vibes to the cross connection. good to see you, see you at 10:00, the cross connection comes up next. and the velshi banned book club is almost in session including the top book every year since the publication in 2015. melissa by, alex gino. the coming of age story is like so many we have red together. why is it being banned all over the nation? the answer is not going to surprise you. it tells a story of a young transgender girl. that is next. transgender girl that is next that is next ) wahoooo! (vo) you can be well-groomed. or even well-spoken. (man) ooooooo. (vo) but there s just something about being well-adventured. (man) wahoooooo! (vo) adventure on a deeper level. discover more in the subaru forester wilderness. love. it s what makes subaru, subaru. subaru is the national park foundation s largest corporate donor. what will you do? what will you change?
today s velshi ban book future. melissa, it was the children stonewall word, the land of literary award, and the children choice book award. alex, thank you for joining us. and for being a member of the velshi book club today. thank you, thank you for having me, thank you for your kind words, that was wonderful. let s talk about the name of the book. first of all, melissa, members of the velshi fan of the club may have this, book may have seen is on bookshelves are reddit, but had a different title. it was called george. they traded with officially changed last year. tell me about the name change. sure. it is hard, in some ways, to think now, of how quickly things are changing. but when i start to this book in 2003, i had no thought that it would be published, i called it guerrilla george to myself as a joke. then it was published, it became a george, and it was right about when i got the first copies that i thought
you can t fix it unless you acknowledge that there is a mistake. and that something needs to change. back in 2019, you wrote an essay for the office of intellectual freedom of the american library association of being the author of the number one most band book that here. you concluded part by saying maybe being mislabeled as objectionable content while being asked to cough cannot comment on it as an academic curiosity, it s a delicate dance, i m fatigued, and quote. i want to address, that it s a delicate dance, it s something we perform on the velshi banned book club. with every author. tell me about the delicate dance. it must be fatiguing. on one hand, we are sticking it to the man by putting this book on the velshi than book club. on the other hand, you do not get the bill the author of a book. it is not an honor, it s not a great thing. even in cases where my book at additional light coming on here, thank you for having me. if some liberal a thought buys
we talk about a lot about representation at the velshi banned book club, you are among a small select few authors that identify as a gender queer. what does that mean to viewers? many people who grew up to be boys came up three men, and that works for them. many girls and the pain women, that works for them. people were assigned girl i, professor and boy at birth. i failed at boy, i feel that girl. i am neither one. i will say many trans people are binary. there are many trans girls and women who are women. many trans boys and men who are men. there are many of us who are neither. we have always been here. it is information that has been held from us. it s information that has been suppressed. but there has always been a range of humanity. alex, i want to talk to you more, i m out of time on the show, but i get the chance to talk with you more. if you stay there, i will do more with you that is going to
these folks who have now shifted, right? now we have a new king. now there s a new air apparent. if you go to the royal website, you can see that their titles have been adjusted. there s a new era, but rooted in the traditions of the past. chris, thank you for your great courage there. it s always good to be with you on tv. that does it for us this morning. my thanks to chris, my thanks to you all for watching this special edition of velshi. she will be back tomorrow morning. we are starting with 7 am eastern, instead of eight. i ll be there at seven to 10 am, don t forget velshi is also available as a podcast. you can listen to the entire show and listen for free, where you get your podcasts. stay right where you are, alex witt picks up the coverage. the th