Kobabe begins eir memoir with a vignette of leaving home to enroll in a comics MFA program in San Francisco. E struggles in eir class on autobiography. E has a writing exercise to list eir “personal demons”; all of eir demons pertain to gender, so e feels ashamed of the assignment and covers it up in eir notebook with paper and tape. E then rips the paper off, revealing the title of the memoir, Gender Queer, underneath. This leads into the memoir’s title page on the next page (12-14).

In October 1992, Kobabe’s family moves to a 120-acre property with few modern amenities in northern California. Eir family consists of Maia Kobabe emself, Phoebe (eir sister), Alexandra (eir mom), and eir unnamed dad. They have only one neighboring family; the parents are unnamed, and their children are Galen, Bronwen, and Rebecca. Kobabe’s earliest “gender-related memory” is Bronwen and Rebecca putting Galen in a dress and introducing him as “Galena” (17). Kobabe spends eir early childhood outside in nature with snakes and spiders. E becomes fond of snakes and is unafraid to catch them by hand. E receives many snake-themed gifts for eir birthdays.