Description: A gripping account of one family's battle to protect their daughter against transphobia and hate in contemporary America
Our country stands at a critical cultural crossroads, with a wave of anti-trans legislation emerging at unprecedented levels, targeting trans children, in particular, who face increasing stigmatization and erasure. Sim Butler's And the Dragons Do Come is a poignant account of one family's experience of parenting and supporting a trans child against this nightmarish backdrop.
In recent years, the Butler family faced an impossible reality in their home state of Alabama, where trans rights are increasingly under attack. Butler recounts their family's struggles and sacrifices to protect their trans child against the barrage of state-sanctioned intolerance in the legal, educational, and health arenas.
Around the time she turned twelve, his daughter's personal struggles became political fodder. Along with other trans kids, she was outlawed from playing sports and forbidden to use the girls' bathroom. Another law made Butler and his wife felons for seeking trans-affirming health care for her. When her charter school was featured in several gubernatorial campaign ads, local community members began driving through the parking lot to yell at the trans kids.
Serving both as a compassionate story of one family's struggle for acceptance and as a window onto a fraught issue that parents, grandparents, other family members, and friends are confronting across the nation, And the Dragons Do Come provides a firsthand perspective on the human cost of anti-trans sentiment.
Brief description: Sim Butler is a proud father, husband, and communication scholar from Alabama, and he is the author of And the Dragons Do Come: Raising a Transgender Kid in Rural America (The New Press).
Review Quotes: Praise for And the Dragons Do Come:
"A passionate memoir about fatherhood in the face of transphobic legislation."
-Foreword Reviews
"Butler debuts with a poignant memoir of raising his transgender daughter."
--Publishers Weekly
"With the increase of state and federal anti-trans legislation and laws nationwide, Butler's story becomes an essential read."
--Library Journal
"Informative and accessible, honest and rueful. . . . Butler's thoughtful testimony serves as convincing counterpoint to sensationalized rhetoric."
--Booklist (starred review) "Harrowing and breathtaking, And the Dragons Do Come is the story of one father's fight for his trans daughter, in an Alabama determined to endanger them both. Sim Butler's book shows us an ordinary family, made both wise and fierce by their inspiring and generous love."
--Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us and co-author (with Jodi Picoult) of Mad Honey