Mom, I Need To Be A Girl, By Just Evelyn (Evelyn D. Lindenmuth). Mass Market Paperback, 1998.

by Samantha P.

This out of print book is written by the mother of a young transsexual. Highly readable, it is the heartwarming account of how Evelyn helped her new daughter, Danielle, negotiate her way through the various social institutions in the USA. The book contains useful advice for parents and transgendered children on how to deal with family, schools, the medical profession, and day to day life. Evelyn wisely advises: “Let your teen make the decisions about his or her life whenever possible. Keep a sense of humour and use lots of hugging.” She also notes that if transgendered kids see themselves as “brave and proud” others are less likely to view them as outcasts.

Although Amazon.com seems to have placed this book in the Children’s Section, it is definitely NOT a child’s book. Written in a language that any high school student should be able to comprehend completely, it is primarily a book for the parent of a transsexual child to read. It chronicles the extreme difficulties faced by a single mother of a transsexual teenage boy transitioning to womanhood. The reader will quickly become angered at the politics which come into play at the local level and at the incompetence rampant within the medical establishment, particularly in the psychiatric arena where so-called experts, who seem to have little knowledge of the issues involved, don’t blink an eye at charging exhorbitant fees for their incompetent services and advice.

This book is a MUST READ for every adult with a transsexual child. I firmly believe there should be a copy in every public library, and it should be on the bookshelf of every counsellor, psychiatrist and psychologist.