Without access to gender-affirming treatment, Tara is a trans girl. She vehemently tries to fit in at the all-girls large university in Virginia, but it’s difficult when she realizes how distinctively distinctive she is actually. Just Happy to Be Here, a young adult (YA ) novel about surviving girlhood in the face of never-ending political attacks on one’s own existence, is the debut of Naomi Kanakia.
Tara is never interested in serving the trans community as a voice or advocate. She just wants to make friends, feel “normal, ” whatever that means, and gain admittance to an exclusive club where she feels like she has found her place.
Many students believe transphobia is to blame when it becomes clear that Tara’s entrance to the club is never guaranteed. But, not yet Tara is certain about that. She still feels pressured to stand up and fight when all she really wants to do is fade into the background and continue to work to persuade her kids that she needs to receive gender-affirming treatment as soon as possible. As much as she does n’t want to be discriminated against, she does n’t want people to think she deserves any special treatment due to her identity, either.
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More importantly, a lady in Simply Happy to Be Here is portrayed as a person who fervently desires to be recognized for who she is and never for her gender. Kanjia spoke with LGBTQ Nation about creating the account in the current stormy political weather and the huge responsibility she feels for trans readers.
You were writing this book at the same time that state legislatures were considering and passing gender-affirming treatment restrictions. How was the work environment for the tale like when the situations that it is based on were still being developed?
NAOMI KANAKIA: When I pitched the text in 2021, trans troubles were no national issues. They were never issues that governors ran on or that presidential candidates had any interest in. There were certainly insinuations that that was going to be a hinge by Republican employees, but it was not on my sensor, and I don’t believe it was on very numerous people’s radars. So when I wrote the first draft of the book in 2021, it did n’t really have any of that material.
And then the very earliest gender-affirming treatment restrictions [became rules on April 6, 2021 in Arkansas]. I really started putting some of this stuff in as I was going through my adjustments. I was aware that the text should have been written about how this has instantly become a regional problem when it is released in a reasonable amount of time. Simply put, it merely kept getting worse.
There were 10 states with gender-affirming treatment bans for teenagers, and I believe I wrote that in my author’s note. This number has now increased to more than 20. At the time, it felt really strange; it also feels kind of strange. Because being trans, it ’s really not that exciting. The person who experiences it finds it to be very exciting, but it’s strange to add this whole element of immediately being a common enemy.
I read Anne Frank’s journal while writing the book, and I think the thing about it is that like 90 % of what she writes about is of, that she has a crush on Peter, and that she gets upset with her mother. It’s only very standard products, but finally against the backdrop of such an amazing situation, it ’s difficult for her to know.
Let’s speak about the powerful between Tara, a transgender woman, and Liam, a trans son, both attending the all-girls college. The characters act as each other’s foils, with Tara simply wanting to blend in and live her life while Liam wants to be quiet about activism and injustice. Why did you decide to make both kinds of characters?
Most trans persons, or at least most transgender individuals I know, are very social. Tara’s a bit of an exception in that she is assimilationist.
I personally am quite assimilationist. I have never succeeded and likely will never succeed, but I did enjoy if, like, you know, I passed. I have a home in San Francisco and I live there. I’m on the PTA at my kid’s class. I am no, like, extreme. I’m really trying to get a little bit in there. So I must be aware that we are a partnership of people who have a variety of needs. For someone like me, clinical change is really, really critical. For transgender females and transgender women, there’s a lot of call with the health system. For genderqueer and intersex persons, that ’s never really component of being transgender for them. For me physiologically and for Tara physiologically, being transgender is not really a form of self-expression. She genuinely aspires to be included.
I believe that those who share those principles also have a tendency to criticize others for it. I mean, I’ve benefited greatly from, say, accepting people who are clearly female nonbinary.
Because I have never used the restroom, there was no debate over it 20 years earlier. Always. We would never go into a public restroom. Then I may. I’m never sure what the right course of action should I follow. Simply put, I thought Tara had a specific personality.
I’m often bad at gambling the Hey readership. At some point, they actually did n’t like problems works. Just books about queer happiness were requested by them. I believe Tara is actually attempting to have gay happiness. She’s certainly out there trying to stir up trouble. However, because she ignores so much difficulty or because she struggles with so much stigmatization, people become angry. I do think people have a bit of unrealistic expectations, especially people who are no transgender girls or women, of what our career entails. There are very few trans women and girls who do n’t have any transphobia. You just have to remain strong and learn to ignore a lot to experience some queer happiness.
In an article you wrote, you said, “If I thought perhaps one girl may be harmed by my work, I had n’t read it. ” That’s a lot of accountability. How do you believe about that while you’re reading?
When I was younger, I would be so affected by queer civil rights successes. I remember when Elliot Page … came out as a lesbian. Me and my boyfriend at the time, we were crying. Growing up, there weren’t also gay shows. There weren’t also gay stars. There weren’t queer artists another than Elton John.
I can definitely recall that sense of the world opening up and things improving. But they did n’t get as much better as I may have thought. I do n’t want someone to read my book and suddenly become extremely hyped up and reveal to everyone that they are trans, which makes it turn ugly. I do n’t want to put my work on someone who is in a dangerous situation for them. That’s actually terrifying. I can’t be there with them. I can’t support them. I can’t do anything for them.
So it ’s quite scary. I do love for someone to read my book and get like, yeah, I’m trans. This is excellent. This is ideal for me. But finally I promptly also want them to be afraid, you know? But on the other hand, I definitely don’t want them to be very afraid. Because I positively don’t want them to read my book and think like, oh yeah, life is terrible for transgender people, I’m really gonna kill myself. Before writing this book, I never felt a role. because there are n’t really many trans girls depicted in books for teenagers.
It is getting harder to find publications like this into the hands of students in areas like Virginia, where the story takes place, because they might not be as accessible as they might otherwise. What advice would you give a family or school board who opposes the giving of ebooks in this way?
They don’t think that being transgender is true; there’s nothing you can claim to them. They think it ’s a crime, that it ’s a belief that has been transmitted to children. I mean, there’s no persuading them. Yes, I’m against having access to those who also posited that there was some sort of dangerous social disease that had no basis in life science and that people who caught it had no chance of leading joyful lives. They would only be monsters who actually mutilate themselves.
It’s hard because these are issues of truth, and you’re only certainly right on the fact. I do believe that libraries and schools should be able to purchase only the books that they believe are useful. I do believe it to be a little cliche to be so concerned with concepts in novels. I mean, all the children have the Internet; they’re all on TikTok. These book restrictions are not to impede information. They are aware of what transgender children will learn. In essence, it’s just to bully and terrify children and to let people know they’re not encouraged in this library or school.
It’s the same with these bath restrictions. Utah merely passed one. May I travel to Utah and not use the aircraft restrooms, not go to government buildings, or just look for gender-neutral restrooms? Yes, economically speaking, I could possibly avoid breaking the law, but the state’s constitution explicitly states that transgender people are not acceptable in this state.
What do you most hope the book will teach transgender teenagers?
I want them to realize that if you’re transgender, it can still feel truly proper despite the fact that transitioning is difficult and can be very slow. Most transgender youth in America do not undergo medical transitions, and the majority of them do so as teenagers. Most transgender teenagers are politically transitioning. I wanted to show people who politically transitioned. There’s a lot of benefit in that. I wanted them to experience it for themselves and really observe that there is a lot of good it.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in turmoil, help is available. Call or text 988 or talk at 988lifeline. nonprofit. The Trans Lifeline (1-877-565-8860 ) is staffed by trans people and will not contact law enforcement. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for youth via chat, text ( 678-678 ), or phone (1-866-488-7386 ). All three sources offer assistance in both Spanish and English.
