Winter's famous novel Annabel is about a child born a hermaphrodite as he grows and struggles to find his place in society due to his confusing gender identity. The story follows him from childhood to youth to adolescence, tracing the changes which occur in his mind and body during those pivotal years. Wayne is considered a boy, but he really wants to embrace his femininity and be accepted as a girl. With the support of his mom and a friend named Wally he decides to try and incorporate his feminine energy into his public identity more and more, which eventually forces his dad over the edge. After a few years of forced separation from Wally and misery in his relationship with his dad, Wayne finally breaks away from his dad and renews his true identity and his relationship with Wally.
Annabel is living a classic bildungsroman story -- the loss of innocence through experience. Born both a girl and a boy, she is thrust into a crisis of identity from birth. Complicating matters worse, her feminine side is encouraged by her mom and simultaneously forbidden by her dad. She wants to be accepted as a girl, but the world decides she must be a boy. As she grows, she learns to rebel against the gender binary in subtle ways until her dad discovers the secret. He forces her to reject any feminine ambitions because he desperately wants a son. After she moves out of the house, Annabel reasserts her true identity and restores her relationships with Wally and her dad but on her own terms this time.
Winter's book addresses the increasingly prevalent gender conformity questions in society today. As the gender binary is gradually becoming obsolete, people are starting to recognize that the previous system up to this point was insufficient. To those who believe in the binary, this novel provides an emotional argument for why they should still accept those people who do not conform to the system. Wayne/Annabel is an archetype who represents many LGBTQ+ people who know from birth that the way society wants them to identify is dissonant with who they feel themselves to truly be. If the novel accomplishes nothing else, it paints the picture of a young child who grows up and learns to choose who to be, despite the naysayers and the bullies who don't understand.
