"If you want to know what lies in someone’s heart, ask their dog. Dogs also enable us to express a kind of love that sometimes we’re too awkward or uncertain to share with other people. I think this is especially true for boys and men, for whom love can be particularly hard to express.
As a transgender woman who began life as a boy, it’s in the dogs that I owned pre-transition that I can now best understand men, and the person I once was, a long time ago. I look upon boyhood now the way an emigrant might look upon the distant country of her birth. There are times I can’t even quite remember what that country was like."
"But I remember the dogs: there were the mulish Dalmatians of my childhood and adolescence; there was an uncontrollable, joyful mutt named Matt during my college years; there was a deeply neurotic Labrador during my twenties, a dog who chewed on her own paws with such abandon you’d think they were a delicacy rarer than clams casino. And as a young husband there was Alex, the Gordon setter, who knew me better, in some ways, than I knew myself."
She has spoken on numerous college campuses, including Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Columbia, and Barnard. Boylan is also known for her work as an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, particularly transgender rights. She has been involved in various initiatives and organizations dedicated to promoting understanding and acceptance of transgender individuals. In addition to her activism, Boylan is a talented writer and has contributed to numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and more.
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