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: "Female Force: RuPaul" by Michael Troy.
"Don't be a drag, just be a queen. We break new ground again with big heels in it's latest offering in the popular Female Force Series focusing on RuPaul. RuPaul is easily the most famous drag queen and self-described "Supermodel of the World."
This whimsical look at the life and times of the host of the popular Logo series "RuPaul's Drag Race" is as unique as the woMan himself. It is a must have for any collector's closet-- or shelf rather."
According to Wikipedia, RuPaul Andre Charles (born in 1960) is an American drag queen, television personality, actor, musician, and model, known for producing, hosting, and judging the reality competition series RuPaul's Drag Race. RuPaul has received several awards, including Primetime Emmy Award, GLAAD Media Award, a Critics' Choice Television Award, Billboard Music Award, and a Tony Award, and has been dubbed the "Queen of Drag".
2017,
Drag queen,
English,
Michael Troy,
RuPaul,
Original title: "Gala" by Joan Trinidad.
A graphic novel that tells the day-to-day of Gala, a girl who is first a person and then many other things. The story is dedicated to Leelah Alcorn, the young transsexual who took her own life because of the difficulties posed by this situation and whose case became known when her farewell letter was public on social networks.
2017,
Joan Trinidad,
Leelah Alcorn,
Spanish,
Original title: "Quand j'étais petit garçon" (When I was a little boy) by Galia.
Queen of Parisian nights (Carrousel, Palace, Alcazar, Queen), Galia tells for the first time her childhood... of a little boy like no other. This is the drama of Domino, a little boy with fine features born in Marseille in the fifties, and whose immoderate penchant for his mother's falbalas has a bad effect in the heart of Le Panier, a district where half-tones do not exist, where men must be taciturn and virile, and women more than sensual.
But he chose his clan. He does not like violent games, the warrior spirit of his comrades, preferring the company, the outfits, and the delicacy of the girls. The feminine universe fascinates him; He is convinced that it is his. But how to live it, admit it, say it? Can the ugly duckling become another creature? One of those black swans that his schoolmistress reveals to him one day?
2017,
Alcazar,
Carrousel,
Coccinelle,
French,
Galia Salimo,
Original title: "Sconvolti. Viaggio nelle realtà transgender" (Upset. Journey into transgender realities) by Chiara Dalle Luche and Roberta Rosin.
This book presents stories where Gender Dysphoria appears during the transition paths of Andrea and Sara. Two lives, two transsexuals who decided to go all the way. The work becomes a tool to reflect on some issues that find little debate, discussion, and understanding.
Desiring the possible, putting together the pieces of the whole between fragmentation and reconstruction, filling the void, dwelling on the theory of opposites, swaying between known and unknown, upsetting and settling, and dreaming of the other side of oneself, it is possible. Going beyond the gray area through useful information on gender variance and transgenderism are also present for a path of knowledge in the light of the model of Functional Psychology and the ONIG protocol (National Observatory on Gender Identity).
2017,
Chiara Dalle Luche,
Italian,
Roberta Rosin,
Full title: "Transcendents: Spirit Mediums in Burma and Thailand" by Mariette Pathy Allen, with Zackary Drucker (Foreword), and Eli Coleman (Contributor).
"In collaboration with Dr. Eli Coleman, professor and director of the Program in Human Sexuality at the University of Minnesota, Transcendents studies the phenomenon of gender variance among the spirit cults of Burma and Thailand. This book combines a raw, personal, photographic standpoint with an anthropological and sexological perspective on the genderfluid spirit mediums in Thailand and Burma."
According to Mariette's website, Mariette Pathy Allen has been photographing the transgender community for over 40 years. Through her artistic practice, she has been a pioneering force in gender consciousness, contributing to numerous cultural and academic publications about gender variance and lecturing throughout the globe.
2017,
Burma,
Eli Coleman,
English,
Mariette Pathy Allen,
Thailand,
Zackary Drucker,
Original title: "Człowiek w przystępnej cenie. Reportaże z Tajlandii" (Man at an affordable price. Reports from Thailand) by Urszula Jabłońska
A collection of reports from Thailand, stories about the situation of society, especially women, and references to young transsexual girls.
"This story takes place in red neighborhoods lighthouse (where the author tries to understand why prostitution in Thailand is illegal), slums (where she discovers that nearly two-thirds of adult Thais work illegally), fishing ports, and shelters for refugees.
The book presents a story about what it actually means to "buy a man". What makes him want to do it? Where is the border between help and trade? Who can afford freedom? And why exactly in Thailand, where slavery was abolished at the beginning of the twentieth century, and whose name means "country of free people"?"
We can follow the story of Nong Toom, a transgender Muay Thai fighter (Thai boxing), who no longer fights. And there are other ladyboys who tape their genitals to look more feminine...
2017,
Nong Toom,
Polish,
Thailand,
Urszula Jabłońska,
Original title: "Claes och Sara: Det är bara jag - jag är transvestit" (Claes and Sara: It's just me - I'm a transvestite) by Katia Wagner.
Sara Lund is a leading figure among transvestites in Scandinavia.
Until a month ago, no one except the closest family knew that she is Claes Schmidt on a daily basis: "I have been terrified of being exposed all my adult life. It's over now. I'm a transvestite and I'm not ashamed. It is incredibly nice to be responsible for that.”
The book is a report that was originally published on September 14, 2003 in Sydsvenskan.
KATIA WAGNER is an investigative journalist and author who specializes in narrative journalism with a social perspective. Among other things, she has been awarded the Golden Spade and the Wendela prize for best social reporting.
2017,
Crossdressing,
Katia Wagner,
Sara Lund,
Swedish,
Original title: "Lei, Armando" (She, Armando) by Nicola Baroni and Dorothy Bhawl.
Late 60s. Carmine district of Brescia, a place of delinquency and ordinary prostitution, until three men with an all-female appearance arrive: they are Lea, Carlotta and Lora, the first transvestites from Brescia to take to the streets to beat. The authorities try in every way to stop them: arrest, fines, warnings, forced confinement; but they settle in "Dollhouse" and make it a brothel.
Slowly the place is filled with other waves of transvestites and transsexuals, not always welcome: the old levers see competition increase and the newcomers must win the right to beat under the house. Armando is one of them. Just nineteen years old she moved to this Eden of lust, where she experienced every excess on her skin, taking very few breaks: a few summer business trips, a brief (and unfair) parenthesis in jail and two years of marriage. Armando knew the most hidden desires of the thousands of men who climbed the rough stairs at number 5 of Vicolo Rossovera and for ten years she photographed life within those walls, the customers who frequented them, work colleagues, and friends of a lifetime. Now that few people remember the moans of pleasure that came from the house, it is time to recall them.
2017,
Dorothy Bhawl,
Italian,
Nicola Baroni,
Original title: "Janna: ett liv i två världar" (Janna: A life in two worlds) by Eva Lie.
The book is the story of a gender transition. In vivid images, photographer Eva Lie depicts her friend's arduous path from being Jan to becoming Janna. Identity, the struggle to be yourself and the longing for love are topics highlighted in the book.
The first photos in the book were taken in the mid-1990s when Eva and Jan lived next door in Stockholm. A strong friendship grew that made it possible for Eva Lie to follow her friend several years later in the long and complicated process of correcting her gender.
Uncensored and naked, we get to take part in a story that is ultimately about the struggle to be yourself. The pictures in the book were taken between 1998 and 2017. The book also contains texts by Eva Lie, which are mostly based on conversations with Janna and her own diary entries.
Full title: "Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity" by C. Riley Snorton.
"The story of Christine Jorgensen, America’s first prominent transsexual, famously narrated trans embodiment in the postwar era. Her celebrity, however, has obscured other mid-century trans narratives - ones lived by African Americans such as Lucy Hicks Anderson and James McHarris.
Their erasure from trans history masks the profound ways race has figured prominently in the construction and representation of transgender subjects. In Black on Both Sides, C. Riley Snorton identifies multiple intersections between blackness and transness from the mid-nineteenth century to present-day anti-black and anti-trans legislation and violence."
2017,
C. Riley Snorton,
English,
Lucy Hicks Anderson,
USA,
Original title: "My zdes'. Sbornik trans*istoriy" Мы здесь. Сборник транс*историй (We're here. Collection of trans* stories) by LGBT initiative group "Coming Out".
The collection includes texts of Russian-speaking transgender people and their relatives about various aspects related to gender, transgenderism, transgender transition – and not only. In addition, inside you can find pictures, comics, and poems written by trans* people.
One of the most important tasks of the collection is to present - both to the trans* community itself and to the wider world - a diverse experience of trans* people with all the differences in their perception of the world, personal stories and vision of the phenomenon of transgenderism itself. Some of the texts are essays written by trans* activists, and some of them are stories about personal experiences, excerpts from diaries, memories of childhood, and thoughts about creativity, sexuality, rejection, acceptance, loneliness, and about community.
2017,
LGBT initiative group "Coming Out",
Russian,
Full title: "TRANS/gressive: How Transgender Activists Took on Gay Rights, Feminism, the Media & Congress… and Won!" by Riki Anne Wilchins.
"In the early 1990s, no one talked about transgender people, and no one knew one. We were not on TV or in movies. What formed the visible part of the transcommunity – overwhelmingly white, urban, and middle class – was also overwhelmingly focused on conferences, surgery or hormones and cisgender acceptance. This was still a determinedly non-political population, often in defensive crouch because it was also constantly under attack by the media, police, local legislatures, feminists and even LGB-but-never-T advocates. We were a group that still thought of ourselves as a collection of separate individuals, not a movement."
2017,
English,
Riki Anne Wilchins,
USA,
Original title: "Vera y Victoria" (Vera and Victoria) by Mar Sáez.
Vera confessed to Victoria that she was transsexual the day they kissed for the first time. It was in a park. It did not change anything. For the four years that they were together, they loved each other as they had never loved anyone before.
The book is a visual diary shot between 2012 and 2016 in which the author Mar Sáez portrayed the intimate universe of Vera and Victoria. A universe in which new facets of a relationship as intense as theirs come to the surface. No better or worse than anyone else.
Full title: "The Look of a Woman: Facial Feminization Surgery and the Aims of Trans Medicine" by Eric Plemons.
"Developed in the United States in the 1980s, facial feminization surgery (FFS) is a set of bone and soft tissue reconstructive surgical procedures intended to feminize the faces of trans-women. While facial surgery was once considered auxiliary to genital surgery, many people now find that these procedures confer distinct benefits according to the different models of sex and gender in which they intervene. Surgeons advertise that FFS not only improves a trans-woman's appearance; it allows her to be recognized as a woman by those who see her."
2017,
English,
Eric Plemons,
USA,
Original title: "Un papillon dans la tête" (A butterfly in the head) by Armonia Zyra (Armonia Lemaître).
"Armonia Zyra with this collection of poetry, makes us discover "from the inside" the long journey that led her to fulfillment: to become the woman that her body and her deep personality have always been convinced to be. She gives us with strength and sincerity her moods, her difficulties, her renunciations, her disappointments, but also her revolts, her victories. What shines through in these inspired and profound texts is her mistreated, but still intact will, her capacity for analysis, her love, and her generosity.
"Femininity cannot be defined, it is lived," says the author in maxim 17. Isn't it simply a reflection of the struggle that women have had to fight over the centuries to exist as such? To want to become this woman that a genetic error made born as a boy, the author gives us a beautiful lesson in courage."
2017,
Armonia Lemaître,
Armonia Zyra,
French,
Original title: "Gender (R)Evolution" by Monica Romano.
From the Stonewall revolt to the killing of the trans activist Hande Kader, passing through the battles of the Italian LGBT movement, Monica Romano tells firsthand the story of that long journey of affirmation of individual freedoms that saw the movement and the transgender community as protagonists, both Italian and international.
Her experience as an activist and militant is intertwined with that of some of the best-known and leading exponents of the movement. A memoir that invites us to reflect and to face mistrust and clichés, but also an informative text in which the story of the author and her companions is contextualized and enriched by in-depth information sheets, useful for clarifying meanings and concepts, against any mystification and prejudice.
2017,
Italian,
Monica Romano,
Full title: "When Dad Became Joan: Life with My Transgender Father" by Cath Lloyd.
"In 1987, Cath Lloyd's father made the shocking confession that he was a transsexual and wished to become a woman.
Although she wanted to be supportive, Cath didn't want to lose her dad, and it was hard to accept his decision.
In those days, asking for help wasn't the norm, and gender issues like this were swept under the carpet. Throughout the years of emotional, conflicting and tormenting thought processes, Cath wondered if life was ever going to feel normal again.
2017,
Cath Lloyd,
English,
"Mörkrummet" (The Dark Room) is the Swedish language edition of Susan Faludi and Patricia Piolon's bestseller "In the Darkroom".
Let me quote the 2016 article from The New York Times: ""In the Darkroom" is Faludi's rich, arresting and ultimately generous investigation of her father, who died in 2015. It is partly an inquiry into the meaning of gender, a subject Faludi, the famous feminist, sees very differently from Stefánie, who hewed to traditional notions of masculinity and femininity both as an overbearing patriarch and as a coquettish old woman."
"But in trying to understand her inscrutable father — Jewish Holocaust survivor and Leni Riefenstahl fanatic, man and woman, a sly fantasist whose tallest tales turn out to be true — Faludi transcends feminist debate. The book, which traces the decimation of her father's prosperous, assimilated Jewish clan during World War II, his improbable survival and then reinvention in Denmark, Brazil, and America, and his gender metamorphosis at 76, becomes a complex act of forgiveness."
2017,
Stefánie Faludi,
Susan Faludi,
Swedish,
Original title: "Ennen kuin mieheni katoaa" (Before my husband disappears) by Selja Ahava.
I found this fantastic review: "You may be a woman, but does it need to be seen?"
This is how the Finnish writer Selja Ahava has written in her autofiction novel, where she has written down her thoughts and feelings during the period when her husband suddenly exclaims one day after 10 years of marriage that he has always wanted to be a woman.
Selja Ahava has written her thoughts exactly as they have appeared in her head, and we follow the process from when her husband says it at the kitchen table, until they have to sign the divorce papers, and she has to get used to calling her husband, who has had breast surgery, wears makeup and handbags, changed her social security number and now goes by the name Lili.
2017,
Finnish,
Selja Ahava,
Full title: "Man-Made Woman: The Dialectics of Cross-Dressing" by Ciara Cremin.
"On July 27th, 2015, Colin Cremin overcame a lifetime of fear and repression and came to work dressed as a woman called Ciara. Wearing full makeup, a blouse, a black skirt, and pantyhose, Cremin walked down the steps of a lecture theater in front of a hundred seated students and, without comment, gave her lecture as usual. In Man-Made Woman, Cremin charts her personal journey as a male-to-female cross-dresser in the ever-changing world of gender politics."
"Interweaving personal narrative with political discourse, Man-Made Woman is a vivid exploration of gender, identity, fetishism, aesthetics, and popular culture through the lenses of feminism, Marxism, and psychoanalytic theory. Cremin’s anti-moralistic approach dismantles the abjection associated with male-to-female cross dressing, examines the causes of repression, and considers what it means to publicly materialize desire on one’s body."
2017,
Ciara Cremin,
English,
