How would we react if our son or daughter told us that they want to start a gender transition process? Even more: if it has already started and we are almost the last to know. We think that we are open and we realize that maybe not so much, and not only that, but that it scares us and we know almost nothing. This void, the lack of information for families of trans youth, is what Élodie Durand wanted to fill with Transitions. Anne Marbot's diary (Andana / Comanegra), a graphic novel in which she herself has often felt as ignorant as the Anne Marbot she portrays.
It was not her own choice, but it was precisely the mother of a young transgender person who proposed to Élodie Durand (Tours, 1976) to address this issue, and they did so together in a true story –with changed names, yes–.
Durand explains that "it was a subject she was unaware of, although she had read and listened to podcasts on feminism and gender", but when she met Anne she was informed by essays and novels, she became passionate and researched a lot, also knowing and listening to testimonies, until the point that at times the stages through which Anne passed were advanced and information was exchanged. Throughout the entire book, in addition to family history, theoretical resources or examples on the spectrum and gender identity are included, also with audiovisual recommendations that have been adapted in translation.
The author recalls that she found a doctoral thesis on the experiences of parents with trans children that allowed her to see that “there are points of contact in all of them and they share problems, perhaps due to cultural conditioning in our society. We are not prepared and parents are not prepared today for transidentity, although perhaps a little more now than two or three years ago. Yes, she talks about transidentity, not transsexuality.
The reader will find a mother "who first suffers, then goes through acceptance and later through understanding, it is not something that is done from one day to the next, because there is a blaming, a victimization, which are inherent stages of this change vision of gender stereotypes”. A feeling that is often close to mourning, because the mother, who had projected expectations of her, initially feels that she has lost her daughter. "Perhaps it is also the mourning of all these preconceived ideas that she had, because there is also an intellectual and ideological transition."
The author also resorts to sociology and politics, because "it is also a matter of freedom of our identity, which concerns all of us and also concerns all issues of minorities and the defense of their rights." “To understand to what extent we are conditioned by society, also regarding our genders – she says – I had to give clues and open the range. In addition, it also talks about biology, a fact related to Anne's work, but she had to be careful because she had to remember that “it is an intimate story, not a sociology book or the history of gender and finding the right balance was not easy. ”. And she also remembers that "transidentity has existed throughout history, it is not a fad."
Durand is satisfied that the book is useful: "When Anne found out about her son's trans identity, she found no information that would help her, and that's why she wanted to tell an intimate story to talk about a bigger story." And she still remembers that some people excitedly explained to her that the book had helped them understand her parents. Understand, not feel alone. Make the way accompanied.
Catalan version, here
