Raising Luminaries & Books for Littles are free and accessible for readers who can’t afford a paywall. Posts may contain affiliate links, which allow me to earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Check out the full affiliate disclosure along with my statement of accountability.

Let’s Learn About Trans Day of Resilience

The Earthquakes casually experiment with gender and sexuality without hesitation or fear. Which is great, but not all kids are so lucky.

For kids who do struggle with internalized transmisia or transphobia, 47,000 Beads validates kids who are confused or anxious about their gender identity, with reassurance that there are adults out there who can support them as mentors and accomplices.

As more anti-trans legislation is passed throughout the US to ban children from accessing gender-affirming care and education, it’s unfortunately going to be up to us as individuals to close the ignorance gap until we can strike down the bigoted laws and school policies.

When is it?

• Trans Day of Visibility is the 31st every March
• Trans Day of Resilience is 20th of each November

Read:

• “When someone uses my right pronouns, it feels like a warm hug from my favorite person” – A trans kid reviews ‘Hooray For She, He, Ze, and They’
• When Aidan Became a Brother (ages 4-7)
• Ho’onani Hula Warrior (ages 4-8)
• 47,000 Beads (ages 5+)
  Wait to read 47,000 Beads until kids the ability to understand why Peyton looks like she’s suffering in quiet agony. It’s not BEING different that she finds painful – but being different in a world that expects binaries.
  Please pay attention to the end notes in this book – which point out why, even if you’re trans/nonbinary/gender-fluid, non-Indigenous folks should not appropriate the Two Spirit identity, which is an identity sacred to cultures Indigenous to Turtle Island.

Watch: The Healing Stones of Kapaemahu (ages 6+)

Discuss:

• In most of the books and movies we see – how do the writers of these stories understand gender? Is this the only way to understand it?
• Who benefits when we pretend there are only two distinct genders and they are determined by our genitals?
• Who is expected to hide, lie about who they are, and see themselves as less important when we pretend there are only two genders determined by our physical body only?
• Talk with your kids about the difference between assigned sex and gender identity.
• Reaffirm that trans women are women, and trans men are men, and gender is not limited to just two options.
  
• Discuss the emotional labor and discrimination trans kids face in everyday life – including at school and when trying to use a public restroom.

Take Action:

• Read Jacob’s Room to Choose and create an inclusive poster for your community.
• Request that your teacher, principal, or other community leader display your poster.
• Discuss the response you got from your community leaders, whether it was positive, negative, ambiguously dismissive.
• Register for Gender Wheel Training via Maya of Reflection Press for parents, educators, clinicians and social workers.
• Fight state-level anti-trans legislation – Find bills in your state (also here’s another legislation tracker) that target transgender people and use Resistbot to urge your representatives to fight them. When it comes time to vote – check your legislator’s scorecard to see how they have supported or fought anti-trans legislation.

Additional resources to dig deeper into this topic:

• More on the Healing Stones of Kapaemahu
• Find more kids Books For Trans Day of Resilience, and follow that up with more books about Transgender Representation & Resilience for Kids throughout the year
  
• Find stories featuring nonbinary & gender-creative kiddos to incorporate into your monthly story time
• Coloring pages via Reflection Press
• Find out how your local legislators stand on trans legislation using the Legislator Scorecard & VOTE.  via the Trans Formations Project
• I Live: A Youth Toolkit via the Transgender Oral History Project
• A Resilience Toolkit for kids
• Revolutionary Humans Pronoun Power Printable