Oct
19
6:00pm
American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era--Nico Lang in conversation with Rachel Garbus Benítez
By Charis Books and More/Charis Circle
Charis welcomes Nico Lang in conversation with Rachel Garbus Benítez for a discussion of American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era. From an award-winning journalist comes a vivid and moving portrait of eight trans and nonbinary teenagers across the country, following their daily triumphs, struggles, and all that encompasses growing up trans in America today. This event is co-sponsored by Wussy Mag, covering Southern + Queer nightlife, art, and culture in Atlanta and the greater southeast.
Media coverage tends to sensationalize the fight over how trans kids should be allowed to live, but what is incredibly rare are the voices of the people at the heart of this debate: transgender and gender nonconforming kids themselves. For their groundbreaking new book, journalist Nico Lang spent a year traveling the country to document the lives of transgender, nonbinary, and genderfluid teens and their families. Drawing on hundreds of hours of on-the-ground interviews with them and the people in their communities, American Teenager paints a vivid portrait of what it’s actually like to grow up trans today.
From the tip of Florida’s conservative panhandle to vibrant queer communities in California, and from Texas churches to mosques in Illinois, American Teenager gives readers a window into the lives of Wyatt, Rhydian, Mykah, Clint, Ruby, Augie, Jack, and Kylie, eight teens who, despite what some lawmakers might want us to believe, are truly just kids looking for a brighter future.
Nico Lang (they/them) is a nonbinary award-winning journalist with over a decade of experience covering the transgender community’s fight for equality. Their work has appeared in major publications, including Rolling Stone, Esquire, The New York Times, Vox, The Wall Street Journal, Salon, Harper’s Bazaar, Time, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. Lang is the creator of Queer News Daily and previously served as the deputy editor for Out magazine, the news editor for Them, the LGBTQ+ correspondent for VICE, and the editor and cofounder of the literary journal In Our Words. Their industry-leading contributions to queer media have resulted in a GLAAD Media Award, 10 awards from the National Association of LGBTQ Journalists (NLGJA), and three awards from the Los Angeles Press Club, including the 2023 Online Journalist of the Year. Lang is also the first-ever recipient of the Visibility Award from the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund (TLDEF), an honor created to recognize their impactful contributions to reporting on the lives of LGBTQ+ people.
Rachel Garbus Benítez (she/her) is a writer based in Atlanta, Georgia. She's the editor-in-chief at WUSSY Mag, a queer culture magazine based in the South, and the deputy editor at Atlanta Magazine. She's also the co-founder and co-producer of Out Down South, a multimedia history project sharing the voices and stories of queer Southerners. Find her on Instagram at @goodgraciousrachel.
The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate or in person at the event.
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Charis Books and More/Charis Circle
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