My Race Is My Gender: Portraits of Nonbinary People of Color

by Stephanie Hsu (Contributor), Ka-Man Tse (Editor), S. L. Clark (Contributor)

Genderqueer and nonbinary people of color often experience increased marginalization, belonging to an ethnic group that seldom recognizes their gender identity and a queer community that subscribes to white norms. Yet for this very reason, they have a lot to teach about how racial, sexual, and gender identities intersect. Their experiences of challenging social boundaries demonstrate how queer communities can become more inclusive and how the recognition of nonbinary genders can be an anti-racist practice. 
 
My Race is My Gender  is the first anthology by nonbinary writers of color to include photography and visual portraits, centering their everyday experiences of negotiating intersectional identities. While informed by queer theory and critical race theory, the authors share their personal stories in accessible language. Bringing together Black, Indigenous, Latine, and Asian perspectives, its six contributors present an intergenerational look at what it means to belong to marginalized queer communities in the U.S. and feel solidarity with a global majority at the same time. They also provide useful insights into how genderqueer and nonbinary activism can both energize and be fueled by such racial justice movements as Black Lives Matter. 

Genres: Queer, Nonfiction

146 pages, Paperback

Published August 16, 2024

About the author

Oscar nominated for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).

Reviews

[blaisdell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting this book to be more academic than memoir—something really only achieved in Hsu’s epilogue, which is an absorbing analysis of nonbinary gender (and race) through the lens of critical race theory. The other contributors’ stories were interesting, but not what I was looking for, as instead of discussing how their race intersected with their realization and understanding of themselves as nonbinary, there were at-length discussions of racism and how their race intersected with their perceived (binary) genders—which I guess makes sense, but wasn’t the idea that had drawn me to this work. Wish there had been more—this was a very short collection!

[trinity ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

again 4 stars really has no meaning

[Lani · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up.

I'm usually hesitant to rate books that focus on a person's lived experience. It feels wrong to assign a star rating to how much you got out of someone's tragic life story, or even their uplifting tale of perseverance. But reviews are subjective, so I should be able to say that two of the five stories just weren't for me, but I'm sure they'll resonate with someone. Of the three other stories, one was well-written but slightly off-putting when it came their discussions of spirituality, one was presented in a very engaging format that really worked for me, and the final one felt like looking into what you thought was a mirror only to find it was actually a window and on the other side of the pane stands a person looking into a mirror that's actually a mirror, and its like that person can see themself so clearly and all you can see is the way the experiences you've had are the same experiences they've written about, and so you can see yourself in them, but tragically can't quite see them in yourself. Yet. Maybe.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish this book had been way longer. I love that it exists, but it's a very slim volume with only a handful of profiles. I was hoping for a lot more.