In November 2018, Massachusetts voted to maintain an anti-discrimination law that protects transgender and non-binary individuals. It baffles me that this even had to be brought to a vote and doing so seems tantamount to saying that we need to vote on common decency and human rights. While the vote and resultant law is a good thing, it is still shocking, that as a society, we are still grasping at what makes us human, almost as if it is barely in reach.
When the Moon Was Ours was the most interesting read for me yet. The unrefined quality of the novel only serves to make it more accessible for a reader. While reading, I felt like many things in the novel were speaking to current events in the transgender community – transgender and non-binary people still working to have their voices heard – and the dangers that they and the rest of the LGBTQIA+ community face daily. The novel makes us hyper aware of gender identity and the role that it plays in our society.
Sam’s journey throughout the novel helps readers to see someone’s personal struggles with gender identity. Because the LGBTQIA+ community is still trying to find and keep its voice, this novel becomes an even more important read for young adults, or any age for that matter. It helps to shed a light on the discrimination that LGBTQIA+ people still face. The circumstances that Sam faced feel very real. Through the novel, Sam explores ways in which to reconcile his gender identity. There is an interesting conversation between Sam’s mother and Miel where Sam’s mother says: “He’ll get there” referring to Sam one day leading his life as a girl/woman. Instead of his mother trying to understand his gender identity, and who he really wants to be, she expects him to transition to a woman when the time comes. Instead of expecting this, Sam needed support, and he needed for the people around him to be understanding.
Because I can’t put it into words more eloquently than she did, I will quote McLemore:
To the boys who get called girls,
The girls who get called boys,
And those who live outside these words.
To those called names,
And those searching for names of their own.
To Those who live on the edges,
And in the spaces in between.
I wish for you every light in the sky.
For me, this is the take away: be understanding, be respectful, and be an advocate for the voices that are fighting to be heard.
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Adrienne's Blog 
Adrienne,
This was an absolutely phenomenal read and testimony to both the novel and the subject matter. As a member of the LGBTQA+ community myself, I agree with your points about the need for true equality in relation to a very heteronormative world and think you put it very skillfully with your expansive vocabulary. I agree that Sam’s journey was a grand representation of something that thousands of transgender individuals have to go through to those they inevetiatly outed to or betrayed by, and I think that Miel is a very exceptional model to what an ally can look like. I also would look to acknowledge the presence of Aracely, who was also a transgender character and who evolved throughout the course of the novel and who was also the scapegoat to minor to major sufferings of the village. I believe this is also indicative of how people tend to use the LGBTQA+ community to blame as the things that they perceive as wrong in the world for one reason or another, such as the blaming the fact that adults prey on children on the fact that trans people ought to be able to use the bathroom indicative of their true gender identity. Overall, this was a grand read much like the novel, and I appreciate your insight.
Happy reading!
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