understand their feelings and promote acceptance of diverse backgrounds. Magination Press publishes award-winning books to help teens find their way and themselves. This book is written for guys who identify themselves as guys, regardless of what parts they have. It’s written for you, whether you are interested in boys, girls, both, “not yet,” or none of the above. Dating and Sex Dating and Sex: A Guide For The 21st Century Teen Boy, by Andrew P. Smiler, PhD, is a comprehensive, inclusive, and accessible guide to sex and relationships. In addition, it explores puberty, identity, consent, body image, and safe sex and provides questions to help readers better understand themselves. Dating and Sex has won awards for nonfiction writing. Read a piece Dr. Smiler wrote about teens and dating here. Either Way: Story of a Gay Kid, by Sandra Levins, is a graphic novel with three intertwined stories: a coming-of-age coming out story, a lesson on civil rights and marriage equality, and historical fiction about a gay man in the military. It explores the personal experience of discovery and coming out as well as the history of gay rights in America. Either Way won the 2017 National Indie Excellence Award Winner for LGBTQ Fiction for Children and Young Adults. Girl: Love, Sex, Romance, and Being You, by Karen Rayne, PhD, is an inclusive guide to sexuality for all self-identified girls. It provides information about identity, dating, romance, love, relationships, and sex. It also includes self-reflection quizzes, resources, and must-read real-life stories from girls. Girl was included in the Chicago Public Library's 2017 Best of the Best Books List for Teen Nonfiction. Trans+: Love, Sex, Romance, and Being You, Karen Rayne, PhD and Kathryn Gonzales, MBA, is an all-inclusive, uncensored guide for teens who are transgender, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, or gender-fluid. This comprehensive guide answers questions about gender and explores mental health, physical health and reproduction, transitioning, relationships, sex, and life as a trans or nonbinary individual. Trans+ also includes real-life stories and extensive resources. It is a 2020 ALA Rainbow Book List Selection, in addition to receiving other awards. Learn about respectful and accurate language to discuss gender diversity in a piece from Trans+ here. Finding yourself reflected in the pages of a book is a powerful, affirming experience. Help your teen find themselves with books from Magination Press. Check out Magination Press's Rainbow Collection. Magination Press is proud to offer books for kids and teens that celebrate LBGTQ+ voices and promote inclusive school and family values. Our books: are evidence-based and written by child development experts come with guides for caregivers and resources to further books’ messaging in the classroom, in the community, and at home backed by the American Psychological Association’s mission to benefit society

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Support Your Teen with Pride 2020-11-16T21:21:02-05:00

Celebrating Pride with Books About Gender Diversity

Some of the best things in the world aren't one thing or the other, but in between...and entirely fantastically their own. Are you a boy or a girl? Some people expect others to be either a boy or a girl and don't understand that not everyone fits in to that either/or category. Some people identify as non-binary or gender fluid (not just a boy or a girl), transgender or gender diverse (not the sex they were assigned at birth.) Some people express themselves in gender nonconforming ways, like a boy who is most comfortable wearing dresses. You can explore gender nonconformity and gender expression with your kids with two books from Magination Press, My Maddy and Jacob's Room to Choose. In My Maddy, a young girl's parent is neither a boy or a girl. They are something entirely, wonderfully their own. In Jacob's Room to Choose, Jacob and his friend, Sophie, get chased out of the school bathroom because of the way they look, but their teacher helps the kids in their class understand stereotypes and gender expression. It's important for children to understand that people identify and express themselves in diverse and wonderful ways, and that friends and family are about love and acceptance. Magination Press books about gender nonconformity can help. Read an interview with Jacob here. Learn about appropriate gender identity vocabulary here. Magination Press is proud to offer books for kids and teens that celebrate LGBTQ+ voices and promote inclusive school and family values. Check out the Rainbow Collection.

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Celebrating Pride with Books About Gender Diversity 2020-06-07T19:34:48-04:00

Words Matter: Respectful and Accurate Vocabulary for Discussing Gender Identity With Your Teen

Understanding gender identity requires having the words to accurately describe it. Kathryn Gonzales and Dr. Karen Rayne included a comprehensive dictionary in their Magination Press book, TRANS+: Love, Sex, Romance, and Being You, a comprehensive, uncensored guide for teens who are transgender, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, gender-fluid, or questioning their gender identity, and for cis-allies.  This excerpt from the book’s dictionary provides some of the language you and your teen will need to understand and talk about gender. Advocate—A person who is cisgender and works and campaigns for the rights of trans, gender nonconforming, and genderqueer people and others who identify as a gender minority. Agender—A person who identifies as not having a gender; or, being without a gender. Ally—A person who is cisgender and who works with and campaigns in alliance (note the connection to the word ally) with people who area in the gender minority. Androgynous—A balance of the feminine and the masculine that includes aspects of both. Bigender—A person who identifies as having two genders. Biological Sex—A complex group of physical factors that are assigned to male, female, and intersex. The preferred term for this is “sex assigned at birth” because many people consider “biological sex” to be an offensive term at this point. Cisgender—A person whose sex assigned at birth (typically “female” or “male”) is in alignment with their gender identity. Cissexism—Treating cisgender people as though they have more rights and moral authority compared to people who are gender minorities. Cis normative—The assumption that cisgender people are normal and those who are gender minorities are not.  Coming out—Commonly understood as the first time someone discloses their gender identity or sexual orientation, coming out is actually something that gender and sexual minorities do throughout their lifetimes. Gender—A social construct that is often assumed to be aligned with aspects of biological sex, but that is far broader than biological sex. Different cultures have understood gender in dramatically different ways, with some incorporating an understanding of three or more genders. Gender binary—A categorization of gender as being either male or female rather than a spectrum. This is a harmful understanding of gender for all people because it categorizes them in ways that they might not feel comfortable with. Gender confirmation surgery—A group of medical procedures that changes a person’s body to bring it into alignment with their gender identity. Also called gender reassignment surgery; most people prefer the language gender confirmation surgery. Gender dysphoria—When a person’s gender identity is in direct conflict with their physical body, causing mild to extreme psychological distress. “Gender dysphoria” is a classification of mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM IV). Gender expression—The way(s) that a person shares information about their gender through their hair, makeup, clothes, and other external aspects of their appearance that they have control over. Gender fluid—A person who is able to incorporate all genders into their identity and to flow easily between them. Gender identity—A person’s internal sense of how they relate or do

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Words Matter: Respectful and Accurate Vocabulary for Discussing Gender Identity With Your Teen 2019-10-28T14:24:51-04:00