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: "Lives in Transition: LGBTQ Serbia" by Slobodan Randjelovic.
"Part of the ongoing series of photobooks published with the Arcus Foundation and Emerson, Wajdowicz Studios on queer communities around the world, a stunning portrait of a community battling homophobia in Serbia.
In June 2001, Serbia witnessed its first gay pride parade in history in Belgrade’s central square. It was a short-lived march, as an ultranationalist mob quickly descended on the participants, chanting homophobic slurs and injuring dozens. For years afterward, fear of violence prevented further marches, and when, in October 2010, the next pride march finally went ahead, it again devolved into violence as anti-gay rioters, firing shots and hurling petrol bombs, fought the police. It was only in 2014 that a pride march was held uninterrupted, albeit under heavy police protection.
2018,
English,
Serbia,
Slobodan Randjelovic,
Original title: "Dolore minimo" (Minimal pain) by Giovanna Cristina Vivinetto.
The "minimal pain" of the title expresses the complex transsexual condition pronounced with great poetic power, aimed at breaking the wall of silent cultural taboo. The young author tells her luminous rebirth with verses, delicate and very deep at the same time, which made Dacia Maraini and Alessandro Fo talk about a literary phenomenon.
"Minimal pain" is not the manifesto of those who have experienced, growing up, "a rebellious detachment from the flesh, / a fratricidal struggle between spirit / and skin." It is the viaticum of anyone who wants to savor a powerful poem that delicately offers the reader a paradigm to orient himself in the infinite, wonderful confusion of existence.
2018,
Giovanna Cristina Vivinetto,
Italian,
Full title: "Becoming Lisa" by Lisa Kelly.
"An inspiring memoir of overcoming fear and living your life in the open. A sincere and honest account of the transition to, and living your life as, your true self. A book about small town homophobia and bullying of those who do not fit in. Becoming Lisa is the incredible emotional roller coaster journey from Dave, a shy boy, bullied throughout his life to becoming Lisa, a strong-willed determined independent woman campaigning against hate and bigotry to help others along their path to living their life as they wish and without fear."
"As Dave, Lisa struggled through School in the 1970s and 1980s Britain, bullied and beaten up because of her looks. She faced the trauma of rape and suicide, eventually having to move away from her home town to escape the bullying she had endured. She started her new life as Lisa, contemplating suicide herself when she was at her lowest point, but then overcoming the huge obstacles that lay in her path to achieving her new identity."
2018,
English,
Lisa Kelly,
UK,
"Mother Camp: Un estudio de los transformistas femeninos en los Estados Unidos" is the Spanish language edition of "Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America" (1972) by Esther Newton.
"For two years Ester Newton did field research in the world of drag queens - homosexual men who make a living impersonating women. Newton spent time in the noisy bars, the chaotic dressing rooms, and the cheap apartments and hotels that make up the lives of drag queens, interviewing informants whose trust she had earned and compiling a lively, first-hand ethnographic account of the culture of female impersonators.
Mother Camp explores the distinctions that drag queens make among themselves as performers, the various kinds of night clubs and acts they depend on for a living, and the social organization of their work. A major part of the book deals with the symbolic geography of male and female styles, as enacted in the homosexual concept of "drag" (sex role transformation) and "camp," an important humor system cultivated by the drag queens themselves."
2018,
Esther Newton,
Spanish,
Full title: "GuRu" by RuPaul.
"As someone who has deconstructed life's hilarious facade, RuPaul has broken 'the fourth wall' to expand on the concept of mind, body, and spirit. This unique perspective has allowed RuPaul to break the shackles of self-imposed limitations, but reader beware, this is a daily practice that requires diligence and touchstones to keep you walking in the sunshine of the spirit.
Once you're willing to look beyond the identity that was given to you, a hidden world of possibilities will open its doors. That is RuPaul's secret for success, not only in show business, but in all aspects of life, especially in navigating the emotional landmines that inhibit most sweet, sensitive souls. If you think this book is just about 'doing drag', you are sorely mistaken because for RuPaul, drag is merely a device to deactivate the identity-based ego and allow space for the unlimited."
2018,
Drag queen,
English,
RuPaul,
USA,
Full title: "Trans Britain: Our Journey from the Shadows" by Christine Burns.
"Over the last five years, transgender people have seemed to burst into the public eye: Time declared 2014 a 'trans tipping point', while American Vogue named 2015 'the year of trans visibility'.
From our television screens to the ballot box, transgender people have suddenly become part of the zeitgeist. This apparently overnight emergence, though, is just the latest stage in a long and varied history.
The renown of Paris Lees and Hari Nef has its roots in the efforts of those who struggled for equality before them, but were met with indifference - and often outright hostility - from mainstream society. Trans Britain chronicles this journey in the words of those who were there to witness a marginalised community grow into the visible phenomenon we recognise today: activists, film-makers, broadcasters, parents, an actress, a rock musician and a priest, among many others. Here is everything you always wanted to know about the background of the trans community, but never knew how to ask."
2018,
Christine Burns,
English,
UK,
Original title: "Délires" (Delusions) by Amanda Lear.
'An eclectic artist, Amanda Lear readily accepts the term jack-of-all-trades, but when asked to define herself in one word, she answers "star". A virtuoso of repartee and self-mockery, she was in turn the muse of Salvador Dalí, David Bowie's lover, disco diva, and queen of boulevard theatre.
Despite a shy and self-conscious childhood, her enthusiasm and curiosity allowed her to shape the funny, elegant and mysterious character that everyone knows. This is a sparkling anthology that brings together reflections and memories, under the sharp pen of a fine observer.'
Amanda Lear (born 1939) is a French singer, television celebrity, actress, and model, known for her professional career as a fashion model in the mid-1960s and being a muse of Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí.
2018,
Amanda Lear,
April Ashley,
French,
Georges Burou,
Romy Haag,
Original title: "Este cuerpo, ¿es mío?: 9 historias de personas trans" (Is this body mine?: 9 stories of trans people) by Felipe Ramírez Muñoz.
This book was born out of the need to report a reality that emerged as a public discussion. It seeks to make visible what "transition" consists of, something that trans people experience daily in our country.
These stories seek to make known, accompany and be part of the stories of those who struggle to be recognized for their identities so that it is understood that this transition is a personal and independent process, not exempt from feelings of rejection, loneliness, pain, sorrow, and joys. A vital experience that transcends any age, social and cultural condition.
2018,
Chile,
Felipe Ramírez Muñoz,
Spanish,
Original title: "Femme" (Woman)by Inès Rau.
"I fly away, I'm free, I'm beside myself. I feel like my soul is finally liberated as if the padlock that has kept me locked up for so long has been opened. This time, yes, I am a woman. Totally."
According to Wikipedia, Inès Rau, (sometimes written Ines Rau or Ines-Loan Rau), is a French model and actress born in 1990 in Nancy.
She is known for being Playboy magazine's "Playmate of the Month" in November 2017, to have become the first openly trans Playmate.
Her mother is French-Moroccan and her father is Algerian. She grew up in Paris.
Assigned male at birth, she made a transition from the age of 16, first in secret by obtaining hormones on the black market. She reveals her gender dysphoria to her parents a year later and receives support from them. On her 18th birthday, she undergoes gender reassignment surgery, stating that it is not a "transition" but "a true living reincarnation of herself".
Full title: "Merissa Sherrill Lynn: Her History As She Wrote It" by MSL Kerri, Niela Miller (Editor), Dallas Denny (Editor), Judy Osborne (Editor), Kerri (Foreword), Mariette Pathy Allen (Photographer).
"A collection of e-mails from Merissa Sherrill Lynn, the founder of The International Foundation for Gender Education, written in 2008 and 2009 telling her personal history as she explored the cross-dressing, transgender, transsexual movements while developing the largest international communication service to this section of society. Which in its time communicated to the world at large.
This book gives insight into the driving forces and social pressure faced by all gender-questioning individuals. Her struggles from childhood into an adult world are important for any individuals seeking answers about their gender.
2018,
Dallas Denny,
English,
Merissa Sherrill Lynn,
Niela Miller,
Transgender Tapestry,
USA,
Original title: "Nieuwe namen: Levensverhalen van transgender ouderen" (New names: Life stories of transgender elderly people)
'Arthur Japin: 'Once again Eveline van de Putte knows how to tell the stories of an exceptional group of people from the inside out. Penetrating and essential, personal stories about life and survival!' Boris Dittrich: 'Poignant stories, which show how much it is necessary to focus the spotlight on older transgender people. A beautiful book that reverberates for a long time to come.'
Transgender people nowadays are increasingly getting the attention they deserve. However, one group remains underexposed: transgender elderly people, a fascinating group of pioneers who sought answers to their questions in a time without examples. Today's transgender elderly are the first to have the opportunity to undergo gender reassignment surgery: all the more reason to let these seniors speak in books and films.
2018,
Dutch,
Eveline van de Putte,
"Temná komora" is the Czech 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."
2018,
Czech,
Stefánie Faludi,
Susan Faludi,
I liked Gina Maya's review a lot, so let me quote her: "Transgender narrative this may be, but it's far removed from Western, U.S.-based definitions in spite of its primary location in the U.S. The story follows the young life of Ada, a Nigerian child who travels to America to study, but her whole life involves psychical interaction with the indigenous spirits who vie for control of her. Is Ada Ogbanje too?
By the end, she appears to embrace this self-conception as an offspring of the Universal Creator Ala, visualized as cosmic python – the source of the spring from which all freshwater comes from its mouth. Yet Ada for almost the novel's entirety is also the human, engaged in an uneasy relationship with otherworldly spirits who inhabit her mind, visualized in turn as a room of marble, perhaps not unlike the Kaaba of Mecca. The most powerful, possessive, and controlling of the spirits is Asughara, occasionally presented as Ada's pernicious alpha. At times, Asughara blocks out Ada from consciousness, either to protect or punish Ada."
2018,
Akwaeke Emezi,
English,
Nigeria,
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,
Full title: "Lipstick on the Milk Carton: A Sex Change Autobiography"
"Wanting to change your sex (gender dysphoria) is a real thing. If you have it, it is not “curable.” It is never going to go away. To some, it may be just a side issue, a peculiarity to be managed, but to others, like me, it takes over your life- in fact, it gets worse and becomes, very much, a life-threatening condition.
Thirty-some years ago, unknowingly, I started this book from the many journals I kept of my life’s travails- and now I’m glad I did. Parts of my first two memoirs (no longer available) are included here, along with many new chapters, stories, and escapades.
My story might be extraordinary to some readers, but not to a transsexual. You will make judgments about me. That’s human nature. You might say, “Oh my God, what was she thinking?” I do try to tell you, as best I can, what I was thinking, but there were times when even I had no idea.
Yes, I have completed my journey, and, thank you, it was one heck of an adventure (spoiler alert- I had the surgery)."
2018,
Dee Dee Jackson,
English,
Original title: "Sylvia II ... da bin ich wieder: I am what I am" (Sylvia II ... here I am again: I am what I am)
In contrast to my first book (my biography in diary form), there is now a sequel after 9 years. But it is similar to the world of feelings and changes. Here's a short version for the readers who don't know my biography or want to think again.
Sylvia was created in my childhood and I always felt torn between the worlds of man and woman. Again and again, I tested and tried, but it was never half or whole. Only in later years, after the year 2000, was there a new beginning to bring it to an end and finally find my way. Precisely because I could no longer cope with the inner struggle and a solution for myself but also a relationship had to be found.
I had dragged myself around with it long enough. I began to find my way clearer than ever. Iy made me smart about everything and the way transgender or rather transsexual. I just wanted a clear direction. It should be a man or woman decision.
2018,
German,
Sylvia Tiffany Klinger,
Full title: "Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality" by Sarah McBride.
"Before she became the first transgender person to speak at a national political convention in 2016 at the age of 26, Sarah McBride struggled with the decision to come out - not just to her family but to the students of American University, where she was serving as student body president. She’d known she was a girl from her earliest memories, but it wasn’t until the Facebook post announcing her truth went viral that she realized just how much impact her story could have on the country."
When I interviewed Sarah McBride in 2013, she was a young talented woman with a great interest in politics but I never suspected that I would be talking to a future Deleware senator. This is what she told me when asked about the situation of transgender women in the US: "I think America is at a turning point in how we view and treat transgender women. We still face a good deal of caricatures, stereotypes, and mockery from the media to day-to-day life, but we do see more positive examples in the media, less tokenism, and, at long last, real and complex portrayals of transgender women in art and pop culture. During our push for transgender rights in Delaware, we were certainly confronted with a lot of negative and unfounded beliefs that transgender women face. The opponents had no problem with transgender men in the men’s restrooms but treated transgender women in women’s restrooms as potential predators, abusers, and liars. Luckily in Delaware, enough legislators saw through those offensive arguments."
2018,
English,
Sarah McBride,
Full title: "She Said She Said: Love, Loss, & Living My New Normal"
"Imagine discovering the love of your life, the father of your three children, the person you devoted your life to and moved halfway across the world to be with, was living a deeply concealed lie.
Late one night, without warning, Anne's husband of ten years delivers the news: "I have gender dysphoria."
Her world shifts in an instant. How could she not know? How could she be so completely oblivious?
What does this even mean?
Anne begins examining, researching, and recording events in an effort to retain some sanity. These events triggle a powerful and intimate memoir. With clarity, empathy, and candour, She Said She Said provides the rarely heard voice of the partner of someone going through gender transition."
2018,
Anne M Reid,
Australia,
English,
This is my story. I came out at age 30. It was interesting growing up and moving into adulthood while harbouring a secret so big.
So many crazy thoughts and events. Can you imagine all that from little me? I certainly couldn't. I still can't. But that was only the beginning. Oh boy, what is else going to happen?
2018,
Cindy Hann,
English,
"This is a book about a young man who was a United States Navy SEAL, then shook up the world when he decided to change his gender and become a woman, "Kristin Beck". This is her story through the eyes of her sister in waiting, Lisa Estrine."
Kristin Beck, aka Lady Valor, is a retired United States Navy SEAL, recipient of multiple military awards, author, and actress. In 2014, I talked to Kristin about her transition and career in the army and this is what she told me: "The most difficult thing is the unintended consequences of our personal actions. My coming out caused ripples in my family and friends and other circles that I may never know. Our choices affect so many other people and things, we should all do our best and also understand the many effects of our actions."
2018,
English,
Kristin Beck,
LisaAnn Estrine,
