Celebrating Transgender Awareness Month

Back by popular demand! The University Branch will be hosting the third annual Trans Shorts and Speed Friending event on November 12^th from 6 – 7:30 p.m. to coincide with Transgender Awareness Month and Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20th. We’re partnering with Three Dollar Bill Cinema and TWIST: Seattle Queer Film Festival to make this event possible, and along with Three Dollar Bill, we’ll also have Seattle Nonbinary Collective, Lavender Rights Project, and Camp Ten Trees on hand to share information about their organizations during the event.

Trans Shorts & Speed Friending will be a fun evening consisting of film shorts made by transgender filmmakers followed by Speed Friending.  If you’re looking for a low-stress and fun way to meet other queer/trans folks in a friendly environment then this is the event for you. This is a welcoming environment with refreshments and entertaining discussion prompts that will be sure to help facilitate connections and promote lively conversation.   Folks with accessibility needs can be buzzed into the building on the north side of the library and there are several single occupancy restrooms in the building.

Celebrating Trans Lives

November is Transgender Awareness Month! Seattle Public Library is excited to honor this celebration of transgender folks through events, book displays, and this book recommendation list of books by trans people.

The first book I would recommend reading this month is Transgender History by Susan Stryker, because the transgender community wouldn’t be where we are today without the community activists who have fought for our rights. The depth of Susan Stryker’s research combined with the personal touch of her strong connections to many trans activists make this book a fast and educational read. For those who prefer a documentary film to a book, Stryker also filmed Screaming Queens about a 1966 act of resistance by trans women in San Francisco.

Quick Reads That Make My Queer Heart Skip A Beat

Introducing Teddy by Jess Walton. I don’t even know where to begin with this sweet and tender children’s book without spoiling it. Jess Walton knocks it out of the park with this one: it’s a children’s book that has a transgender character that isn’t rejected and who doesn’t perpetuate the stereotype that transgender people are born in the wrong bodies. There may or may not have been tears when I read this picture book the first time, but there were definitely gender feels.

Embracing Gender Diversity

~posted by Micah K.

Here at Seattle Public Library we think a lot about how we can be a more inclusive resource for our communities. When the American Dialect Society announced in January that the singular “they” was the word of 2015, we started discussing in more depth the benefits of using gender neutral language when serving our patrons. We live in a world that attaches gender to everything: from toys to books to clothes, we’ve been socialized to see things as either masculine or feminine. We recognize that as professionals that interact with the public, it is second nature to assume gender in our brief interactions with you lovely humans. Instead of taking the easy route of relying on our assumptions about gender, we are challenging ourselves to use gender inclusive language to welcome our transgender and gender non-conforming patrons and create more space for gender diversity in our libraries. (We also really do not want to misgender, or use a word or pronoun that does not correctly reflect the gender with which an individual identifies, our patrons.)

Date Yourself with a Comic Book (or Three)

~posted by Micah K.

One of my favorite ways to treat myself is to curl up in bed with my dog, a nice cup of tea, some chocolate, and a graphic novel. Or if I’m itching to get out of the house, I’ll take one of these quick reads to one of my neighborhood’s pubs to enjoy some light reading over a beverage and basket of fries. With all of February’s dreariness, I thought I would share some of the graphic novels I have enjoyed most this winter, so you can treat yourself with one of these reads.

Alex + Ada, Volume 1 by Sarah Vaughn and Jonathan Luna

What would you do if your grandma gifted you a realistic robot? Keep it, return it, fall in love with it? In this adult comic, Alex grapples with those questions and his own feelings about artificial intelligence. And if you can’t get enough, SPL owns Volume 2 and Volume 3.