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The Queer Arabs Posts

Episode 56 in English: You Be You!

During this episode, we got to talk to two of the wonderful people behind the children’s book You Be You! Explaining Gender, Love & Family.   We talked to the author of the book – Jonathan Branfman (pictured below) – and the translator of the Arabic version of the book, Aseel Houmsse.  We are very grateful to have a copy of the Arabic version of this important book, and we highly encourage everyone to check it out!  It is offered in many languages and more languages are expected to be added in the near future.  This book will help normalize the spectrum of gender and sexuality for children in their formative years.  We have been told from such a young age that there are only two genders and that there are very specific paths that each gender is “supposed” to take.  This book will help dispel these simplistic and incorrect explanations of humans; it can also be used as a tool for adults to learn how to understand gender and sexuality and how to pass that on to children.  Thank you to Jonathan, Aseel, all of the translators of the other languages this book is offered in, and illustrator Julie Benbassat!

You can find the book in many different languages on Amazon; here are the links for English and Arabic:

Get the book in English here: https://www.amazon.com/Explaining-Gender-Family-Diversity-Justice/dp/1534676414/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
The book in Arabic is here: https://www.amazon.com/Arabic-Explaining-Gender-Diversity-Justice/dp/1983681776/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=you+be+you+jonathan+branfman&qid=1553223449&s=books&sr=1-3
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Episode 55 in English: Quinte55ential Quinn!

We got to talk to Quinn Fati, a beautifully badass human we met last year at Yallapunk.  They’re a visual artist and a musician; during this episode, we talked about exploring different areas of art throughout life and how important it is to allow oneself to do that.  We also talked about body hair and how everyone should feel free to keep or get rid of their own body hair in the way they goddamn want!  We discussed the process of coming out as trans, about our love for Yallapunk, and more.  Quinn also shared about how their Persian-American identity influenced various aspects of their life.  Basically, we talked about some of the quintessential qualities of Quinn (ok using the letter “Q” this much is super fun).  It was so nice hanging out with Quinn again (remotely this time, but hopefully soon in person)!  By the way, as you’ll hear on the episode, we thought we would meet up in Austin this weekend, but it’s not happening after all because life does shit like that sometimes.  We love Quinn and can’t wait to see each other again in the near future.

Follow Quinn on Instagram @salmanrushdieofficial

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