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Last year, I wrote about the first Trans Rights Readathon, a decentralized fundraiser that went on to raise over $234,000 for transgender aid organizations. Since then, unfortunately, anti-trans legislation has continued to sweep across the country, and the rise in transphobic rhetoric is not just isolated to the U.S. There are a lot of organizations working hard to oppose this legislation as well as provide aid to trans people, which is why this fundraiser is a great opportunity to help make a positive change.
The second annual Trans Rights Readathon runs from March 22-29th. You can participate by:
1) Reading books by and/or about trans, nonbinary, Two-Spirit, and gender-nonconforming people. You can even use this bingo board to guide your TBR!
2) Reviewing and making content on social media about trans books. You can tag the @TransRightsReadathon account on Instagram and TikTok and @TRReadathon on Twitter, as well as using the tags #TransRightsReadathon and #TRR24. There are also a ton of graphics provided (in addition to the bingo board) that you can post to your social media, including trackers to update each day of the readathon.
3) Donating and fundraising for trans aid organizations. This is a decentralized fundraiser, which means there’s not just one organization to donate to. Check out the ones local to you, or check out the Trans Rights Readathon’s document of crowdsourced suggestions. You can pledge to donate a certain amount per book finished or pages read during the readathon and ask your friends/family/followers to match it. You can even set up your own fundraising page.
4) Boosting and donating! Even if you can’t read a ton of books that week, you can still share the posts and donate to others’ fundraisers — every bit helps.
I’m going to recommend some books to read for the Trans Rights Readathon that also check off 2024 Read Harder Challenge tasks, but this is only a small sample of the books you could read for the readathon. The Trans Rights Readathon has a crowdsourced list of recommendations, and you can also check out these Book Riot posts:
Books to Read for Both the Trans Rights Readathon and the 2024 Read Harder Challenge
Of course, any of the books I recommended for Task #2: Read a YA book by a trans author, is also something to read during the Trans Rights Readathon! But here are some other options, starting with a few books mentioned in previous Read Harder Challenge recommendation lists that would also be great Trans Rights Readathon picks.
A bonus is that all of these books are quick reads, whether they’re comics or novellas or children’s books, so that makes them great choices for picking up during a week-long readathon.
Finna by Nino Cipri
Task #5: Read a sci-fi novella.
I previously recommended this for task #5, and it’s also written by a trans/nonbinary author and stars a nonbinary person who uses they/them pronouns. It’s about two minimum wage employees at an Ikea-like store who have to follow an elderly customer through a wormhole to get her back safely — a death-defying rescue that corporate will reward with gift cards. Making the whole situation more awkward, the two employees — Ava and Jules — just broke up a week ago.
King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender
Task #6: Read a middle grade book with an LGBTQIA main character.
There are plenty of books you can pick up that fulfill task #6 as well as being suited to the Trans Rights Readathon. One is King and the Dragonflies, as Erica recommended. Callender is a trans author, and this middle grade book is about Kingston, a 12-year-old boy haunted by dreams about his brother Khalid, who recently died. Just before that, Khalid told him to stop being friends with Sandy, because Khalid thought their friendship might make people think Kingston is gay. When Sandy goes missing, Kingston sets out to find him and has to make his own decisions about the kind of person he wants to be.