The original file name of the story that became The Moon Rabbit—now available in Prismatic Dreams—was ET The Extra Transgender, so that should give you an idea of what you're in for with this story.
When I was watching ET for the first time in years, I noticed it could be seen as a transgender narrative. (Read my live tweet here.)
Somehow, that idea evolved into a story where magic is gendered and a young person on the cusp of puberty fears they’ll get the feminine magic because they were assigned female at birth. But then they meet the moon rabbit…
(I acknowledge that this is not my culture and I may have gotten some details wrong when talking about the myth. I am not claiming it is incredibly accurate, and neither is my character. The story is set a little ways into the future and they admit the details may have been changed in translation or amalgamated with other myths passed down from their Chinese and Vietnamese side of the family.)
I use some of the plot points from ET, but a lot of it is meant as a metaphor for gender dysphoria and being afraid of having to go through the wrong puberty.
I don't think I ever say whether the main character is a binary trans boy or nonbinary. They refer to themselves as a boy, but also express interest in having bits of magic from both sides.
Gender is weird and confusing, especially if you're just figuring it out. I don't think my main character really knows what they identity as quite yet, and that’s okay. They’re sure they aren’t a girl, at least not completely, but other than that, labels aren't as important to them as feeling comfortable in their body is.
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