“Except: I was no longer a son, no longer a man. I became more aware of this as groups of gay men, mostly aging or aged, circulated around me” – (Fairest, Meredith Talusan Page 14)

When Meredith states this in her memoir, it reminded me of the research I did about her beforehand. She said that in her book, she wanted to reveal all her obstacles in life and not just about her transition from being a man to a woman. This phrase proved that she did just that. She went straight to the point in the prologue, it didn’t take the whole book for the reader to find out about her transition. In other words, I can tell that the memoir as a whole will not be just focused on this type of transition, but in others as well.

Going forward into the reading, she starts speaking about the importance of beauty in everyone. Even how it affects the “gayness,” race, and femininity in a person. Before reading the book, based on the research we did, I already knew this was going to be one of her main points in the memoir. I just didn’t know how exactly she’d introduce the connection between beauty and being transgender. After reading this quote, it became clear to me as to how Talusan would write out her memoir. Not only would her book focus on becoming trans, but also on her past, and the obstacles she had to encounter as someone who didn’t accept themselves and basically had to lie to themselves.