About Bliss Excerpt
An exclusive sneak peek just for you, friends!
Welcome to Day 2 of my celebration of all things June. I hope you enjoy the book excerpt.
Since people are always asking me what they can do to support the trans community, this week, if you do one thing, please call your senators to oppose the Big Beautiful (terrible) Bill. It’s bad for the trans community, but more than that, it includes a clause that makes holding the executive office in contempt of the courts more difficult, which is bad for the country, among all the other icks of this crazy bill.
And now for your chaser…a beautiful memory that made it into my book.
The night of the Bar Mitzvah, you threw on a collared
shirt, a black blazer, jeans, and sneakers with a red swoosh. You
carefully combed your blonde hair so that it laid smooth across
the top of your head. Like always, you worried about how you
looked, and I assured you that you looked handsome. Like always
you complained that I have to say that because I am your mother,
which, though true, does not change the fact that you are hand-
some. Since you moved schools last year, in part so you could try
out having a boy’s name and pronouns, the group of people you
were about to see at the party did not know your gender his-
tory. You were just a guy named Jake, and your formal wear was
unremarkable to them. There were no more anxious questions
about whether anyone would disapprove of your clothes, and
when we arrived there were no excited texts from parents. But
to me there was still a thrill in seeing you dapper, with your hair
combed and wearing your blazer with its squared-off shoulders.
When the DJ announced it was time for the mother–son dance
and we both turned to find one another, my insides blazed with
a fierce joy.
We danced together, melting into the crowd of all the other
mothers and sons, unnoticeable, the hugeness of our moment
invisible to anyone but us. I teared up when you spun me un-
der your arm, thinking to myself, “I have a son. I really have a
son.” Our dance amplified the feeling I always had whenever I’d
been able to cut through the layers of thinking that short-circuit
my experience of your gender—all those complicated questions
about what it meant to you, about what it meant to me, of how it
was read by others, of what it would mean to your future. In the
moment, dancing, heart to heart, head to head, hand to hand, our
mutual recognition transcended the coarseness of language. Our
connection was and always will be a particular kind of bliss for me.
*****
If something in this post moved you, if you learned something new, if reading this made you feel more empowered to support the trans community, I hope you’ll consider sharing my free newsletter with a friend! My hope is to double my subscribers this month. Let’s do this!
See you tomorrow! XO