Astrid Hawk
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Although Elie's tone put me off a bit at first (I felt like he was trying too hard to be funny and it came off a bit awkwardly in the beginning), he quickly hit his stride and I started enjoying the affronted incredulity.
There's not a lot in this book that would be new information for legal scholars, and probably 50-60% of it is more of a liberal-leaning rant than actual information. I didn't mind most of the ranty bits, even though it's a bit "preaching to the choir" (I guarantee no conservative-minded person is going to sit through that in hopes of broadening their perspective - I wouldn't if it was the other way around), because Elie has a way of putting things that are just "well, duh" but in a funny way.
I particularly enjoyed the 30 seconds where he explains how simple the difference is between sex, gender, sexuality, and f*cking, for example. His description of his son's relationship with his trans friend is similarly refreshing. (But the rant about conservative parents trying to police other people's kids in school, by contrast, was not particularly novel, and didn't really add to the legal discussion.)
For those of us who aren't legal scholars, the 50% of the book that isn't ranty has good information. Even if you're already familiar with the laws by name, which you probably will be (the adjective "popular" in the title refers to how well-known the laws are, not to how well they're supported/favored), there is good historical context for each of them that you might not be familiar with. In most cases, Elie also presents solutions to the laws (most of the time, it's simply repealment).
The book is an easy read, and humorous, but is a bit depressing/discouraging on the whole. Although Elie's tone is consistent throughout and never dives into the "there's just no hope" despairing tone, there's certainly plenty of justification for despair in the book - especially considering that even though this was written just a year ago (just before the 2024 election), several of the laws/issues mentioned have gone from bad to worse. Elie does present some possible reform solutions in the epilogue... but I think we're unlikely to see any of those in our lifetime the way it's going.
Although Elie's tone put me off a bit at first (I felt like he was trying too hard to be funny and it came off a bit awkwardly in the beginning), he quickly hit his stride and I started enjoying the affronted incredulity.
There's not a lot in this book that would be new information for legal scholars, and probably 50-60% of it is more of a liberal-leaning rant than actual information. I didn't mind most of the ranty bits, even though it's a bit "preaching to the choir" (I guarantee no conservative-minded person is going to sit through that in hopes of broadening their perspective - I wouldn't if it was the other way around), because Elie has a way of putting things that are just "well, duh" but in a funny way.
I particularly enjoyed the 30 seconds where he explains how simple the difference is between sex, gender, sexuality, and f*cking, for example. His description of his son's relationship with his trans friend is similarly refreshing. (But the rant about conservative parents trying to police other people's kids in school, by contrast, was not particularly novel, and didn't really add to the legal discussion.)
For those of us who aren't legal scholars, the 50% of the book that isn't ranty has good information. Even if you're already familiar with the laws by name, which you probably will be (the adjective "popular" in the title refers to how well-known the laws are, not to how well they're supported/favored), there is good historical context for each of them that you might not be familiar with. In most cases, Elie also presents solutions to the laws (most of the time, it's simply repealment).
The book is an easy read, and humorous, but is a bit depressing/discouraging on the whole. Although Elie's tone is consistent throughout and never dives into the "there's just no hope" despairing tone, there's certainly plenty of justification for despair in the book - especially considering that even though this was written just a year ago (just before the 2024 election), several of the laws/issues mentioned have gone from bad to worse. Elie does present some possible reform solutions in the epilogue... but I think we're unlikely to see any of those in our lifetime the way it's going.