Advance Praise

In these acts of refusal, educators, youth, parents and community members respond to legislated anti-trans*+ injustice with humanity and care. By showing us multiple acts of refusal and resistance in everyday teaching across all subject areas and schooling activities, Miller provides a roadmap to how education can widen instead of restrict learning and opportunity for trans*+ youth; reinvigorate the goal of deeper learning for all; and protect and advance democracy. This is a book that all educators should treasure.

– Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Ph.D.,

Professor of Globalization and Education | NYU Steinhardt

 

Winner of 2025 Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize

We Refuse to Disappear: Resistance Amid Anti-Trans Education Policy explores how anti-trans laws reshape schools and civic education. Using cases like Alabama’s proposed HB 244, it shows how fear and anticipatory compliance erase LGBTQIA+ lives from the curriculum. The book also highlights how educators resist by restoring histories, affirming identities, and grounding inclusion in scholarly rigor. Essential reading as debates over trans rights and public education grow intense.

– Cynthia Tyson, Ph.D.

Professor, Literature for Children and Young Adults | Early Childhood Education | The Ohio State University  

 

Author, Charlotte Huck’s Children’s Literature: A Brief Guide (5th edition.)

We Refuse to Disappear identifies how anti-trans legislation is changing the classroom, and how educators, despite these challenges, still advocate for the dignity of their students. Through policy analysis, narrative, and practical strategies, this timely book explores the concept of refusal as a life-giving praxis. If you are an educator who care about your students and their futures, this text is a must-have.

– Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Ph.D.,

Professor | Teachers College Columbia University

 

Author, The Archaeology of Self: The Introspective Educator’s Guide to Racial Literacy

 

Educators work hard to create classroom environments that nourish each child’s capacity for learning and creativity in ways that discourage the damage that “othering” can do. But now government entities are “teaching” in place of educators. The demoralization of the education profession is a crime against humanity. This book illuminates the current targets of government oppression and lays out a path forward for educators and families who care about youth and their lives as K-16 students.

–Jamison Green, Ph.D.

 

Author, Becoming a Visible Man

Co-editor and co-author, A History of Transgender Medicine in the United States: From Margins to Mainstream 

This bold book for bad times offers a sweeping assessment of many hot-button topics in the gender wars. It refuses frameworks that render trans, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people invisible, impossible, and even illegal, and documents emerging practices among them for living in and beyond the classroom in these days of heightened violence. It’s a call to action for anyone who has a stake in education—that is, a call to action for us all. 

-Susan Stryker, Ph.D,

 

Author, Changing Gender and Transgender History

In moments like these, when the world seems determined to make certain lives disappear, it becomes necessary—not only to keep a record of the harm done, but to keep a record of those who refused it. A record of those who said no. A record of those who loved anyway. sj has given us both. With care, with intention, and with a devotion to writing, teaching, and truth-telling, sj reminds us that the future of education cannot be imagined without trans*+ youth standing fully within it.

This book arrives right on time, not just for young people, but for teachers who are willing to see clearly, to listen deeply, and to act courageously. It is a guide, a companion, and a challenge: to recognize the brilliance of trans*+ youth, to confront the systems that seek to erase them.

-Bettina L. Love, Ph.D.

William F. Russell Professor |  Teachers College, Columbia University

 

Author, Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal

 

With this detailed collection of curriculum-based vignettes, sj Miller provides complex guidance for navigating laws and policies intent on ending respectful recognition of trans, nonbinary, and gender diverse students. Using detailed key concepts from an array of subject areas and levels Miller demonstrates how pedagogies that refuse disrespect are rooted in good teaching practices. This fine book will help reinforce care for students–and subject areas–in times that require us to refuse bias and exclusion.

-Cris Mayo, Ph.D

Professor and Vice Chair, Dept. of Education | University of Vermont

Director, Interdisciplinary Educational Studies M. Ed.

 

Author, LGBTQ Youth and Education: Policy and Practices

Combining razor-sharp political analysis with clear, accessible writing, We Refuse to Disappear is the tool we need to defend our trans students from ongoing assaults by conservatives. Packed with concrete examples, heartfelt narrative, and classroom-based strategies, Author sj Miller has given all educators a gift of a resource that is right on time in the fight for educational justice for all of our students.

-Wayne Au, Ph.D.

Dean and Professor, School of Educational Studies | University of Washington Bothell

 

Editor, Rethinking Schools

Author, Race, Curriculum, and the Politics of Racial Justice 

We Refuse to Disappear gives us a sense of hope in the midst of chaos. At the present moment, more than half of the states in our nation continue to propose or pass laws that attempt to erase and harm the Trans* community-especially Trans* youth. sj offers a well-developed text that exposes anti-trans legislation throughout K-12 spaces. It adds to recently published literature while extending the actionable steps to higher education spaces and expanding upon current legislative awareness. Vignettes and pedagogical practices galore demonstrate resilience and resistance. This book gives us the strength to press on.

-Bre Evans-Santiago, Ph.D

Associate Dean, College of Education | California Stat University, Long Beach

 

Co-Editor of the award-winning book, T* is for Thriving: Blueprints for Affirming Trans* and Gender Creative Lives and Learning in School

 

We Refuse to Disappear is the culmination of Miller’s career living, breathing, yelling, fighting for the humanity, strength, and insights brought to schools by trans*+ students. Beginning with poetry and ending with resources, Miller delineates transphobic constraints by focusing on policies that target trans*+ students and their teachers and proposes pedagogical acts of refusal across disciplines based on carefully crafted composites. Thus, Miller effectively acknowledges current reality and offers ways forward toward a better one.