I wish I'd had this book to give to my parents and siblings and other relatives in 1976, the year that I transitioned. Or maybe even before. I don't know if it would have made a difference with some, but I think it would have helped with most, and it would have made my life a lot easier for sure.
Mom, I Need To Be a Girl is written by a the parent of a teenaged son who soon became a teenaged daughter.
Evelyn's book, just released this month, will certainly be a good guide for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings and cousins who love and recognize that their family member is, at age eight or ten, twelve or fourteen, and has been socially trapped in the wrong gender role. There is a lot of love in this book. And there is a lot of searching and soul searching as well. I do not understand why family members feel guilty when they learn of a loved one being transgendered, but they often do, and this book will certainly help in that area as well.
One of the things that I admire so about Evelyn is that she is not afraid to sound-off at those in the so-called "helping professional" area who do not really help, but charge a fee to transgender clients who then educate those professionals or serve as research data and are provided little actual help. Evelyn blasts several. She also takes the reader step by step through all of the challenges, including school, restrooms and gym class. She also has a good list of references in the back.
I do know that if this book had come out in the mid 1960's and if my parents had read and understood (a real key, yes) it, maybe I would not have been so fearful when they discovered my crossdressing back in 1965. It was my high school senior year when my stash of womens underclothes was discovered. You could cut my parents' homophobia with dull knife: it permeated the air. I knew that I had to tell them it was just an experiment, for I feared that the truth would have caused me to become a homeless youth and on the street at 17.
I hope that you will purchase and use Evelyn's book. Send it to any parent who is having trouble. Send it to PFLAG Chapters so maybe they will see that TG work belongs in their mission statement as well. It is a very good tool.
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Just Evelyn,I hope that the mother of an FTM child writes a similar good book soon.
Reviewer - Phyllis Frye
Webmistress Note: Since this review was added, the book has now become available online free at http://www.justevelyn.com"