45 pages 1 hour read

Susan Kuklin

Beyond Magenta: Transgender and Nonbinary Teens Speak Out

Nonfiction | Biography | YA | Published in 2014

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Part 3, Author’s NoteChapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3: “Notes and Resources”

Part 3, Author’s Note Summary

This final part of the book opens with an Author’s Note by author Susan Kuklin, who includes a series of acknowledgments to notable people and institutions who influenced and aided Beyond Magenta’s development. This note also describes Kuklin’s research trajectory and the ways in which the book’s topics and themes changed over time.

The third part of the book then offers an outline of the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, which Kuklin describes as instrumental in producing the book, followed by a Q&A section with Dr. Manel Silva, an adolescent/internal medicine physician. Dr. Silva is the clinical director of the HOTT (Health Outreach to Teens) Program, which caters to LGBTQ+ youths ranging from ages 13-24.

The third part concludes with a brief outline of Proud Theater, through which Kuklin met her last interviewee, Luke; a glossary of terms; and a list of proposed further reading.

Part 3, Author’s Note Analysis

Being a cisgender woman born in 1941, Kuklin’s perspective is that of an outsider to the lives of trans teens as well. In her Author’s Note, she states that her book began as a deep dive into the lives of “boys who realize that they are girls and girls who realize that they are boys” (205)—a vision that changed significantly as she pursued her research.