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: "Debbie's Secret Life: The Transgender Experience" by Deborah Ballard.
Deborah Ballard’s Debbie’s Secret Life: The Transgender Experience is not just the story of one girl forced to live in hiding, it is a deeply human account of what it means to carry a truth so profound and yet so dangerous that it must be concealed at all costs. At its heart lies Debbie, a girl with a secret. To the outside world she appears to be a boy. Even her parents are uncertain about her identity, and she quickly learns that revealing the truth could bring consequences so severe that they might cost her everything, even her life. In this world of silence and fear, the question becomes whether she will ever find the strength and freedom to be herself, or whether her struggle will become a catalyst for changing the way the world sees transgender people.
The book weaves together personal testimony, raw emotion, and social critique, offering a voice to the millions of transgender children and adults who have had to live in the shadows. Debbie’s story is not one of fantasy or invention. It comes from the lived experience of Deborah Ballard, an American IT architect consultant, writer, and activist whose own life has been marked by both extraordinary professional accomplishments and the often-painful realities of growing up transgender in a world that did not understand or accept her. She was one of the early pioneers in the commercialization of the Internet during the 1990s, helped advance Linux and Open Source technology in the following decade, and played a key role in globalization initiatives that reshaped international business. Yet behind those achievements was the secret life of a girl who knew her identity from the age of two but was forced to conceal it.
2012,
Debbie Ballard,
Deborah Ballard,
English,
Interview,
Original title: "Transpłciowość - androgynia. Studia o przekraczaniu płci" (Transgenderism - androgyny. Gender Transcendence Studies) by Jacek Bielas, Małgorzata Bieńkowska-Ptasznik and others.
Recently, the issue of crossing gender boundaries has been appearing more and more often in the Polish public discourse. Transgender and intersex people, or otherwise transgressing gender boundaries and conventions, are appearing more and more frequently in public spaces. The themes of transgenderism and transgression of gender conventions are also beginning to appear more and more often in academic publications.
This book – being an interdisciplinary publication that tries to show the phenomenon of transgenderism in a wide spectrum of many perspectives – combines articles from the field of sociology, psychology, philosophy, cultural studies and law, as well as articles written from the point of view of people active in the "T" environment.
2012,
Jacek Bielas,
Małgorzata Bieńkowska-Ptasznik,
Polish,
Original title: "Kærlighedshistorier" (Love stories) by Maria Helleberg.
"The book contains 11 love stories. The fourth love story "The Gender" from page 66 to page 88 deals with the couple Gerda Wegener and Lili Elbe. Our perception of love is based on history. Over time, a large number of love couples have played a major role in forming the myth on which we today base our perception of love. The love stories serve as a kind of role models or templates for us today.
Maria Helleberg takes us on a fast-paced and entertaining trip back in time and along the way gives her personal interpretation of a number of love stories from Saxo's legends over the Golden Age and up to modern times. Along the way, we hear about Signe and Hagbard, Liden Kirsten and Buris, Elsebe Gyldenstjerne and Stygge Krumpen, Marie Grubbe and Søren Møller, Caroline Mathilde and Struensee, Juliane Marie Ottesen and Nicolai Abildgaard, Regine Olsen and Søren Kierkegaard, Countess Danner and Frederik the Seventh, Elvira Madigan and Sixten Sparre, Gerda Wegener and Lili Elbe, Helle Virkner and Jens Otto Krag, Tove Ditlevsen and Victor Andreasen. We have all learned from the characters in this book. Love exists and blossoms – and may fade."
2012,
Danish,
Lili Elbe,
Maria Helleberg,
Original title: "Transexualismo: Cuerpo e Identidad" (Transsexualism: Body and Identity) by Gregorio Morassutti Germán Ismael.
"This book addresses the theme of transsexualism from a comprehensive level, taking genetic, social, environmental, and psychological aspects. The objective of this study is to describe the information that deals with transsexualism, encompassing a heterogeneous view of transgenderism, transvestism, transsexualism, and hermaphroditism.
The book is organized into the following parts: practical and theoretical, your time is divided into five chapters. The first is a way of introducing the theme of sexuality and gender. The second defines theories about transsexualism. The third differentiates the transvestism, transsexualism, and hermaphroditism terms. The fourth describes different manuals with diagnostical criteria. The fifth and last provides a presentation of a clinical case with analysis."
2012,
Gregorio Morassutti Germán Ismael,
Spanish,
Original title: "Worden wie je bent: het leven van transgenders in Nederland" (Becoming who you are: the lives of transgender people in the Netherlands) by Saskia Keuzenkamp.
Some people are born male, but feel they are female. And some are born as women, but feel like men. Many of these transgender people decide at some point in their lives to have their gender changed through hormones and surgery. More attention has been paid to this group in recent years, also in government policy. But little is known about how they are doing.
At what age do they become aware of their 'transness'? How open are they about it and what reactions does that generate? What is their psychological health like?
2012,
Dutch,
Saskia Keuzenkamp,
Full title: "Shanghai lalas: female Tongzhi communities and politics in urban China" by Lucetta Yip Lo Kam.
"This is the first ethnographic study of lala (lesbian, bisexual, and transgender) communities and politics in China, focusing on the city of Shanghai. Based on several years of in-depth interviews, the volume concentrates on lalas’ everyday struggle to reconcile same-sex desire with a dominant rhetoric of family harmony and compulsory marriage, all within a culture denying women’s active and legitimate sexual agency.
Lucetta Yip Lo Kam reads discourses on homophobia in China, including the rhetoric of “Chinese tolerance” and considers the heteronormative demands imposed on tongzhi subjects. She treats “the politics of public correctness” as a newly emerging tongzhi practice developed from the culturally specific, Chinese forms of regulation that inform tongzhi survival strategies and self-identification."
2012,
China,
English,
Lucetta Yip Lo Kam,
Full title: "Transition The Story Of My Life With A Transgender" by Nell Rose. The book was published as an ebook in 2012 and a paperback in 2016.
"After being married for over 10 years you would think that nothing could shock you where your other half was concerned. But that day totally changed my life and shook me to the core! I can still feel the chill rushing through my body as I suddenly, horribly realized that my husband wasn't the man I thought he was!. Am I living in an alternate reality? Where had my loving kind husband gone? And who put this strange creature in his place? It was time to wake up."
2012,
2016,
English,
Nell Rose,
Full title: "My Next Husband Will Be Normal: A St. John Adventure" by Rae Ellen Lee.
"In My Next Husband Will Be Normal, Lee and her husband ditch their sailboat and fly to the U.S. Virgin Islands with a down payment for a mom-and-pop business on St. John. The plan: when they aren’t sewing canvas bags at their little shop, The Canvas Factory, they’ll be beach potatoes.
But there are risks to living in paradise one cannot anticipate, especially on an island where residents bask in the mantra: You can do anything you want, as long as the rest of us know about it."
"For soon after unpacking their flip-flops, the husband - a former Republican state legislator with a silver crew-cut and solid traditional values - realizes he is really a she. Convinced the world needs more humor, Lee rations the angst in favor of the picturesque and absurd.
Adding heat to the story is a cast of colorful cats, customers, and Caribbean personalities. Toss in a few sex toys, some steel pan music, a pinch of voodoo - and stir."
2012,
English,
Rae Ellen Lee,
USA,
Full title: "A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The True Story of a Nice Jewish Boy Who Joins the Church of Scientology and Leaves Twelve Years Later to Become the Lovely Lady She is Today" by Kate Bornstein.
Kate Bornstein’s A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The True Story of a Nice Jewish Boy Who Joins the Church of Scientology and Leaves Twelve Years Later to Become the Lovely Lady She is Today is not just a memoir, it’s a glitter grenade hurled into the rigid constructs of gender, faith, family, and identity. It is disarming in its honesty, charming in its wit, and unapologetically strange in all the ways that make it unforgettable. Through the eyes of one of the most iconic gender theorists of our time, this book takes readers on a high-wire act of reinvention: from a devout Scientologist and husband to a gender outlaw who dances between binaries and lives to tell the tale with a wink and a flourish.
2012,
English,
Interview,
Kate Bornstein,
USA,
Original title: "Schlauchgelüste: Liebesbrief an eine verlorene Männlichkeit" (Hose Cravings: Love Letter to a Lost Manhood) by Jacob Winter (Johanna Kamermans).
In Schlauchgelüste: Liebesbrief an eine verlorene Männlichkeit (Desires in a Tube: A Love Letter to a Lost Masculinity), author Jacob Winter, better known by her stage and pen name Johanna Kamermans, offers readers an unflinching, ironic, and deeply honest look at life beyond gender norms.
This autobiographical novel is not just a personal journey; it’s a piece of living history from the smoky, neon-lit cabarets of postwar Europe.
Kamermans describes her book as a vivid portrayal of a time when being "not quite man, not quite woman, but always both" was not just a personal identity but a political and artistic act. A celebrated striptease dancer in the 1960s and 70s, Johanna lit up the stages with a daring blend of femininity and masculine physicality. She was "a woman on top, a man below," never surgically transitioned, but "glued," as she cheekily puts it.
Her decision not to undergo gender-affirming surgery was deeply connected to her sexuality and her refusal to compromise her physical pleasure. This was not a lack of authenticity, but rather a declaration of selfhood in a world that demanded conformity. Schlauchgelüste is peppered with provocative scenes, yet told in a polished, ironic voice, a literary striptease of sorts, revealing the tension, humor, and drama of a gender outlaw's life on stage and off.
2012,
German,
Interview,
Jacob Winter,
Johanna Kamermans,
Original title: "I am a woman now" by Daniëlle Serdijn and Michiel van Erp.
In the mid-20th century, Casablanca was more than just the backdrop of a Hollywood classic, for a small group of courageous people, it became the setting of their rebirth. In 1956, French gynecologist Georges Burou quietly opened a clinic where he performed experimental and illegal sex reassignment surgeries. At a time when gender transition was shrouded in secrecy, stigma, and outright impossibility in most parts of the world, Burou’s discreet Moroccan practice became a beacon of hope. His reputation spread quickly across Europe.
Before long, famous figures such as the French performer Marie-Pierre Pruvot, known to the world as Bambi, the flamboyant British model April Ashley, Belgian dancer Corinne van Tongerloo, German pioneer Jean Lessenich, and Dutch beautician Colette Berends made their way to Casablanca. They were among the first wave of people who risked everything, socially, financially, and physically, to live as women. Their stories, groundbreaking at the time, would go on to inspire future generations.
More than half a century later, Dutch writer Daniëlle Serdijn and filmmaker Michiel van Erp revisited these trailblazers in the book I Am a Woman Now, published as a companion to van Erp’s internationally acclaimed documentary of the same name.
2012,
April Ashley,
Bambi,
Corinne Van Tongerloo,
Daniëlle Serdijn,
Dutch,
Georges Burou,
Jean Lessenich,
Marie-Pier Ysser,
Marie-Pierre Pruvot,
Michiel van Erp,
Full title: "Trannydykewhore: An autobiography in Parts, also: anarchy, gender and theory-like stuff" by Sylvan.
"Transwomen don't talk enough, and when we do it's usually either from a position of powerlessness (usually preaching to the choir) or from a position of artificial power (tokenizingly headlining a speaking gig). I'm not knocking the amazing women who have stuck their necks out to be in the public eye, or minimizing the contributions of Kate Bornstein, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore or Julia Serano. Not to mention the women. and queers who fought at stone wall, and the many who have died fighting for the right to exist.
I want another kind of narrative, and another kind of power... the kind that can only come from stories being told in brutal honesty, not speeches at a feel-good trans awareness ceremony or desperate whispers in the back of the feminist bookstore. I want tranwomen's stories to get read and recognized by the queer, feminist and radical communities, regardless of whether they fit or don't fit the dominant narratives of trans experience."
Full title: "A Pictorial Transformation: Him to Her (Transsexual Transition Book 3)" by Racheal McGonigal.
"This is a pictorial diary of 70+ photos of Andrews's journey to Racheal/Storm. Watch for the smiles once Racheal arrived. The saying a picture is worth a thousand words is shown clearly in this pictorial diary."
In 2013, I interviewed Rachel and asked her about the book: "“Pictorial Transformation – Him to Her” is a collection of 70+ photos of my journey and shows it all. “The Transgender guide” is really just a small booklet designed for those who are first starting to ask basic questions. “Reflections” is a collection of articles I have written or have been written about me. Magazines, newspapers, Internet.
2012,
English,
New Zealand,
Racheal McGonigal,
Full title: "God Does Love Me: My Trans Journey To Finding My True Self" by Dawn J. Flynn.
Some books speak quietly, like a whisper to the soul. Others, like God Does Love Me: My Trans Journey to Finding My True Self, sing with a voice of courage, conviction, and unwavering grace. Written by pastor, entomologist, and transgender activist Dawn J. Flynn, this memoir is not just a recounting of a personal journey, it is a love letter to authenticity, faith, and the healing power of truth.
Dawn’s book chronicles her transition from male to female, but even more deeply, it captures the spirit of someone who has lived fully in both gender roles, gaining insight that few people can claim. “Everything we experience in life is a teaching tool,” she writes, and in that spirit, her memoir is generously offered as a source of guidance for others navigating the complex terrain of gender identity and self-acceptance. What makes Dawn’s story extraordinary is not just her transition, but the spiritual richness with which she approaches every chapter of her life. As the pastor of New Life Metropolitan Community Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, an LGBTQ+-affirming congregation, Dawn brings a deeply compassionate and theologically grounded voice to the transgender narrative. Her belief that “God’s love is for everyone, without exception” runs like a golden thread through her writing, offering comfort and affirmation to anyone who has ever felt out of place in their own skin or in their faith community.
2012,
Dawn J. Flynn,
English,
"At the age of seventeen Teraina, then Terry, first discovered she was really a woman. For the next fifty years she lived in total denial until, in 2007, something stirred within her.
In 2008 her wife of thirty-three years passed away, allowing Teraina the freedom to rediscover and explore her true self. This remarkable and sometimes amusing account tells of the difficulties and joys encountered on her incredibly short journey."
2012,
English,
Teraina Hird,
Full title: "No Gender Left Behind" by Rebecca Kling.
"Looking through old photo albums, it’s clear – boy, boy, boy.
I wanted a girl’s name, girl’s clothing, to have my hair long and flowing, to wear a girl’s swimming suit, to have a Bat Mitzvah, to play on the girls’ teams after school, to change in the girls’ locker room, to wear skirts and dresses to important family occasions, to live in the girls’ section of the dorm at college…
I’m not sure how to reconcile those lists. To own up to my history outs me as trans and brings up a long stretch of time – the first twenty or so years of my life – that’s at odds with how I see myself now.
When I talk with people about Judaism, do I acknowledge my Bar Mitzvah and out myself, or do I say I had a Bat Mitzvah and rewrite part of my life? When an acquaintance talks about buying suits or ties, do I chime in with memories of my experiences, or do I stay silent? Do I ask my parents to take down pictures from the first two decades of my life? To wipe clean the time before I was 22 or 23? To cover the mirrors which reflect the parts of myself I don’t always want to remember, don’t always want to see?
I want to transform, from who I was, to who I want to be."
2012,
English,
Rebecca Kling,
USA,
Full title: "Dear Mom and Dad: You Don’t Know Me, But …" by Georgia Lee McGowen.
Georgia Lee McGowen’s autobiographical book Dear Mom and Dad: You Don’t Know Me, But …, published in 2012, is a remarkable exploration of the lifelong journey of a person navigating the complexities of a dual-gendered identity. Much has been written about individuals who feel they were assigned the wrong body at conception, often highlighting the struggles and tragedies that arise from this mismatch of nature.
However, very little attention has been given to the nuanced inner experience of living with two distinct sets of emotions, one male and one female, inhabiting a single soul that at times feels divided and at other times united. McGowen’s work fills that gap, chronicling the gradual, intricate process of understanding and reconciling two clearly identifiable spirits.
Dear Mom and Dad: You Don’t Know Me, But … traces the life of George through the perspective of Georgia, the female half of their soul, beginning with early childhood in the post-war Texas oil fields and continuing through the innocent school years in northeastern Oklahoma. The book captures the onset of puberty, during which the ever-present sense of not being normal casts a shadow over nearly every aspect of George’s life. The narrative unfolds as George faces the collapse of a lifelong dream, yet begins again, fostering new hopes, dreams, and the pursuit of love that has been longed for by both halves of their soul. Georgia emerges gradually, learning to embrace her identity within the duality, a process complicated by a profound tragedy that shapes her understanding of self and faith.
2012,
English,
Georgia Lee McGowen,
Interview,
Original title: "Haruna ai no on'nanoko seibun wa 40 no essensu de dekite iru. Kagayaki joshi ni naru himitsu no rūru" - はるな愛の女の子成分は40のエッセンスでできている。 輝き女子になるひみつのルール (Haruna Ai's girl component is made up of 40 essences. Secret rules for becoming a shining girl) by Ai Haruna (はるな 愛).
This is the seventh book of Ai Haruna, mainly related to beauty tips, sharing the secret of Ai Haruna, who is "more feminine than a woman". Born Kenji Onishi in 1972, she is a Japanese TV celebrity and actress, singer, businesswoman, beauty pageant queen, and transgender activist. Her childhood was a happy time but her family was poor. She has a younger brother.
At school, she was known for her musical talent, performing at different school and cultural events. When she was in junior high school, she was bullied because of her feminine manners, so she could hardly study and her grades were poor.
2012,
Ai Haruna,
Japanese,
Full title: "Dazzling Darkness: Gender, Sexuality, Illness and God" by Rachel Mann. The book was re-published in 2022.
"This passionate and nuanced book brings together poetry, feminist theology, and philosophy and explores them through one person s hunger for wholeness, self-knowledge and God."
Rachel Mann is an inspiring woman, the Church of England priest in charge of St. Nicholas’ Church Burnage in Manchester, and Minor Canon of Manchester Cathedral. She is a broadcaster, published poet, theologian, and music journalist specializing in metal, prog, and folk. Her memoir of being trans, lesbian, and Christian, “Dazzling Darkness” (2012) was a Church Times bestseller.
2012,
England,
English,
Rachel Mann,
Original title: "Trans’ avec les Loups" (Trans’ with Wolves)
'We have produced this beautiful book of 172 pages in 16 x 22.6 cm format and all in color as a collective work of transvestite, transgender, and trans-friendly artists and authors: poems, drawings, photography, analyses, and testimonies with the friendly participation of Nath-Sakura and Louise Dumont.
The guidelines and the diversity of the texts enlighten the reader about the richness and diversity of transvestite and transgender people and their backgrounds.
In fact, this book can be used as a support for a coming out to a loved one or a friend who does not know the subject.'
2012,
Colletif Txy,
French,
