Next week a lovely book comes out that I can’t wait for you all to be able to read.
Appropriately releasing during Pride Month, How We Do Family is the memoir of Trystan Reese, a gay transgender man, about his family. Trystan and his then-boyfriend Biff had only been dating a year when they took in Biff’s niece and nephew (Hailey, 1, and Lucas, 3). (The abusive and neglectful situation the children came from is alluded to but not described excessively, for the privacy of the children and the comfort of readers.) With love, patience, and a lot of work, Biff and Trystan raise the children in a safe and supportive home, ultimately legally adopting them.
But they weren’t finished. After they got married, Trystan decided he wanted to have a biological child. Biff wasn’t as sure about this. The medical and emotional realities of going through pregnancy as a transgender man in a relationship with a cisgender man were tough to navigate, for each of them separately and for the family together. (And I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler considering the family portrait on the cover that they do have their baby, Leo, after all.) Growing attention from hostile strangers after participating in a successful parenting podcast even led to harassment. But through it all, Trystan remains devoted to his family in a way people of all walks of life can relate to.
It’s sweet, it’s funny, it’s moving, and it’s the truth about a situation very few of us have firsthand knowledge of. The book includes tips and lessons learned alongside the personal narrative, and is a wonderful illustration of love and family under unusual circumstances.
You can place a hold on the physical book now, and the ebook will be added to our OverDrive collection once it releases next week.
