I don’t have the right words because most of it has already been said better than I could, but I do have a book recommendation which I believe is my love language. A book that everyone should read is “Real Queer America” by Samantha Allen. I read it back in February of this year and I was ashamed to have had it sit on my shelf since 2019. In “Real Queer America”, Samantha Allen, a transgender woman and journalist road trips throughout red states meeting up with queer and trans folks she is revisiting and/or meeting for the first time. She makes stops in Utah, Indiana, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Here is one of my favorite quotes that I hope will resonate with you. Blaming folks in red states does not help anyone when we live in a broken system. If you’re longing for community like I am, this book does a wonderful job of showing how important community truly is and shall open the eyes of folks who are quick to judge and ridicule folks living in red states. “We LGBT people are already everywhere. We are born at the same unstoppable pace in every state —North, South, red, blue and to every household, religious or not. According to the Public Religion Research Institute, 7 percent of millennials and as a thirty something, I fall in the upper end of that age bracket -now identify as LGBT. And not every LGBT person born into a conservative part of America wants to get out.” – Samantha Allen, Real Queer America As @i.queer put it best “Don’t blame each other, blame the system. Don’t fight each other, fight the system.” Real Queer America is now one of my favorite nonfiction works I’ve had the pleasure of reading and it fits perfectly this month for NonFictionNovember and it’s also TransAwarenessMonth. Go purchase it from @librofm, @bookshop_org or even request it (and/or place an order) at your local library. As always, I will continue to be visible as a trans man in Pennsylvania and of course, uplifting queer and trans books. Community liberation will help us all. We are not free until ALL of us are free. RealQueerAmerica