"I’m not so sure…I was a father for six years, a mother for ten, and for a while in between I was neither, or both– the parental equivalent of the schnoodle, or the cockapoo."
Jennifer Finney Boylan
Stuck in the Middle with You: Parenthood in Three Genders is a memoir of Jennifer Finney Boylan's life as a mother who was once a father and for a while, as she describes it, "neither or both." With chapters titled "The Orphan Girl" and "I'll Give You Something to Cry About", Stuck in the Middle with You will educate and enlighten its readers about what it was like for Boylan to come out as a transgender woman to not only her family and peers, but to her two sons as well.
Sitting down with people like Christine McGinn, Anne Beattle, Richard Russo, Trey Ellis, and others, Boylan discusses the parenting experiences of these individuals who identify as gay, straight, and transgender respectively. Boylan's mission in this memoir is to give an account of parenting from various spectrums of the gender rainbow. What it means to be a Mother or a Father is something that is explored thoroughly from her experience and those she interviewed in the chapters of "Conversations with Mothers & Daughters and Fathers & Sons".
Throughout the memoir, Boylan recaps moments of her childhood and early adulthood as a transgender woman. She often recounts humorous conversations she had with her children, who show their maturity and overwhelming understanding of their mother's decision to transition. For example, her son reveals to a friend that, "My daddy's turning into a girl" but that "it's okay; she's still the same person".
Boylan is a New York Times' bestselling author and has written over ten books, including She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders. She has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live, and the Today show. Documentaries of Boylan's life have appeared on CBS News's 48 hours, and The Barbara Walters Special.
Find out more about the author and her latest memoir at www.jenniferboylan.net.
"It is my hope, that having a father who became a woman in turn helped my sons become better men."
Jennifer Finney Boylan