Next-Level Ally: How to Support Your Queer and Transgender Friends

Speak up, take action, and protect your community

How do you show up for the LGBTQ+ people in your life? You've figured out pronouns, you vote, and you don't say hateful things, but you have a lot of unanswered questions and the strong feeling that you could be doing more. You're committed to educating yourself, but where to start? 

Author and activist Eli Sachse has created a practical guide to being a better friend, family member, partner, colleague, and community member to your trans and queer friends. With anti-queer and trans bias and oppression growing daily, it's more important than ever for allies to step up with radical empathy. Allyship is a skill that anyone can learn, and Sachse is a kind, clear teacher. 

With a focus on direct and effective communication, Sachse has filled this book with real-world examples for everyday people. Learn when and how to speak up at work and online without doing more harm than good. Create more inclusive conversations and challenge misgendering and harmful jokes. Learn to see and question your own implicit biases and assumptions. Celebrate and affirm your friends. Become a better friend, manager, or parent. Volunteer, march, and create true safe spaces. Further chapters advise people working in health and mental health professionals, educators, and law enforcement in how to do better by the trans and queer people they serve.

Read this for yourself, read it with your book group, give copies to everyone on the school board—because change happens in the details, one person at a time!