Winner of the 2021 In The Margins Award
"When reading this book, all I feel is kindness."-- Sam Smith, Grammy and Oscar award-winning singer and songwriter
"Thank God we have Alok. And I'm learning a thing or two myself."--Billy Porter, Emmy award-winning actor, singer, and Broadway theater performer
"Beyond the Gender Binary will give readers everywhere the feeling that anything is possible within themselves"--Princess Nokia, musician and co-founder of the Smart Girl Club
"A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change."-- Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"An affirming, thoughtful read for all ages." -- School Library Journal, starred review
In Beyond the Gender Binary, poet, artist, and LGBTQIA+ rights advocate Alok Vaid-Menon deconstructs, demystifies, and reimagines the gender binary.
Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today's leading activists and artists. In this installment, Beyond the Gender Binary, Alok Vaid-Menon challenges the world to see gender not in black and white, but in full color. Taking from their own experiences as a gender-nonconforming artist, they show us that gender is a malleable and creative form of expression. The only limit is your imagination.
Alok Vaid-Menon is a gender non-conforming writer, performance artist, and public speaker who has been featured by HBO, MTV, NBC, The Guardian, The New York Times, and more. Their creative challenge to the gender binary has been celebrated around the world.
Ashley Lukashevsky is an illustrator and visual artist born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, currently based in Los Angeles. Ashley uses illustration and art as tools to strengthen social movements against systemic racism, sexism, and anti-immigrant policy. She aims to tear down these systems of oppression through first envisioning and drawing a world without them. Her clients include Refinery29, Broadly, The Washington Post, Planned Parenthood, Girls Who Code, GOOD magazine, Brooklyn magazine, ACLU, Red Bull, Snapchat, Air Jordan, and Logo TV. Ashley is also the illustrator of the best-selling Antiracist Baby, by Ibram X. Kendi.
"There's no better time for a new conversation about the damaging effects of mainstream society's oppressive, dismissive, and silencing stance on who folks are supposed to be based on . . . what . . . ? Thank God we have Alok. And I'm learning a thing or two myself." —Billy Porter, Emmy award–winning actor, singer, and Broadway theater performer
"This beautiful book is a beacon, just like Alok. Having Alok in my life has saved me in so many ways, and now you can have a little bit of them with you, too. When reading this book, all I feel is kindness. This is a step-by-step education on what it means to respect non-binary people. Alok is a human being who has a deep love and commitment to other human beings. They have come to us from the future to show us what life could be like if we all loved a little harder and dug a little deeper." —Sam Smith, Grammy and Oscar award–winning singer and songwriter
"Beyond the Gender Binary is a literary vessel of light for those who are looking for hopefulness, honesty, and a stimulating education in the exploration of themselves. This book is a twenty-first-century survival guide for queer-identifying people of all walks of life--Alok provides a safe space of shared experiences, commitment, and love to expand the gender binary to create a brighter and more inclusive present and future. This book shares wisdom, knowledge, and the universal spirit of celebrating one's self by shattering the transphobic lens that hinders most gender non-conforming people. Beyond the Gender Binary will give readers everywhere the feeling that anything is possible within themselves, and that self-love through whatever choice of gender expression is truly attainable."—Princess Nokia, musician and co-founder of the Smart Girl Club
"A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change."-- Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"An affirming, thoughtful read for all ages." -- School Library Journal, starred review
