A review by bashsbooks
How We Do Family: From Adoption to Trans Pregnancy, What We Learned about Love and LGBTQ Parenthood by Trystan Reese

emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

3.75

How We Do Family is an important piece that illuminates the realities of adoptions and trans pregnancy. My favorite aspect of this book is Reese's unwavering honesty, even in the face of his and his partner's past missteps (such as his anger toward Biff's family, for example). It's written thoughtfully and compassionately for the most part, and it's really good for people who have never considered what a trans man's family would look like or what gay men's families can look like. 

That said, I feel like I know too much about the topics he's discussing (the queer ones, not the parenting ones) to fully enjoy this book. He mentions biphobia at one point... and then is (unintentionally, I believe) biphobic in the next line. He mentions several times throughout the book that he doesn't believe (or didn't in the past? it's unclear) that trans men experience transphobia nearly as much as trans women... and then describes his horrific personal experiences with transphobia, especially while pregnant. It seems like he is trying to flatten definitions and experiences to be easily digestible for a cishet audience, which is understandable to some degree, but just not something I love to read as a bi trans man. 

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