Transgender Awareness and Comics
Transgender Awareness Week is a week-long celebration leading up to the Transgender Day of Remembrance (11/20) where the LGBTQ+ community and its allies honor the victims lost due to anti-transgender violence. During this week, people of trans experience and their allies spread awareness about the community by educating the public on who transgender people really are, sharing their stories and experiences, and spreading awareness about the discrimination and violence that still affects the transgender community.
It’s estimated that around 80% or so of Americans believe they have never personally met someone who is transgender. This means the majority of the public's education and perception about the transgender community has been based off of media (films, books, art, etc). Unfortunately, a lot of media from the past decade overwhelmingly misrepresents and mischaracterizes who trans people really are and the attitude the public should have toward trans individuals.
For Transgender Awareness Week, I want to highlight some cartoonists who share their experiences, educate about pronouns, or are just openly Transgender cartoonists.
Trans people belong everywhere, comics included!
Here are a bunch of RAD comics and resources from reputable Transgender PERSPECTIVES:
Gumballs By Erin Nations (He/Him)
Super Late Bloomer: My Early Days In Transition By Julia Kaye (She/Her)
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/36374395-super-lat...
Genderqueer: A memoir by Maia Kobabe (e/em/eir)
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/42837514-gender-qu...
A Quick Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns by Archie Bongiovanni (they/them) and Tristan Jimerson (he/him)
https://onipress.com/products/a-quick-easy-guide-to-they-them-pronouns
First Year Out: A Transition Story by Sabrina Symington (she/her)
Transgender Brazilian cartoonist, Laerte Coutinho (she/her)
Laerte has been mentioned briefly in SAW’s Year-Long Intensive Program in the Western Comics History course.
She now has her own Netflix documentary -
https://www.netflix.com/title/80142223.
If you don't have Netflix you can read a little bit more about it here -
https://www.out.com/movies/2017/5/22/new-netflix-doc-foll....
Emma Jensen, SAW Instructor for SAW’s Year-Long Intensive Program Modern Comics Exploration course and co-instructor of SAW’s Six-Month Graphic Novel Intensive has thoughtfully mentioned these modern-day comics relating to transgender/queer themes and diversity as well. See more below!
Apsara Engine by Bishakh Som (she/her)
https://www.feministpress.org/books-a-m/apsara-engine.
Street Noise Press just released her memoir, Spellbound https://www.streetnoisebooks.com/spellbound
An essay on Diversity by Lee Lai (she/her) back in 2018
https://www.theliftedbrow.com/liftedbrow/2018/10/30/notes-on-diversity-by-lee-lai..
The Lie and How We Told It by Tommi Parrish (they/them)
https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/the-lie-and-how-we....
Emma also mentioned really liking Tommi’s book through 2d cloud:
Perfect Hair by Tommi Parrish
http://2dcloud.com/perfect-hair.
Additionally, here’s an interview with Tommi on the The Comics Journal from back in 2018 where they touch on their process and their experience as an artist:
http://www.tcj.com/thats-just-what-my-life-looks-like-a-t
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These are just some of the many comics being created around the world from actual transgender perspectives. The more the media appropriately exhibits queer/trans representation; educates others with correct transgender information and experiences; and supports the transgender community, the greater the possibility becomes of diminishing anti-transgender violence and ignorance.
Early Western Comics History is very cis-white-male themed, as with many genres, but diversity still prevails in the Comics medium as women; people of color; LGBTQ+ folks; and more have pushed through the odds to get their voices heard. Based on this knowledge, SAW is always looking for and adding more diverse artists to cover in their courses because we know that every voice matters.
I hope you enjoy these fascinating comic reads and have learned a little about Transgender Awareness.
Happy Transgender Week of Awareness!
Want to learn and read more diverse and inclusive comics?
Want to gain knowledge about comic creation in general?
Check out SAW’s Year-Long Intensive Program or SAW's Online Courses.
And come say “hello” anytime and see what we’re all up to on SAW's Mighty Network!
Cheers,
Karlo (Karr)