My Life As A Trans Fraternity Bro

Donald Collins, a transgender student at Emerson College, made nationalheadlines in 2013 after his health insurance provider refused to pay for his top surgery. What happened after that is an unprecedented story of acceptance, brotherhood, and community fundraising in the face of bureaucracy and outdated thinking.

On April 25, Beacon Press will publish At the Broken Places: A Mother and Trans Son Pick Up the Pieces, a collaborative memoir by Collins and his mother Mary, a writer and professor of nonfiction at Central Connecticut State University. Uniquely structured, with each chapter alternating between mother and son’s point of view, the book is a powerful account of family, parenting, and trans experience that has been hailed by Transparent creator Jill Soloway as “a necessary and beautiful book.” Read an excerpt below.