“You’re in Halifax, which is almost like a rural town, I imagine you all know how to grow cheese,” she says. When the apocalypse comes for Haligonians? Thom says we have the skills we need. Thom reads about her dislike of babies (or heteronormative family values), the dangers of callout culture and transformative justice.

“Love is the only good option in this time of the apocalypse,” Thom says, “what else do we have?” Thom hopes we choose the most revolutionary way to face the end of the world: With love for one another. The author and social media heavyweight says in challenging times it is so easy for anger to become a survival tactic, especially in the queer community: “We know so much about trauma, but so little about how to heal from it,” she says. Thom emphasizes the book is not called “I think we’ll choose love,” but “I hope we will.” I Hope We Choose Love, Thom’s fourth book, is a “call for nuance in a time of political polarization, for healing in a time of injustice, and for love in an apocalypse.' The crowd at Venus Envy got to experience this first-hand. Thom sees collective laughter as a way to bring people together and release feelings of shame. These were the opening remarks from award-winning author Kai Cheng Thom at the release of her book, I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl’s Notes from the End of the World at Venus Envy last week.ĭozens of attendees laughed and cried as Thom-the winner of the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for Emerging LGBT Writers and a Lambda Literary Award nominee-mixed readings of heart-wrenching essays with side-splitting jokes and communal healing exercises, all in front of a wall of dildos. “Reading is for losers, but watching TV is cool.”

I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes From The End of the World ( Arsenal Pulp Press)

I hope we choose love