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: "Gender Rebels: 30 Trans, Nonbinary, and Gender Expansive Heroes Past and Present" by Katherine Locke and Shanee Benjamin (Illustrator).
"This fully illustrated book celebrates the history of thirty trans, gender expansive, and nonbinary heroes throughout the world.
Explore the history of trans and nonbinary people throughout the world in this gorgeously illustrated nonfiction book for young teens.
Readers will be educated and enlightened about gender-expansive people who have made a difference in our history and who continue to help raise awareness of diversity and inclusion in current society. Introductory materials give readers an insight into pronoun usage, the history of the word "transgender," and more before providing engaging and fascinating information about thirty trans, gender expansive, and nonbinary people who have helped shape our world.
2023,
Coccinelle,
English,
Georgina Beyer,
Jazz Jennings,
Katherine Locke,
Lana Wachowski,
lavern,
Lili Elbe,
Lilly Wachowski,
Lucy Hicks Anderson,
Marsha P. Johnson,
Rachel Levine,
Renée Richards,
Sylvia Rivera,
Full title: "Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism" by Pat Califia.
"Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism is Califia's meticulously researched book based on an astute reading of the available literature and in-depth interviews with gender transgressors who "opened their lives, minds, hearts, and bedrooms to the gaze of strangers."
Writing about both male-to-female and female-to-male transsexuals, Califia examines the lives of early transgender pioneers like Christine Jorgensen, Jan Morris, Renee Richards, and Mark Rees, contemporary transgender activists like Leslie Feinberg and Kate Bornstein, and partners of transgendered people like Minnie Bruce Pratt. Califia scrutinizes feminist resistance to transsexuals occupying women's space, the Christian Right's backlash against transsexuals, and the appropriation of the berdache and other differently-gendered by gay historians to prove the universal existence of homosexuality. Finally, Sex Changes explores the future of gender."
1997,
Christine Jorgensen,
English,
Jan Morris,
Kate Bornstein,
Pat Califia,
Renée Richards,
Full title: "Diary 1999: An Eye-Opening Medical Memoir" by Renée Richards.
"Legendary tennis and transgender pioneer, Renée Richards gives an intimate peek into her renowned pediatric ophthalmology practice and chronicles an unforgettable and watershed year from her six-decade medical career.
In 1999 Dr. Renée Richards kept a detailed diary of her personal and professional life. An internationally renowned eye surgeon and instructor, her specialty was childhood strabismus, a condition where the eyes do not properly align.
It proved to be an eventful year."
Renée Richards (born in 1934) is an American ophthalmologist and tennis player, known for competing as a professional tennis player in the 1970s and being the first transgender woman to have challenged the sports rules discriminating against transgender women, when fighting to compete as a woman in the 1976 US Open.
2021,
English,
Renée Richards,
Original title: "Second Serve: The Renée Richards Story" by Renée Richards.
The best review of the book is available on the Transascity website. Let me quote it: "Overall Second Serve is an interesting historical read, and I think the reader learns a great amount about a critical transition point for transgender people in history – the turbulent late 1960’s through 1970’s. Unfortunately, the book also casts Richards as an early heroic transgender warrior – a title she is deserving of, although it’s tainted by her recent comments on transgender athletes."
The book served as the basis for the film Second Serve, a 1986 American made-for-television biographical film starring Vanessa Redgrave.
1983,
English,
Renée Richards,
Full title: "Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs".
"In Sexual Metamorphosis, Ames presents the personal narratives of seventeen gender pioneers. Here is Christine Jorgensen, the first celebrity transsexual, greeting thousands of well-wishers from the stage of Madison Square Garden. Here is Caroline Cossey, former model and Bond (as in James) girl, being outed in the tabloid press.
Here is novelist and English professor Jennifer Finney Boylan discussing her impending transformation with her heartbroken spouse and supportive yet confused colleagues. The result is a fascinating and compulsively readable book, filled with anguish, introspection and courage."
2005,
Caroline Cossey,
Christine Jorgensen,
English,
Jennifer Finney Boylan,
Jonathan Ames,
Renée Richards,
Full title: "No Way Renée: The Second Half of My Notorious Life" by Renée Richards.
"In 1975, at the age of forty, Richard Raskind, a renowned eye surgeon and highly ranked amateur tennis player, "died," and Renee Richards was "born," in what was to become the most public and highly scrutinized sex reassignment to date. It was not until Renee Richards was discovered playing in an amateur tennis tournament that the world took notice. Extensive media coverage and criticism thrust Renee reluctantly into the spotlight, sparking an intense public debate over her private life.
Now, at seventy-two, Richards looks back and speaks frankly about all aspects of her complicated and often notorious life in this eye-opening, thought-provoking memoir. Richards' honest and compelling narrative explores the dichotomy between the successful life she lived as Dr. Richard Raskind, who seemed to have everything (devoted friends, a beautiful wife and son, a stellar record of academic and professional achievement, and outstanding athletic ability), and a secret life of struggle with a drive that could not be suppressed, even by years of psychotherapy and the force of a considerable will."
2006,
English,
John Edward Ames,
Renée Richards,
Full title: "Spy Night and Other Memories: A Collection of Stories from Dick and Renée"
"In the latter part of the 20th century, I was perhaps the most notorious person in the world who had become a woman after growing up a boy and then a man. My fame came after I sued the tennis organizations, successfully, to be allowed to compete as a woman professional in the U.S. Open Tennis championships in 1977. I became in an instant a pioneer for sexually disenfranchised people.
After playing on the professional tour for five years, I coached all-time champion Martina Navratilova to several major championships and then returned to my main occupation of eye surgeon and physician. I wrote one textbook on eye muscle surgery, but I am better known for my two autobiographies, Second Serve and No Way Renee. In the present century I am hardly known in the public world at all, save for a few tennis fans who recognize and greet me at the U.S. Open every summer.
2014,
English,
Renée Richards,
