An award-winning author is preparing for a homecoming of sorts later this month, with the well-being of America’s LGBTQ+ youth top of mind. Nico Lang is set to return to their hometown of Cincinnati to help launch their new book, American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era. But the book signing event won’t be about Lang — it will be about eight trans and nonbinary teenagers in America, with the book signing less than two weeks before the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election.
“There’s a reason that this book is being released in October and not released in June,” Lang told me over the phone as they embarked on this strategically timed book tour. “June is LGBT+ Pride Month, but I thought it was more important to make the connection to the election really explicit. The election will determine the ability of these kids to continue living their lives.”
Lang pointed to the policies of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has vowed to punish doctors and hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to transgender minors. Some reporting suggests Trump is proposing an all-out national ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
“A lot of families [already] feel like they have to move in order to make sure that their kids can get the resources that they need,” Lang said, echoing a story Ohio Capital Journal shared last month of an Ohio family that moved to New York. “But if that happens in 50 states, nowhere is really safe in the U.S. So many families are thinking about fleeing the country, and have already looked at like, ‘What would I need to move abroad? Where can I go that will be safe for my family?’ No family should have to do this. No kid should be forced to flee their country in order to live their lives. And yet, that’s happening.”
In recent years, the Ohio Statehouse has seen numerous iterations of anti-trans legislation, perhaps most notably the gender-affirming care ban (House Bill 68) which was vetoed by Gov. Mike DeWine before the veto was overridden by the Senate. The American Civil Liberties Union sued, and in August, a judge ruled against the ACLU’s challenge. The plaintiffs are appealing, but at this point the bill is law. Separately, a transgender bathroom ban bill (House Bill 183) was most recently tacked onto a Senate bill regarding the College Credit Plus program (Senate Bill 104), which is still waiting to be passed by the House.
Lang said this is not unique to Ohio — it’s happening all over the country.
“It’s literally a copy-and-paste version of the same bill,” Lang said. “You have conservative consortiums that shop this legislation to lawmakers in every single state across the country. This year, of the more than 650 bills targeting trans people, they were introduced in almost every single U.S. state, no matter how liberal.”
Which is why, before putting pen to paper, Lang spent time visiting eight families across the nation — from deep blue California to ruby red Texas — with access that was carefully curated.
“When it comes to telling the stories of trans youth, I’ve been doing that for eight years, and I know a lot of these families really well,” Lang said. “So many of these parents had to become really guarded because of bad experiences that they’ve had with the media. You can only watch your kids be misgendered so many times or dead-named so many times before you just stop engaging. I’ve built up a certain amount of trust and credibility that not a lot of other reporters have.”
That trust and credibility led to hundreds of hours of face-to-face conversations between Lang and eight teenagers who are the pillars of this novel. The stories of Wyatt, Rhydian, Mykah, Clint, Ruby, Augie, Jack and Kylie go beyond the often broad-stroke approach of the media and capture the intricacies and complexities of growing up trans. No one story is the same. No one teenager is the same. And by offering nuance and allowing the subjects to propel the narrative, Lang reminds us these young people are just young people, trying to live their lives as their fully authentic, healthy selves. This humanizing approach aims to take the fear out of the trans conversation, and — Lang hopes — replace it with empathy.
Although Lang has been featured in numerous news outlets — ranging from Rolling Stone and The New York Times to VICE and NBC News — they don’t see themselves as a traditional journalist.
“I’m a little funny and weird and idiosyncratic,” Lang said. “We make jokes, we’re just like people together in the conversation, and I think that allows people to let their guard down a little bit and just be a human with me for a second. Through that, not only do I think you get better material, but you form these really long-standing relationships with people. So, when I started reaching out to the community to write this book, because I had this idea in mind, I didn’t really get a lot of resistance. They knew who I was, and they knew that I would take care of them.”
For Lang, change begins with ensuring the proper voices are being heard: the trans youth whose lives are on the line, not lawmakers who can be quick to hide behind special interest groups.
“The biggest problem with the conversation right now is that we don’t actually include trans kids,” Lang said. “Trans kids should be leading the conversation of their own lives. They’re silenced and marginalized in that conversation. People don’t let them speak and don’t want to hear from them. I hope this book is a reminder of the stakes for people. If you read this and it moves you, you know what to do. You know how to fight. For these kids, there’s a really easy way to do it, and you can do it on Nov. 5.”
Lang will have notable company at the book signing event: Jim Obergefell, a Sandusky native and civil rights activist who was the lead plaintiff in the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges. This ruling legalized same-sex marriage throughout the United States.
Nico Lang in conversation with Jim Obergefell discussing and signing American Teenager: How Trans Kids Are Surviving Hate and Finding Joy in a Turbulent Era takes place on Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. at Joseph-Beth Booksellers. More info: josephbeth.com.
This story is featured in CityBeat’s Oct. 16 print edition.
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This article appears in Oct 2, 2024 – Oct 15, 2043.
