Blog Tour: Gender Euphoria – edited by Laura Kate Dale*

So often, the stories shared by trans people about their transition centre on gender dysphoria: a feeling of deep discomfort with their birth-assigned gender, and a powerful catalyst for coming out or transitioning. But for many non-cisgender people, it’s gender euphoria which pushes forward their transition: the joy the first time a parent calls them by their new chosen name, the first time they have the confidence to cut their hair short, the first time they truly embrace themself. Gender Euphoria seeks to show the world the sheer variety of ways that being non cisgender can be a beautiful, joyful experience. What each of the book’s essayists have in common are their feelings of elation, pride, confidence, freedom and ecstasy as a direct result of coming out as non-cisgender, and how coming to terms with their gender brought unimaginable joy into their lives.

Laura Kate Dale is a full-time video game critic, video creator, podcaster and author. Her first book was Uncomfortable Labels, a memoir about growing up at the intersection of being a member of the LGBT community and living with autism, and she writes regularly on the theme of transgender rights and experience. She can be found tweeting at @LaurakBuzz, where she has over 53k followers.

My thoughts: this collection of essays was moving and powerful, it made me cry a few times – happy tears, the joy of finally being able to express your true self leaps off the page.

I identify as non-binary, I’ve never really felt “female” and it was a long time before I understood that you don’t have to be one or the other, you can just be yourself.

This is something I have in common with the writers of this collection – a need to identify as the person you are, not other people’s perceptions of you. This is a wonderful sample of some of the complex and infinite variety of human that there is in the world, enjoyable and thoughtful, I am pleased I got to read it.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.