A random collection of over 1910 books and audiobooks authored by or about my transgender, intersex sisters, and gender-nonconforming persons all over the world. I read some of them, and I was inspired by some of them. I met some of the authors and heroines, some of them are my best friends, and I had the pleasure and honor of interviewing some of them. If you know of any transgender biography that I have not covered yet, please let me know.
Full title: "The Trans Biography Project: Stories from the Lives of Eleven Trans People in BC" by Kathleen Cross.
"The purpose of this collection is to educate the broader community about the experiences, needs and situations of trans people. It features a brief biography of each person, using their words as much as possible to tell their stories, share their experiences, and articulate the issues that are relevant to them as a trans, transgendered or transsexual person (a note about language usage is below). These stories are an attempt to put a “human face” on the issues of trans people and to break down stereotypes. It is our hope that this collection may, in some small way, assist in making the voices of trans people better heard and, perhaps, more understood."
2001,
Aiyyana Maracle,
Canada,
Dannis Bragas,
English,
Kathleen Cross,
Kimberly Nixon,
Original title: "Watashi no karada wa kamisama ga itazura de tsukutta no? - Seidōitsuseishōgai o koete" 私の体は神様がイタズラで造ったの?―性同 - 性障害を超えて(Was My Body Created by God as a Prank? - Beyond Gender Identity Disorder) by Ikeda Minoru 池田 稔
The book presents the reality of the anguish of transgender people and the actual conditions of treatment for gender identity disorder in Japan. The author is a urologist who deals with patients suffering from gender identity disorder.
Ikeda Minoru receives many messages like this one: "No matter how you look at it, the body I was born with belongs to a "man". But I want to live my life as a "woman". Based on e-mails sent to the author's website, etc., the reality of the suffering of people suffering from gender identity disorder is summarized and explained so that it can be understood correctly from a medical point of view. The content covers exchanges such as emails between the author and people who feel uncomfortable with their gender.
2001,
Ikeda Minoru,
Japanese,
Original title: "Der kalifornische Alptraum oder Wie ich glücklich wurde" (The Californian Nightmare or How I Became Happy) by Pamela Helen Bonert.
Pamela Helen Bonert (born Armin Bonert on December 17, 1950) is an author and the first transgender female soldier in the German Bundeswehr to have undergone gender reassignment surgery while serving in the army. She was already an Air Force officer with the rank of captain when she finally had her gender reassignment surgery in 1999 due to her trans identity.
The management of the Bundeswehr reacted by transferring her to the medical regiment as before 2001 the careers for women in the Bundeswehr were only open in the medical and military music service and thus Bonert could continue to pursue her military profession.
2001,
German,
Pamela Helen Bonert,
Original title: "Die weisse Feder. Hat die Seele ein Geschlecht?" (The white feather. Does the soul have a gender?) by Nadia Brönimann.
Even as a child, Christian knew that he was different from the others – a stranger in his own body. But he kept running away from himself, he was a stick boy on the Côte d'Azur, a revue dancer in Berlin and a drag queen in the Basel gay scene. Until he is finished and realizes that he has to face the lie of his life: he is not a man, he is a woman in the body of a man, he is Nadia.
A lengthy odyssey begins...
Nadia Brönimann, born in 1969 in Memmingen (Allgäu), grew up as Christian Brönimann in Appenzell. In the summer of 1998, she underwent gender reassignment surgery. With lectures in schools and television appearances, she makes the phenomenon of transsexuality public and promotes understanding for those affected. Nadia Brönimann lives in Zurich. She is the author of two biography books: "Die weisse Feder. Hat die Seele ein Geschlecht?" (The white feather. Does the soul have a gender?) and "Seelentanz: Ich folge meinem Weg" (Soul dance: I follow my path), published in 2001 and 2006 respectively.
2001,
German,
Nadia Brönimann,
Switzerland,
Original title: "Ibeuga doen adam halisu" 이브가 된 아담 하리수 (Eve from Adam).
Harisu, a Korean transgender woman who started out as a cosmetics CF model, known for her lead role in the movie "Yellow Hair 2" and active in the entertainment industry as a singer and model, candidly shares her life in this book. It is a collection of photo essays with her photos and videos.
She writes about how she decided to undergo gender reassignment surgery, her complicated feelings about love, marriage, and family, and her thoughts on life as a transgender person from childhood to the present.
She said that she shared her thoughts in the book because she couldn't do it on television.
In addition, there are more than 100 color photographs taken in Italy, making it a great photo book for such a celebrity as Harisu.
Fluent in Japanese because of her experience studying in Japan, she signed a contract with a Japanese production company to release two albums in both Korea and Japan. It is a book that gives a glimpse of her living confidently as a "woman more beautiful than a woman."
2001,
Harisu,
Korean,
South Korea,
Original title: "Transseksualizm i rodzina: Przekaz pokoleniowy wzorów relacyjnych w rodzinach transseksualnych kobiet" (Transsexualism and the family: The generational transmission of relational patterns in the families of transgender women) by Małgorzata Fajkowska-Stanik.
The book was published in 2001 by Małgorzata Fajkowska-Stanik, a professor at the Institute of Psychology of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
2001,
Małgorzata Fajkowska-Stanik,
Polish,
Original title: "Jean, Jocelyne" by Jocelyne and Florence Haguenauer.
She is a woman in her fifties. A little piece of woman who looks like so many others... Twenty years of marriage, an employee in a large company in the region where she is known as the white wolf for being a union delegate for many, many years, she could be your next-door neighbor, your work colleague or a friend with whom you like to share an evening of cinema, perhaps even go jogging on days of great courage. Jocelyne is certainly everybody.
Except that three years ago, Jocelyne was a man. Anyway, that's what everyone believed. She had always known she was a woman, felt herself a woman, but her body indicated that she was Jean. Jean as a child ended up at the boys' school. Jean did his military service and was almost sent against striking workers in 1968. Jean became a technical agent at Thomson, was elected union representative by his work comrades, got married, and had an ordinary life. Except that he was in the depths of despair because he hated this man's body in which he was locked up.
2001,
Florence Haguenauer,
French,
Jocelyne,
Original title: "Carnet de bord d'un steward devenu hôtesse de l'air" (Logbook of a steward turned into stewardess) by Andréa Colliaux.
"Changing sex, for Bruno Colliaux, was not a whim of "great madness" but a cruel ambiguity of nature. Treated as a beautiful little girl in childhood, stuffed with male hormones at puberty to develop her male organs, this androgynous character never supported manly attributes that did not correspond to her deep reality. Not to mention the look of others, the loneliness, the impossibility of confiding. Neither "gay", nor "straight", neither man nor woman, she had to choose.
Duly followed by psychiatrists and understood by her management at Air France, a few black sheep aside, Bruno began his feminization. And Andréa tells us the tragicomic stages of this mutation, the painful hair removal, a new hormonal treatment, the preparations for the operation, but also the social difficulties (in her passport, "she" is always "Bruno", then at the borders...), and the clothing details: girl, so be it, but when you measure 1.85 ni and you wear 41, it is better to avoid miniskirts and stilettos! The book is a testimony that is both moving and humorous, which challenges certain prejudices and unfortunate preconceived ideas."
2001,
Andréa Colliaux,
French,
Full title: "The Woman I Was Not Born To Be: A Transsexual Journey" by Aleshia Brevard. This is her first biography. In 2010, she published her second biographical book - "The Woman I Was Born To Be" (2010).
"Told with humour and flair, this is the autobiography of one transsexual's wild ride from boyhood as Alfred Brevard (Buddy) Crenshaw in rural Tennessee to voluptuous female entertainer in Hollywood. Aleshia Brevard, as she is now known, underwent transitional surgery in Los Angeles in 1962, one of the first such operations in the United States. (The sexual surgery pioneer Harry Benjamin himself broke the news to Brevard's parents)."
I still cannot believe that Alessia is not around anymore. She was my best friend and my second mother. In 2013, we did a very long interview about how she coped with all challenges related to being transgender, and this is what she told me: "When I transitioned the term “transgender” had yet to be invented. At that time, in fact, “transsexuality” was generally thought of as a ‘condition’, an awkward period through which one must pass, like some bothersome adolescence.
Our goal was to move forward, as seamlessly as possible, easing into mainstream society to live as our authentic selves. We wished to live among, work alongside, and compete on an equal footing with other women, including those who had been born female.
2001,
Aleshia Brevard,
English,
Interview,
USA,
Original title: "Jenny Bel'Air: Une créature" (Jenny Bel'Air: A Creature) by François Jonquet.
"The book tells the irresistible rise of Jenny Bel'Air, an uncertain creature, sometimes a man, sometimes a woman, and who, at some point, becomes the absolute star of the trendy Paris of the 80s. How did he or she get here? And how did the glitter of glory fade away? François Jonquet gives us this answer. At a time when answers are rare, this book is a tremendously human testimony on a creature both glamorous and "on the margins" where the great figures of the Parisian Underground are resurrected."
Jenny Bel'Air, born Alain Sepho, a famous physiognomist of the Palace, transgender icon of the captivating Parisian nights of the 70s and 80s. With grace and lucidity, François Jonquet testifies to the rise of this character in the underground scene. He goes in search of the mysterious power of the one who reigned over these Roaring Twenties. In this breathless tale, the great figures of the time are brought back to life. Here is the destiny of a creature, an intense testimony of a way of claiming its difference with audacity.
2001,
François Jonquet,
French,
Jenny Bel'Air,
"La danese" is the Italian language edition of The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff.
Having gender reassignment surgery in the 1930s was an unusual and sensational affair, and the man who took the step to do so was the Danish painter Einar Mogens Andreas Wegener, who after the operation took the name of Lili Elbe.
The operation took place at the Institute for Sexology in Berlin, where the male organs were removed. The surgery was performed by Felix Abraham at the recommendation of Magnus Hirschfeld.
Einar Wegener was married to the beautiful, celebrated artist Gerda Wegener. They lived in a highly unusual marriage. Their life fate is told in this book, which is a fiction novel based on authentic events and diary entries from Einar Wegener.
2001,
David Ebershoff,
Italian,
Lili Elbe,
Original title: "Rejsen mod Bente: kønsskifteoperationen i Casablanca" (The journey towards Bente: the gender reassignment surgery in Casablanca). The book was published in 2001 and republished in 2018.
This book is the deeply personal story of Bent Nimb, who embarked on a life-changing journey. In 1982, Bent Nimb was on her way from Copenhagen to Casablanca to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
Years of hormone treatments at Rigshospitalet with many refusals of surgery from dozens of doctors, psychiatrists, sexologists, and the medical examiner's office had preceded the surgery.
But Bent Nimb could not wait any longer and took matters into her own hands.
2001,
2018,
Bente Nimb,
Danish,
Georges Burou,
"Seitenka: 53-sai de josei ni natta daigaku kyōju" (性転換―53歳で女性になった大学教授 - Sex Change: A University Professor Who Became a Woman at 53) is the Japanese language edition of "Crossing: A Memoir" by Deirdre N. McCloskey.
"We have read the stories of those who have "crossed" lines of race and class and culture. But few have written of crossing - completely and entirely - the gender line. "Crossing" is the story of Deirdre McCloskey (formerly Donald), once a golden boy of conservative economics and a child of 1950s and 1960s privilege, and her dramatic and poignant journey to becoming a woman. McCloskey's account of her painstaking efforts to learn to "be a woman" unearth fundamental questions about gender and identity, and hatreds and anxieties, revealing surprising answers."
2001,
Deirdre N. McCloskey,
Interview,
Japanese,
""O Au No Keia: Voices From Hawai'i's Mahu and Transgender Communities" by Andrew Matzner.
'O Au No Keia is a collection of spoken narratives by male-to-female transgendered people and mahu who live on the island of O'ahu. The powerfully moving stories in this book not only reveal the experiences of those who cross the boundaries of sex and gender, but also illuminate what it means to do so in the unique cultural context of Hawai'i."
"Andy Matzner is a licensed clinical social worker, teacher, and psychotherapist, as well as tarot reader. He lives with his family in the United States, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Virginia."
2001,
Andrew Matzner,
English,
