I know you’ve been wondering that too. It’s been on everyone’s mind lately, ever since the recent American presidential election.
My latest satire, The Hippo, tries to answer that question (no, not How did Trump win the election? but the other one – the much more important question – What exactly is a hippo?)
The Hippo follows the story of Wally, who has courageously rejected the species identity arbitrarily assigned to him at birth by his bigoted parents. Now he wants them to pay for his species affirmation surgery, but his cishuman father isn’t convinced.
Things don’t look good for Wally, and his transitional journey appears to be at an end until NAFPA – the National Association of Feelings and Personal Affirmation – gets involved and convinces Wally’s parents to support his identity for the sake of his mental health.
The good news is that Wally doesn’t have to undertake his journey alone. He has a whole group of transspecies friends at his side: there’s Kitty the tabby-cat, Rover the rottweiler, and Erica the transsexual kangaroo who aren’t about to let any biological facts stand in the way as they shake off the shackles of oppressive species bigotry to forge their own identity.
Things really heat up, however, when a teacher questions their true identity – igniting a firestorm of outrage all over social media demanding that the transphobic teacher be fired. While these brave heroes face a lot of resistance from transphobic cisspecies humans, they also encounter unexpected resistance from bigoted hippos (the real ones) who are reluctant to accept a trans-hippo into their herd.
Naturally this raises the all-important question on everyone’s mind: What exactly is a hippo?
Wally eventually actualizes his true species identity, becoming a social media star in the process. But his moment in the sun is soon overshadowed by another trans hero who undertakes a new and innovative transition even more brave and revolutionary than Wally’s.
What happens next is enough to make even his LGBTQ allies transphobic…
Join Wally and his Furry friends as they transition from being human to the species of their choice.
Available now on Amazon for Kindle, and in print.
Coming soon for Kobo and Apple… stay tuned!
