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: "Transsexualism: A study of forty-three cases (Reports from the Psychiatric Research Centre, St. Jörgen's Hospital, University of Göteborg, Sweden)" by Jan Wålinder.
"As a boy he played mostly with girls; people teased him for being a sissy; he was embarrassed about his own body. At 12, he began to feel uncertain about his sex role; he felt as if he were "neutral"; after a time he began to feel as if he belonged to the opposite sex, and this feeling grew stronger shortly before he entered puberty, at which time he also began to be disgusted at the sight of his own body. At 26 he began to have periods of gradually mounting desire to cross-dress, ending in continual crossdressing for a time. He was erotically aroused by men and had a few homosexual contacts; he never showed any interest in girls. He had a weak libido, and said that he had never masturbated. He tried to conquer his anomaly by marrying, but this only made matters worse; he got frequent attacks of depression and at 26 was admitted to a psychiatric department, but after five years of supportive psychotherapy, he was no better. He wanted to have his name changed and to be operated on."
1967,
English,
Jan Wålinder,
Sweden,
Full title: "TransActions" by Erica Zander.
In TransActions, Erica Zander offers readers an unflinching, intelligent, and often surprisingly humorous glimpse into one woman’s lifelong journey toward self-understanding, truth, and personal liberation. A Swedish lesbian-identified male-to-female transsexual, Zander’s candid autobiography is a rare and invaluable record, not written years after the fact, but as she was living it, raw, immediate, and deeply personal. From early childhood inklings to the painful silences of middle life, Erica chronicles thirty years of living as “just” a transvestite, followed by fifteen years of what she calls her “former trans” identity, before finally beginning her medical transition at the age of forty-eight. But this is no linear or simplistic “coming out” tale.
TransActions is about complexity: the entanglement of gender and sexuality, the contradictions of love and family, and the maddening bureaucracy of gender recognition in Sweden. Readers learn about her pragmatic but compassionate doctor, the legal divorce she was forced to obtain despite staying married, and the heartening support she received from her wife and sons, an emotional cornerstone of her story. What makes TransActions especially compelling is Erica’s self-awareness and her refusal to fit neatly into any box. She challenges narrow ideas of womanhood while simultaneously embracing her femininity with pride and joy. Her transition did not alienate her from life, it reinvigorated it. Whether she’s organizing queer seminars, riding a Moto Guzzi across Italy with her wife, or finding herself embraced by lesbians and gay men alike after a national TV documentary, Erica shows that life after transition can be rich, radical, and delightfully unexpected.
2003,
English,
Erica Zander,
Sweden,
