Want to know more about gender and sexual orientation? MSU’s Bias Busters team has the books for that!

We answer the questions everybody’s asking—but nobody seems to be answering

I admit it.

When I decided to have the Michigan State University School of Journalism take on LGBTQ+ issues in its award-winning Bias Busters book series, I did not know where to start. I only knew that the issue seemed too big and complicated for a single, 100-question guide.

So I asked the director of the university’s LGBTQ+ office for advice. She said we needed two guides: one about sexual orientation and one about gender identity. She suggested we start with gender identity. She said people were beginning to understand sexual orientation and were mostly asking about identity.

So that is where we began.

I asked a trans student to join the class because I needed his talents and perspective.

Then, as the Bias Busters always do, we invited outside speakers to visit with us.

One of the most memorable speakers told the students about trying for decades to live with the male gender assigned at birth—which was inaccurate—and eventually led that person to feel they had hit the end. They decided to end their life. 

What changed that dire plan?

A visit to see their son at Michigan State University changed everything. The nervous son came out to his parents as gay. This parent had an epiphany. Here, the son was affirming his sexual orientation, while the parent was ready to end life rather than affirm their identity as a woman. Instead of a suicide, the parent underwent a transition. The son’s courage had saved a parent’s life.

Then, three of the students who had worked on the gender identity guide asked how soon the second book—the one about orientation—could be published. I said the publishing schedule meant it would not come out for a couple years. This was not soon enough for them. The three women—who identified as lesban, biracial and cis-gender heterosexual—asked if they could make a guide, which usually takes 10-20 people, as an independent study project.

And that is exactly what they did.

So now, Michigan State University’s School of Journalism has published two important LGBTQ+ books as part of their Bias Busters Series, 100 Questions and Answers About Gender Identity and 100 Questions and Answers About Sexual Orientation.

Our books are small—just 100 questions with answers—but the series has become big: All of the nearly two dozen books are listed on this Amazon page. 

The gender identity guide focuses on transgender men and women as well as people who are nonbinary, gender-fluid or of other identities in the gender-queer spectrum. It answers 100 basic, everyday questions people ask about gender and sex and how those qualities relate to politics, laws, safety and visibility. This guide is meant to help with the rapid changes now going on in civil rights, language and acceptance. The guide is designed to help close the information gap.

The sexual orientation guide focuses on gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, asexuals and people of other sexualities. The guides aim to answer with clear, accurate information 100 of the basic questions people ask about sexuality. Sometimes people do not ask or are misdirected, because they do not want to hurt others or to embarrass themselves. This guide provides the answers so that people can go on to have better conversations.