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: "Getting Back to Me: from girl to boy to woman in just fifty years" by Scottie Jeanette Madden. In 2017, Marcy Madden, Scottie's wife, published her own book about her relationship with Scottie - "Just Because My Husband's A Woman...".
"No one could guess that Scottie, a top survival showrunner for Discovery and History Channels, known for leading über-male productions in the world’s most dangerous locations, was losing a lifelong battle for her soul. It takes faith and true love in and from her wife, for Scottie to shake off fifty years of expectations from her family, society and herself. But first, she must face down her own denial to dismantle the walls of a self-imposed prison.
Scottie’s articulate and insightful perspective shines new light on the transgender experience, but it's her deeply personal confession told with unflinching clarity, inspiring courage, and engaging humor, that makes her story a must-read for any human, of any persuasion. Hers is a love story that will inspire and affirm everyone."
In 2017, I interviewed Scottie and this is what she told me about the book: "like all the other mediums in my life - writing a book was always on the plan - and the subject started as my own LOTR and along the way became any subject that took my soul, but that wasn't appropriate for any of the other mediums that are at my fingertips... that list (entitled "books I will write" in the file drawer in my head) became the thing that I will do when I get... "the time" that mythic beast that seems to be more elusive with every passing year...
... until my body and soul revolted.
I had a life strategy - I had developed very elaborate and robust coping mechanisms to keep my gender dysphoria from derailing my life. Some were the constant behavioral monitoring systems that kept my true self under lock and key, others were the monthly "lockdown" that I had to institute to brace for the hijacker - a severe bout that would seize my body (oh yes it was visceral) and mind (like being on meth and LSD simultaneously), for days.
And one day I had a system-wide failure. My entire body literally threw up the truth of what and who I was to my wife of then 20 years. And for five years after that, we pretended that though this was true about me, just knowing the truth would be good enough. Until it wasn't. So I knew the very visceral consequence of continuing to deny reality. And...
I started to come all the way out. And I kept coming..."
2015,
English,
Marcy Madden,
Scottie Jeanette Madden,
"Theirs was the storybook marriage that inspired others. For over twenty years, and after three faced marriages, Marcy had everything she had ever dreamed of in her husband, he was passionate, romantic, spiritual, generous, funny, loving, and… he cooked. She finally had someone who would love her as much as she could love. There was just one problem… a secret that could to shatter this storybook marriage.
One fateful morning, her husband came out to her - Her Scott was transgender. A woman trapped in a man’s body, her man’s body. Marcy felt her love, her world, her place in it, and her ideal marriage were instantly threatened. Marcy would have to scrutinize all that she held dear, examine her own identity and ultimately face her deepest fears."
In her brutally honest account, Marcy leads the reader into a dark night of the soul that would last five years, while she simultaneously battled ovarian cancer, with compassion, intelligence and wit.
2017,
English,
Marcy Madden,
Scottie Jeanette Madden,
