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: "Our Lives Our Words: Telling Aravani Life Stories" by A. Revathi.
"For long, aravanis or hijras have been the invisible yet hypervisible subjects of a societal gaze -- looked at, talked about, feared, revered, cursed, and imagined. They have largely stood as metaphors, refused individual histories, lives, identities and selves by a society that reduces them to corporeal bodies, stereotypes, and objects of disdain. Yet this gaze has been challenged and subverted time and time again by a community that refuses to be ashamed or see itself as the victim.
Some of the greatest victories in recent history in this battle for rights have been won in Tamil Nadu - the first state in India where the government recognised many of the rights of the hijra community. The stories in this volume chronicle many of the aravanis who were part of this groundbreaking change. Indeed, in Tamil, these stories were some of the first narratives of hijra lives told to, written by and produced entirely by the members of the community themselves. Appearing in English for the first time, these landmark narratives still retain the authenticity, simplicity and rawness of life stories of courage, pain, searching, and both triumph and despair, told without agenda."
2011,
A. Revathi,
English,
India,
Full title: "Recognizing Transsexuals: Personal, Political and Medicolegal Embodiment" by Zowie Davy.
"Recognizing Transsexuals draws on interviews with transsexuals at various stages of transition to offer an original account of transsexual embodiment and bodily aesthetics.
Exploring the reasons for which transpeople desire to modify their bodies, it moves away from the focus on gender that characterizes much work on transpeople's embodiment, to investigate the concept of bodily aesthetics. Recent legislation allowing transsexuals to apply for gender recognition provides the context in which transpeople challenge the conventional understandings of what it means to be men and women.
2011,
English,
Zowie Davy,
Original title: "Ein Junge namens Sue: Transsexuelle erfinden ihr Leben" (A boy named Sue: Transsexuals invent their lives) by Alexandra Köbele.
We tell the story of our lives differently. When and who do we tell them to? What questions do we get asked? On what topics do we focus on? You may have family, school experiences, career and friendships with our identity don't do nearly as much as the issue of gender identity – which for most people is a matter of course – and all other topics will be dealt with on this basis. In this book, five transsexual people describe their lives.
They tell their stories against the background of their gender identity and construct their biography around the desire and the necessity to assign the sex of the body to the perceived, inner identity. Five life stories show unusual ways of finding one's identity.
2011,
Alexandra Köbele,
German,
Original title: "Veḷḷai moḻi" வெள்ளை மொழி (White language) by A. Revathi.
"This is the autobiography of an Aravani who struggles to live as a woman. From the moment she realizes herself as a woman, her struggle begins. The book openly talks about different types of experiences such as finding people who are similar to her and following their traditions, living in the sex industry imposed on Aravanis, from the family that excludes and hates them due to lack of understanding to the inhumane police, and the ways of working together with people who understand about gender minorities.
This book contains the power to create vibrations in the hardened public mind and break the conventions of writing and give newness to the Tamil script."
2011,
A. Revathi,
India,
Tamil,
"Olá Mundo Cruel!" is the Portuguese language edition of "Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks & Other Outlaws: 101 Alternatives to Teen Suicide" by Kate Bornstein.
"Celebrated transsexual trailblazer Kate Bornstein has, with more humor and spunk than any other, ushered us into a world of limitless possibility through a daring re-envisionment of the gender system as we know it.
Here, Bornstein bravely and wittily shares personal and unorthodox methods of survival in an often cruel world. A one-of-a-kind guide to staying alive outside the box, Hello, Cruel World is a much-needed unconventional approach to life for those who want to stay on the edge, but alive.
Hello, Cruel World features a catalog of 101 alternatives to suicide that range from the playful (moisturize!), to the irreverent (shatter some family values), to the highly controversial. Designed to encourage readers to give themselves permission to unleash their hearts' harmless desires, the book has only one directive: "Don't be mean." It is this guiding principle that brings its reader on a self-validating journey, which forges wholly new paths toward a resounding decision to choose life.
Tenderly intimate and unapologetically edgy, Kate Bornstein is the radical role model, the affectionate best friend, and the guiding mentor all in one.
2011,
Interview,
Kate Bornstein,
Portuguese,
USA,
Full title: "Inside Out: Portraits of Cross-gender Children" is the English language edition of "Genderkinderen: geboren in het verkeerde lichaam" by Sarah Wong and Ellen de Visser.
"Through Sarah Wong's beautiful, moving photographs and Ellen Visser's poignant writing, this book provides the first insight into what it really feels like to be born in the wrong body, both for cross-gender children and their families."
"Despite the unimaginable problem they have been faced with since a very young age, we see fun, confident, strong children, committed families and proud parents and grandparents who deal with the situation very openheartedly. Some are symbolically mounted atop a powerful horse while others shyly touch the breasts of a mannequin."
2011,
Ellen de Visser,
English,
Sarah Wong,
Original title: "Genderkinderen: geboren in het verkeerde lichaam" (Gender children: Born in the wrong body) by Sarah Wong and Ellen de Visser.
"Through Sarah Wong's beautiful, moving photographs and Ellen Visser's poignant writing, this book provides the first insight into what it really feels like to be born in the wrong body, both for cross-gender children and their families."
"Despite the unimaginable problem they have been faced with since a very young age, we see fun, confident, strong children, committed families and proud parents and grandparents who deal with the situation very openheartedly. Some are symbolically mounted atop a powerful horse while others shyly touch the breasts of a mannequin."
2011,
Dutch,
Ellen de Visser,
Sarah Wong,
Original title: "Mann er da kvinne" (Male is then female) by Marion Arntzen and Kari Kahrs.
After the Golden Route winning TV series of the same name, "Jentene på Toten" became a concept. Stensveen resource center at Kapp, run by Marion Arntzen and her husband Harald Sundby, has for 14 years supported many transgender people in living as who they define themselves as.
After the TV series, the whole of Norway got to experience what it means that all people have the right to define themselves. The girls at Toten received the Homofryd Award 2010. Marion and Harald were awarded the YS Gender Equality Award 2010. In Male is then Woman, we meet transgender people who are at different places in their processes. In diary form, they tell of the struggle to understand themselves, their joys and sorrows. Man is then woman is a unique story about individuals who fight to be able to respect themselves and to be respected for who they are.
2011,
Kari Kahrs,
Marion Arntzen,
Norwegian,
Original title: "Kroppslinjer: Kön, transsexualism och kropp i berättelser om könskorrigering" (Body Lines: Gender, Transsexualism, and the Body in Narratives of Gender Reassignment) by Signe Bremer.
In 1972, Sweden was the first in the world to legislate on state-funded care for people in need of gender reassignment, which in an international perspective was considered radical. However, it is not until July 2013 that the requirement that a person must be an unmarried and sterile Swedish citizen to change legal gender is deleted from the law, which means the end of the forced sterilizations that were carried out on transgender people between the years 1972 and 2013.
In "Body Lines", ethnologist and gender researcher Signe Bremer describes and analyses some of the concrete consequences that the old gender recognition law had in the lives of individuals. Cultural conditions that also concern contemporary experiences of gender reassignment are problematized and questions about bodily integrity are scrutinized. By closely reading stories about undergoing gender reassignment surgery before the 2013 legislative change, Bremer examines how the category of transsexualism is embodied, made, renegotiated and lived in a gender reassignment time course.
2011,
Signe Bremer,
Swedish,
"Hej grymma värld: 101 alternativ till självmord" is the Swedish language edition of "Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks & Other Outlaws: 101 Alternatives to Teen Suicide" by Kate Bornstein.
"Celebrated transsexual trailblazer Kate Bornstein has, with more humor and spunk than any other, ushered us into a world of limitless possibility through a daring re-envisionment of the gender system as we know it.
Here, Bornstein bravely and wittily shares personal and unorthodox methods of survival in an often cruel world. A one-of-a-kind guide to staying alive outside the box, Hello, Cruel World is a much-needed unconventional approach to life for those who want to stay on the edge, but alive.
Hello, Cruel World features a catalog of 101 alternatives to suicide that range from the playful (moisturize!), to the irreverent (shatter some family values), to the highly controversial. Designed to encourage readers to give themselves permission to unleash their hearts' harmless desires, the book has only one directive: "Don't be mean." It is this guiding principle that brings its reader on a self-validating journey, which forges wholly new paths toward a resounding decision to choose life.
Tenderly intimate and unapologetically edgy, Kate Bornstein is the radical role model, the affectionate best friend, and the guiding mentor all in one.
2011,
Interview,
Kate Bornstein,
Swedish,
USA,
Full title: "Take Me There" by Tristan Taormino, and contributors: Kate Bornstein, Shawna Virago, Julia Serano, and others.
In mainstream media, the erotic identities, sex lives, and fantasies of transgender and genderqueer people are often oversimplified, sensationalized, or invisible. Take Me There is an erotica collection unlike any other that celebrates the pleasure, heat, and diversity of transgender and genderqueer sexualities. The power of seeing and being seen is a central theme in the anthology; it’s not simply about passing or not passing (an idea often explored with transgender characters), but about being acknowledged and desired in a sexual context.
The book takes you from San Francisco to Israel, from heartache to lust, from stranger sex to a 10-year anniversary, from ballet shoes to butt-plug bondage tables, from fumbling teenagers to leather-clad bears, from MTF and FTM - and in between and beyond.
2011,
English,
Julia Serano,
Kate Bornstein,
Shawna Virago,
Tristan Taormino,
"I Rise, is the true story of Toni Newman’s transformation from an effeminate, conflicted male to a proud, educated transsexual. You will follow Toni on her rise from a “sissy boy,” a scholarship student, a business professional, an escort, a drag queen, an NYC prostitute, an LA dominatrix, and finally, a transsexual attending law school in order to help her transsexual sisters in need.
Along Toni’s journey, you will see the highs and lows, as well as life-long quest for self-acceptance….
Toni is ex playgirl magazine model and male fitness model turned Transgender to lose it all. Toni graduated from Wake Forest University in 1985 with BA degree.
In the late 90s, Toni was the CEO of MPI Productions, a producer of male/female fitness calendars, sold all over the United States and abroad.
An outcast to society, Toni fell from grace landing on the streets of New York City. Living in a crack house, and eating from a trash can, Toni’s life had spiraled out of control. Fallen, but not beaten, Toni Newman decided to RISE. In the footsteps Ted Williams, Toni Newman is a true testament of determination."
2011,
English,
Toni Newman,
Full title: "Γιατί δεν έχω σαν το δικό σου, μαμά" (Because I'm not like you, mom) by Άννα Κουρουπού (Anna Kouroupou).
Anna Kouroupou is an inspirational Greek woman, transgender rights activist, writer, blogger, the author of the biographical book titled “Γιατί δεν έχω σαν το δικό σου, μαμά” (2011).
In 2017, I interviewed Anna and asked her why she decided to write an autobiography: "It was clearly a personal need. The need to write down on a piece of paper, some pieces of my life which marked me, so as to discover the reasons for the psychological dead-end I found myself in. I carry great darkness within me, but I am always open to any beams of light. The publication was mostly due to the encouragement of my friends, that I had something to say. I couldn’t believe it; I was delightfully proven wrong.
2011,
Anna Kouroupou,
Greek,
Full title: "Not Your Average American Girl: A Memoir" by Christine Beatty.
"Christine Beatty’s memoir chronicles her odyssey from collegiate husband to transsexual prostitute, recovery from addiction, and the achievement of her most improbable dreams.
Set mostly in the purgatory of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, her story guides readers on an intimate journey through worlds of hippies, strippers, soldiers, urban transsexuals, prostitutes, addicts, jail, skid row and finally recovery. Ascending against all odds in her career, she is also a pioneering rock musician, a controversial journalist and a survivor of the worst pandemic of the 1980s.
Told with the unflinching honesty of someone with nothing left to hide, the humor of a survivor who discovers silver linings in the darkest clouds, and the spirit of a rebel who refuses to be broken, Beatty’s is a tale of sublime pathos and the triumph of the human spirit. She proves you can’t keep a good woman down."
2011,
Christine Beatty,
English,
Interview,
Original title: "Re-born" by Kayo Satoh (佐藤かよ).
Kayo Satoh, born in 1988, a Japanese model, YouTube vlogger, and television personality, tells her story of the pain she experienced in a society that didn’t understand her and her male-to-female transition.
She started her hormone therapy at the age of 15. Suffering from gender identity disorder, she had to face a lot of challenges in junior high school, and she ran away from home after graduation. After working part-time at a convenience store, her friend introduced her to the long-sought women's clothing department store. Six months later, she was scouted by a fashion magazine and introduced to the president of a modeling agency.
In 2008, a Nagoya local fashion magazine published her photos and her modeling career started for good. In 2010, she came out as a transgender woman. On June 23, 2011, she released her first book "Re-born", which includes her first semi-nude photos.
2011,
Japanese,
Kayo Satoh,
'Non-reproductive lifestyles are discriminated against, even punishable by death in some countries. This raises the philosophical question of whether, for example, same-sex relationships could not be a possible answer from nature to problems such as overpopulation or "unwanted" or "neglected" life, biological alternatives to abortion or "baby hatch".
A sexual facet of human life is TRANSSEXUALITY - people whose bodies differ from the brain-determined birth sex. People who often have to deny their innate identity in order to survive in a society shaped by dogma.
This book introduces you to three Filipino trans women: Bea, Julia, and Paige. Born with a male body, living her female soul. Three People of Planet Earth...'
2011,
German,
Joachim Reinhold,
Philippines,
"In Tumbleweed, The Boy, author Ann Edmead, born a male, recounts the painful but ultimately triumphant story of her life. It all begins when two brothers are put into a children's home as babies after their mother dies and their father gives up custody.
The boys' lives are riddled with sexual abuse by older boys. When the brothers leave the home at fifteen, one of them, who is very effeminate, falls victim to sexual manipulation, playing on the only skill he knows. Suicidal and in despair, he is helped by medical professionals and transitions to female, becoming Ann.
2011,
Ann Edmead,
England,
English,
UK,
Full title: "Tranny Tales: Personal Stories of Gender Transition".
"Tranny Tales: Personal Stories of Gender Transition is a unique collection of stories about what it’s like to be conflicted about gender, why people change their bodies in order to reflect a different gender identity and what happens to them once they do this.
Tranny Tales gives voice to an often-misunderstood population. You will hear, through very personal and diverse accounts, the multitude of experiences and attitudes that shape the transgender population. And, through photos, you will be able to see what a transition can look like.
Tranny Tales is a resource guide both for people who have had gender conflicts themselves as well as for those who are seeking to understand what transgenderism is about from the inside out."
2011,
English,
Marsea Marcus,
Shannon Weckman,
Original title: "Chassée du Paradis, rescapée de l'enfer" (Driven out of paradise, escaped from hell)
"It all begins with a pampered childhood of a cherished son, so much desired by a father who demanded to have a boy. Adolescence follows a terrible course of obstacles in the face of the misunderstanding of others, the violence of society, betrayals, and tragedies.
And finally, thanks to the miracles of surgery, comes the time to become a woman. A journey punctuated by intense happiness and harsh strokes of theatre, the destiny of Peggy Guex, born Roland, turns out to be a whirlwind of prodigious adventures that questions us: what is the difference? What do you really decide in a lifetime?
She could boast dazzling music-hall pseudonyms: Gloria Paname, Diana Santiago... She would act, defying convention, fear, and danger. Today, at 64 years old, she testifies to tell her truth and tell us about her absolutely atypical journey. To all of us without exception, without exclusion."
2011,
French,
Peggy Guex,
"In the spring of 2004, Philip Anders ingested the first of what would be a daily dose of 4mg estrogen tablets. From that moment forward, his life would change forever.
During the agonizingly slow transformation from male to female, he would lose a 22-year career in journalism, his marriage, his home, his savings, and most of his friends. Faced with the specter of homelessness, he embarked on a three-year adventure as an over-the-road truck driver.
Gypsy Moon chronicles Pamela Rose Anders' travels across the highways of America, as well as the single most difficult journey of all; transitioning from a male to female truck driver. Packed with a medley of humorous adventures, moments of fear, loneliness and despair, terrifying encounters, bigotry, and unexpected friendships, Gypsy Moon presents an insightful view of the incredible courage and strength required to complete this journey. You will laugh. You will cry. You will feel her anguish. You will revel in her triumph. Most of all, you will understand."
2011,
English,
Pamela Rose Anders,
