Can a novel that only has cis characters be “trans literature”?

a note on the NEA and EO No. 14168

Regular DAVID readers may remember that my forthcoming novel, Casanova 20: Or, Hot World¹, doesn’t have any trans characters. I began writing it in a state of exhaustion caused in part by the cis contempt elicited by my second novel, X, a fairly well-received little book with a trans protagonist. After that experience, I wanted off the ride! But since that’s not an option in this lifetime, I took my frustration out on a new character—a straight-identifying white cis man named Adrian—by cursing him with an extreme and unrelenting beauty. In this condition, Adrian would shoulder what the world offers gender-nonconforming people as our best-case scenario for a public life: a violent intersection of sexualization, objectification, and infantilization.

Can a novel that only has cis characters be “trans literature,” even if the author themself is trans? Must it be? In the past month, these almost rhetorical questions have graduated from artistic considerations to material concerns: can Casanova be said to be trading in “gender ideology,” as the Trump administration calls it, if such an agenda (should it exist) is only subtext? After the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) updated its grant application guidelines per Executive Order No. 14168, the answers could be the deciding factor if a transsexual like me were to seek federal funding for a new project²—like, say, my fourth book. Interpreted as the administration intends, these guidelines now bars all trans artists from NEA funding.

I wasn’t planning on applying for an NEA grant this year, but these new guidelines, ironically enough, brought to my attention the fact that I would actually be a pretty good candidate. What if, you know? But I’m lucky and privileged enough that I don’t need to rely on said funding to do what I do, and that’s partly because I knew going into this whole working-artist thing that I couldn’t rely on institutional or familial support. Like Riley MacLeod, who writes that while it still hurts to see such an explicit focus on erasing trans people from the arts,

I always thought this would happen, one way or another, and I built an artistic world that didn’t need such institutions to survive and thrive. These decrees aren’t some kind of “end” to trans art, and whatever overtures these moves make toward eradicating it can’t help but fail, because I don’t believe we’ve ever truly needed cis people’s support to do our work, and there is an entire world out there outside of national organizations and grants.

I take heart in this sentiment, if not much else³. Although I knew what January 20 would bring, this shock and awe is having its intended effect on my body. I’m fine—certainly more so than the friends, acquaintances, internet mutuals, and strangers who are suffering more uncertainty, deprivation, and fear. So why can’t I bring myself to eat? Why have my autoimmune symptoms roared back to life after one of the longest remissions I’ve ever had? Why do things with the potential to affect me directly feel sort of weightless, while the things that are, for all intents and purposes, personally symbolic (like those cowards at RAINN removing all mention of trans people from their website) cause me to break out in a cold sweat?

I mean, I know why. The body will do what it will. I’m grateful that this includes writing DAVID, so thank you for being here. For now, I’m going to get back to work.

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1. Cassa, as my boyfriend calls it, will be published by Catapult (US) and Cipher (UK) this December.

2. The new guidelines also ban the promotion of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) programs that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws, in accordance with Executive Order No. 14173. I wonder how Black artists and artists of color, even the cis ones, can hope to secure funding with these guidelines in place?

3. Although if you’re looking for something grounding, Sarah Thankam Mathews’ latest is a good place to start.