Pride Month: Continuity

I haven't been putting the year, like "Pride Month 2024". This is not a regular thing for me. 

Last year I was writing for Transgender Awareness Week, which was in November. We are almost there again, and with LGBT History month being now in October, or Pride being in June or July, there are lots of options for a regular rotation. 

When I finished writing about the transgender reading last year, I realized there were more books that I was going to want to get to. I planned to do that in June. That is why I have been thinking of it as Pride reading this year, but I do not know what my pattern will be. 

Here were some things that I knew after last year:

I knew that Janet Mock and Jonathan Van Ness each had another book, and I would read those, which I now have.

Surpassing Certainty: What My Twenties Taught Me by Janet Mock

Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love by Jonathan Van Ness

I can really see the value in reading things in order. 

For Van Ness, Love That Story was material that was important but did not necessarily fit into the first book. If I had read that first, I might have appreciated the greater context given in Over the Top.

In Mock's case, Redefining Realness did come first, but was missing some things that were important chronologically. Reading the things she thought of after putting the first book out in the world gave a more depth. That worked well.

I think both books are also a reminder that you can never tell a whole story. It doesn't have to be a lack of openness or anything intentional. Not only is there always more, but also sometimes things look different after more time and thought.

I knew I was going to want to spend more time on the Interface Project after suddenly not being able to get Eden Atwood out of my mind.

http://www.xysuz.com/the-interface-project 

https://www.interfaceproject.org/stories

That ended up being useful before I got to any of the books. The Olympics brought it up.

Let me be clear that I do not know that Imane Khelif is intersex; it is pretty clear that Umar Kremlev is shady. Nonetheless the topic came up and I had a source for more information on something that people really oversimplify.

Finally, while my focus was specifically on transgender people, there was also some historical reading about the larger movement. This may be another reason why this year feels more like it is related to Pride and the larger group. (I am aware that there are often inclusion issues with organized Pride activities.)

Regardless, after reading And the Band Played On, I started wondering about some of the people who were mentioned in the book, but not mentioned as having died. (It is about the early days of the AIDS crisis and there are lots of deaths.)

Two I remember looking up were Larry Kramer -- who had died, but not until 2020 -- and Cleve Jones.

Cleve Jones is still alive. He has a memoir.

When We Rise: My Life in the Movement by Cleve Jones 

First of all, it was inspiring to see that people did live. Yes, we know now that there are drugs that can fight HIV and AIDS, but for people who had it then, and saw so many of their friends and lovers die, that was not guaranteed.

In addition, just from reading Jones' book, there are at least two more movies and another book that I need to look into. It's not going to happen this year. 

I know that something will happen again at some point in 2025.

For now that's as specific as I can be.

Related posts:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2023/11/transgender-awareness-reading-memoirs.html

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2023/12/transgender-awareness-reading-until.html

https://preparedspork.blogspot.com/2024/08/gender-olympics-and-dominator-culture.html