My Race Is My Gender: Portraits of Nonbinary People of Color

Genderqueer and nonbinary people of color often experience increased marginalization, belonging to an ethnic group that seldom recognizes their gender identity and a queer community that subscribes to white norms. Yet for this very reason, they have a lot to teach about how racial, sexual, and gender identities intersect. Their experiences of challenging social boundaries demonstrate how queer communities can become more inclusive and how the recognition of nonbinary genders can be an anti-racist practice.

My Race is My Gender is the first anthology by nonbinary writers of color to include photography and visual portraits, centering their everyday experiences of negotiating intersectional identities. While informed by queer theory and critical race theory, the authors share their personal stories in accessible language. Bringing together Black, Indigenous, Latine, and Asian perspectives, its six contributors present an intergenerational look at what it means to belong to marginalized queer communities in the U.S. and feel solidarity with a global majority at the same time. They also provide useful insights into how genderqueer and nonbinary activism can both energize and be fueled by such racial justice movements as Black Lives Matter.

STEPHANIE HSU is an associate professor of English at Pace University in New York, a recipient of the 2020 Community Catalyst Award from the National Queer Asian/Pacific Islander Alliance, and an editorial collective member for the Q+Public book series.

KA-MAN TSE is an artist and educator. Awards include Anonymous Was a Woman, Aaron Siskind Fellowship, Robert Giard Fellowship, and the Aperture Portfolio Prize. Her monograph, narrow distances, was published in 2018 by Candor Arts. Her work is in collections at San Franciso Museum of Art, Harvard Art Museums, and Library of Congress.