Transgenderedness

I have also stressed Jess's role as a “mother” to Kim—by which I mean her role in offering the daughter not only transgenderedness but also empowered femaleness.

My husband's transgenderedness is not a present, or if it is, it's a present I'd return if I had the receipt. So would he. Not because we don't like it — we both do, to an extent — but because there's nowhere to put it. We can't put it in the closet because that makes him unhappy, and we can't put it out in public because that makes everyone else unhappy.

To her surprise Deirdre will find that the inevitable challenge to her transgenderedness she anticipates does not come from her profession.