THIS BOOK IS a story of trans feminine culture in the new millennium. As a result, I am indebted to the trans women everywhere who have changed their whole lives to create our cultures. I want to thank every trans girl I have met in the years that I wrote this book, but especially those who lived in New York, Seattle, the Bay Area, rural Tennessee, and Chicago.
Thank you to the specific trans people who made this book possible: Theda Hammel, Harron Walker, January Hunt, T. Clutch Fleischmann, Cecilia Gentili (in a book about trans moms, she is trans mom to so many girls in NYC), Morgan M. Page, A.J. Lewis, Sophie Searcy, Crissy Bell (to whom goes credit for the “four funerals and a funeral” joke), Casey Plett, Sybil Lamb, Davey Davis, Aubrey Schuster, Jordy Rosenberg, Cyd Nova, Ambrose Stacey-Fleischmann, Ceyenne Doroshow, Gaines Blasdel, Dean Spade, Calvin, Hilt, Beau, Lex, and Sophie. May Emma, Bryn, and the other trans women lost during the writing of this book rest in power.
There have been so many other women (especially moms!) who have taught me so much. Pike Long, Charlie Starr, Rebecca Novack, Julia Reagan, Florence Menard, Julia Moses, Courtney Lyons, Rachel Lewallen, Siobahn Flood, Allie Grump, Alice Eisenberg, Kendra Grant, Elan, Yvonne Woon, Sarah Schulman, and Katie Liederman all made a difference in the shape of this book. Thinking about the relationship of sex to sex work was also a part of my writing, and to that end, I want to thank the sex workers and sex work activists in NYC in general, but specifically Chloe Mercury, The Villainelle, and Mistress Blunt.
I suppose the boys can get some love too: Dan Pacheco, Mike Casarella, Akiva Friedlin, Jon Philipsborn, and Jacob Brown.
In a book about transness and pregnancy, what are the odds to have gotten a trans editor in Victory Matsui, and a pregnant editor in Caitlin McKenna, both of whom happen to be brilliant? My editors truly made this a better book. And then I was lucky enough to have Emma Caruso come in at the last moment and put the finishing touches on their work. My agent, Kent Wolf, has the best hair in publishing, which I think must be how he has been so successful in advocating for me—well, great hair and that he is kind, smart, and quietly badass. Thank you to Chris Jackson and the One World team for taking a chance on my writing. Jackson Howard, thank you for seeing something in my writing and kicking off this process.
Believe it or not, I have an actual mother to thank: Suzanne Torrey, thank you for a lifetime of wisdom. Thank you as well to my father, Scott Peters. David N., this book wouldn’t exist without you. I am grateful to Olive Melissa Minor for joyously spending the first half of her life with me, for both our marriage and our divorce, and the lessons of each reflected in this book. Lastly, to Chrystin Ondersma, my future, whose thoughts, words, and love cannot be separated from the text.