I’d even forget about being transgender for long stretches—that was the thing about finally being seen for myself: it made me believe in it, too.”
-- Shane (chapter 8)

Importance: Because Shane had transitioned from female to male prior to his arrival in Los Angeles, his peers accept him as a boy. Consequently, Shane can more readily embrace his male identity. By acknowledging Shane as a boy, his classmates liberate him from the oppressive restraints imposed by heteronormative ideology. Moving away from San Francisco presented Shane with an opportunity to begin anew as his true self. When Shane reveals that he occasionally forgets his birth gender, Hennessey conveys how acceptance quiets his doubts and anxieties.

No matter how many times I’d tried explaining it, I couldn’t convince him that the little girl he remembered had never actually existed.”
-- Shane (chapter 9)

Importance: Adam cannot empathize with Shane’s desire to transition fully into a male...