Gender Queer: A Memoir
Publication date: 2019
Genre: Memoir
About the Work
In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.
Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
Challenges in Canada
Nov. 2, 2021 — A library patron challenged this teen graphic novel. First, the patron left an anonymous message on the voicemail of an information desk phone; then, the patron emailed a message and left a name. The patron felt the book was controversial and questioned the library’s policy about graphic pedophiliac pornography aimed at teens and young adults. The patron wanted the book removed from the collection. The library has a policy that deals with challenges, but the patron submitted no Request for Reconsideration form. The library decided not to remove the book from its collection.
Nov. 23, 2021 — The complainant felt that Gender Queer was child pornography. A librarian wrote: “The complaint felt like a hit-and-run scare email. When I emailed a copy of our Request for Reconsideration form, the complainant did not respond.” Gender Queer remains in the library’s collection, but there is only a digital copy.