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: "Trans Britain: Our Journey from the Shadows" by Christine Burns.
In recent years, transgender people have seemingly emerged “overnight” into the public consciousness. With Time magazine declaring 2014 a "trans tipping point" and American Vogue dubbing 2015 the "year of trans visibility," one could easily believe that the trans community’s presence in public life is a new phenomenon.
But Trans Britain: Our Journey from the Shadows, edited by Christine Burns, dismantles that illusion with clarity, empathy, and unflinching historical precision. It reminds us that visibility is not the beginning, it is the result of decades, even centuries, of personal courage, political struggle, and community solidarity. Burns, a veteran campaigner and strategist behind the UK's landmark Gender Recognition Act, has curated a vibrant mosaic of essays, testimonies, and reflections by trans and non-binary people, as well as a few closely allied cis individuals. The collection traces a detailed arc from early survival, through community-building and activism, into a new age of (qualified) recognition.
2018,
Christine Burns,
English,
Interview,
UK,
Full title: "Pressing Matters (Vol 1)" by Christine Burns.
In Pressing Matters (Vol 1), Christine Burns MBE offers a rare and riveting look into one of the most significant, and often overlooked, civil rights movements in modern British history. Far more than a memoir, this is a deeply layered chronicle of how transgender people in the United Kingdom came to win vital legal protections and social recognition, told through the eyes of a woman who stood at the heart of the campaign. It is, in every sense, a story of pressing matters: lives put on hold, freedoms fought for, and a nation’s slow but meaningful shift toward justice.
At the center of this extraordinary account is Press for Change (PFC), the pioneering campaign organization founded in 1992. Within just twelve years, PFC would engineer a string of unprecedented legal victories: protection against employment discrimination, access to National Health Service (NHS) treatment for transgender people, and, perhaps most famously, the 2004 Gender Recognition Act. Christine Burns, a former IT consultant and Conservative Party activist, was one of the campaign’s most influential figures, blending strategic intelligence with deep personal commitment. Volume 1 of Pressing Matters covers the genesis of the movement and Burns’ own trajectory from childhood to 1997, a time when the framework of the PFC campaign was taking definitive shape. It is an intimate, often emotional work, intertwining public victories with the private costs of activism.
2013,
Christine Burns,
English,
Interview,
UK,
Full title: "Pressing Matters (Vol 2)" by Christine Burns.
Christine Burns’ Pressing Matters (Vol 2) is a vital chronicle of one of the most transformative periods in British transgender history. As a leading strategist of the grassroots campaign Press for Change (PFC), founded in 1992, Burns offers a deeply personal yet politically rich narrative about how a handful of volunteers reshaped UK law to uphold the civil rights of transgender people.
The campaign began modestly but achieved landmark victories in just over a decade: securing employment protections, gaining access to NHS treatment, and ultimately influencing the creation of the Gender Recognition Act 2004. Pressing Matters (Vol 2) takes readers inside the engine room of this movement, focusing on the years 1998 to 2004, when the campaign escalated its efforts to engage and challenge the UK’s Labour Government.
Unlike traditional biographies or political histories, this volume is written from Burns’ frontline perspective, blending strategic documentation with personal narrative. Through firsthand accounts, correspondence, and contemporaneous notes, she reconstructs pivotal moments of negotiation and lobbying, providing insights into the complexities of political engagement and coalition-building.
2014,
Christine Burns,
English,
