Transgender Biographies

Forest Jay Handford - A Trans Feminist's Past

Full title: "A Trans Feminist's Past" by Forest Jay Handford.

"Forest Handford was brought up male, but never felt comfortable with that gender. As early as preschool, it was clear that she had interests and habits that were considered feminine. While Forest has supportive parents, they didn’t have the knowledge to alert them that she was transgender, a word that wasn’t even widely known until long after Forest was an adult.

What little information Forest found about being trans was misleading and harmful. It took cosplaying her favorite Dr. Who character, Clara Oswald, in 2018 for her to find acceptance in feminine clothes. Forest soon discovered that she met the definition of transgender. For a short time, Forest considered herself genderfluid because she didn’t believe transition was possible due to misinformation she had been taught to believe. A non-binary friend of Forest’s mentioned that their therapist had recommended that they try hormone replacement therapy (HRT)."

Original title: "Hispanic Star en español: Sylvia Rivera" (Hispanic Star in Spanish: Sylvia Rivera) by Claudia Romo Edelman and J. Gia Loving.

"Read about Sylvia Rivera, who is among the most groundbreaking, iconic Hispanic and Latinx heroes who have shaped our culture and the world in Hispanic Star: Sylvia Rivera, co-written with J. Gia Loving, from Claudia Romo Edelman's gripping Hispanic Star biography series for young readers.

Meet Stonewall uprising veteran Sylvia Rivera―once just a kid from New York City. A transgender Latina, Sylvia became an influential gay liberation and transgender rights activist who fought especially for transgender people of color. In the 1970s, Sylvia and Marsha P. Johnson founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a group devoted to providing services and advocacy for homeless LGBTQ+ people. Nearly two decades after her passing, Sylvia and her legacy continue to have an impact on the LGBTQ+ rights movement and remain an inspiration for marginalized queer people everywhere."

Full title: "KIM PETRAS: Unholy Hip Hop's Baddest Bitch: A Biography About Petras's Fame and Embarrassing Struggles of Being a Trans (Legends Unveiled: life, times and Untold Stories of Iconic Lives)" by Scott Disick.

"In a society where change is often resisted and cultural norms are challenged, This is the extraordinary story of Kim Petras, an artist whose route to stardom has been marked by exciting achievements and very personal challenges. In this enthralling biography, we dig into Kim Petras' incredible life, charting her rise from young talent to an inspirational figure who has surmounted the most personal of challenges.

"Unholy Hip Hop's Baddest Bitch" takes you on an intimate journey into Kim's life, showing her emotional and daring journey as a transgender musician in the music industry. We shine a light on the victories, challenges, lessons learned, and moments of self-discovery that have shaped her path to fame. This book exposes Kim's most raw and emotional moments, diving into the struggles she endured on her path to self-acceptance and honesty. She emerged as a light of hope for many others throughout the world, navigating the difficulties of gender identification and battling cultural preconceptions."

Full title: "Transgeezer: My 80 Years on A Gender Tightrope" by Albert Marshall.

"Gender dysphoric since childhood, I spent most of my life trying to understand and reconcile what seemed to be two identities waging a battle for dominance. Who was I, really? The male everyone knew or the female persona demanding recognition on a daily basis?

In the early years, professional help was not available. Resources were non-existent, and I had no one to confide in. So I was left to sort things out alone. And therein lies the story..."

Original title: "Wiebke sein I: Teil VII des Tagebuchs einer trans Frau, der erste “angekommene” Teil (Aug. - Dez. 2022) (Being Wiebke I: Part VII of the diary of a trans woman, the first “I finally am myself”- part (Aug. . Dec. 2022) (Becoming Wiebke)) by Wiebke ter Lichten.

"This is the seventh part of my ever growing diary and as always I highly recommend reading the earlier parts first. This is the first part with a different title because I feel like I'm not becoming Wiebke anymore. I'm mostly Wiebke now anyway. This part ends with my official diagnosis. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, because I've learned not to accept absolute truths anymore. The volume covers the period between August and December 2022."

Full title: "Night and Day" by Katie Louise Miller.

"Many of us do not know what we want out of life until the onset of adulthood when we strive for careers, material wealth, and the trappings of everyday life. Yet at the tender age of six, Katie Miller knew precisely the path she wanted to take, even if it meant challenging societal norms. Unfortunately, she had no idea that life's idiosyncrasies and unexpected challenges would throw everything into turmoil from that point forward. In a candid retelling of her journey through gender dysphoria and a decision that changed her life forever,

Katie discloses the trials and tribulations, the extreme highs and lows, the hurdles she encountered, the moments she marveled at, the choices she made or did not make, and the subsequent consequences as she walked down an often obstacle-lined path to realise her true identity. She opens her heart and shares her experiences and insights as a transgender woman in order to help anyone struggling to better understand their own emotions or experiences and ultimately become the person they want and need to be. Night and Day is the story of a transgender woman's journey of transition as she sought to live a life without regret and accept her true self."

Full title: "I Am Deanna" by Deanna Homar.

"Deanna Homar is a transgender woman who struggles with the reality of coming out. And also struggles with her mental illness known as schizophrenia. In the book she talks about her family life being denied who she is, and it also talks about her experiences with her gender identity and sexual orientation.

"I Am Deanna" also talks about how she came out to her family and friends, and also how she used her writing skills as a coping skill. Finally, she also talks about how her friends and family support her from day one, and how she triumphs over her personal tragedies such as losing both her grandmothers and the love and support she has received."

Original title: "Wie aus Daniel, Stefanie wurde" (How Daniel became Stefanie) by Stefanie Claudia Schmitz.

In this book, the author Stefanie Claudia Schmitz tells of her ordeal and the difficult and often rocky path she had to take as a trans woman in order to be able to live her real life.

In addition to her life story, the author also explains common terms and names some social network groups and contact points that those affected, relatives or interested parties can turn to.

Full title: "Kathoey Ladyboy: Thailand's Got Talent" by Heinz Duthel.

"Kathoeys are more visible and more accepted in Thai culture than transgender or transsexual people are in Western countries or the Indian subcontinent. Several popular Thai models, singers and movie stars are kathoeys, and Thai newspapers often print photos of the winners of female and kathoey beauty contests side by side. The phenomenon is not restricted to urban areas; there are kathoeys in most villages, and kathoey beauty contests are commonly held as part of local fairs.

Although the term ladyboy is rather ambiguous, simply put, it is a male who dresses as and carries out the identity of a woman. Though the term is often translated as transgender, transgender is rarely used in Thailand, instead they use the term Kathoey. This term can now also be used to refer to any male homosexual and was originally used to refer to intersex people. Due to this term becoming so broad many choose to use the English word to explain a homosexual male dressing as a woman as a "ladyboy," this eliminates much of the confusion.

"How to be trans and be murdered in the attempt" is the English language edition of "Cómo ser trans y morir asesinada en el intento" by Frida Cartas.

For Frida Cartas, transsexuality, or being a trans woman, does not mean a "transition", or a "change" from A to B, a "person who stopped being X to become Y"... Nor any of these stories that are generally society (through discourses of inclusion) who adjudicate them via sociocultural patterns and standards, and that are repeated even by the same people, trans women and men.

For Frida Cartas, being a trans woman is an expropriation of her own body, previously stolen precisely by these patterns and standards. For Frida Cartas to be a trans woman is to have done justice to herself, within a world in which it seems that no woman has justice. If, as Marx pointed out, we must take the means of production, Frida took the first and most hers: her body and all the sexuality that inhabits it, then she not only began to build and produce, but also to do politics. A work that has earned her the derision and the simplistic and light criticism of those who do not support collectivity and self-management.

Original title: "Julie auf dem Besenstiel: Gottes Schöfungsunordnung" (Julie on the broomstick: God's disorder of creation) by Julie-Ann Sue Munday.

"Suicide? How can someone who believes in God have suicidal thoughts? How can a child want to jump headlong from a tree? How can someone like that still make it into Lufthansa's management? Gender dysphoria! What is that? If the anatomy does not fit the soul!

Julie Munday, loved by her parents, basically had a carefree childhood. However, due to a birth defect and growing up in a sect, she was forced to live a life and a way of thinking that others dictated to her and that gradually broke her. Despite everything, she was successful, traveled all over the world and was exceptionally athletic.

Full title: "Confessions of a Crossdressing Exhibitionist a Few Years On" by Selina Stone.

"This is the second installment of my experiences as a crossdressing exhibitionist. I wanted to put more of my actual personality in this book that I did in the last one. Here, I dive deeper into how pervasive dressing up and doing shows has been in my life. How I love it, yet hate loving it. How just getting dressed changes my whole character. How an otherwise totally straight -now married- guy literally transforms, adopting a character that is entirely female - but keeps that entire life online and semi-secret. It wouldn't be such a terrible thing had it not been for the desires to perform shows on cam sites and in chat rooms.

On the less psychological but on more of a confession side, I talk about some of the memorable shows I've done, the people I've talked to, the women I get in my room and detail how I feel, my desires and thoughts throughout my shows. Crossdressers will be able to relate to many of my feelings. Exhibitionists will be able to relate even more. Others might hopefully find the mental aspects interesting and parts quite sexy. I have included photographs, nothing explicit though."

Full title: "Becoming Us: The inspiring memoir of transgender joy, love and family AS SEEN ON LORRAINE" Jake Graf and Hannah Graf

"This is the inspiring and moving memoir of a couple in search of a normal family life. And in many ways that have found that: married, in careers they love and parents to two beautiful children. But their journey there has been an extraordinary one.

Becoming Us is the inspiring and at times heart-breaking memoir of Jake and Hannah Graf, the UK's most visible transgender couple and family. We follow their extraordinary paths towards the 'normality' they have always longed for, as they navigate the many challenges and pitfalls along the way."

Original title: "Ich bin meine eigene Frau. Ein Leben" (I am my own woman. One life) by Charlotte von Mahlsdorf .

"A soft-spoken transvestite wanting nothing more than to live as a hausfrau, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf instead was caught up in the most harrowing dramas of 20th-century Europe, surviving both the Nazis and the Communists.

Originally published as I Am My Own Woman, this exquisitely written autobiography reveals her lifelong pursuit of sexual liberty. The story is reaching an entirely new readership of enthusiastic theater fans with I Am My Own Wife, the new Broadway show by Doug Wright about the life of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in drama."

Full title: "A Life Never Lived: New Beginnings" by Robbin Lynn Servis.

"The start of a new life at 50 years old. Coming out as transgender and being quadriplegic amidst all of life's tragedies. In this book Robbin Servis tries to capture a piece of her life as her true self and the road that lead her here."

“A Life Never Lived: New Beginnings” is a book written by Robert Servis/Robbin Servis. It was published on June 23, 2022, by Independently published1. The book is about the start of a new life at 50 years old. Coming out as transgender and being quadriplegic amidst all of life’s tragedies. In this book, Robbin Servis tries to capture a piece of her life as her true self and the road that led her here

Full title: "Love and Money, Sex and Death: A Memoir" by McKenzie Wark.

"A transgender woman reflects on her late transition and coming out, trans politics and culture, motherhood and memory, in this provocative epistolary memoir for readers of Olivia Laing’s Everybody.

A breathtaking memoir of transition, history, art, and memory. After a successful career, a twenty-year marriage, and two kids, McKenzie Wark has an acute midlife crisis: coming out as a trans woman. Changing both social role and bodily form recasts her relation to the world. Transition changes what, and how, she remembers. She makes fresh sense of her past and of history by writing to key figures in her life about the big themes that haunt us all - love and money, sex and death. In letters to her childhood self, her mother, sister, and past lovers, she writes a backstory that enables her to live in the present.

Original title: "Un jour peut-être: Journal d´un champion olympique devenu femme" (One day maybe: Diary of an Olympic champion turned woman) by Sandra Forgues.

In 1996, Wilfrid Forgues was crowned Olympic Canoe Champion in Atlanta, together with his teammate Franck Adisson. 22 years later, Wilfrid has become Sandra, and it is under this new identity that she appears to the general public, especially in the media that are interested in the first French athlete Olympic champion to reveal her desire to change gender.

It took her a long time to admit that she wanted to become a woman, to accept it... and do it. A lot of time, a lot of questions, which remained unanswered for a long time. It is the story of this questioning, the diary over several months, this awareness and decision that led her to implement this change of identity, that constitutes this book, from the "favorable" opinion of a psychiatrist, to the communication with the media that announces the final decision.

Full title: "Transgender Voices: Beyond Women and Men" by Lori B. Girshick.

"In this extraordinary book, based on 150 in-depth interviews, Lori B. Girshick, a sociologist and social justice activist, brings together the voices of sex- and gender-diverse people who speak with absolute candor about their lives. Girshick presents transpeople speaking in their own voices about identity, coming out, passing, sexual orientation, relationship negotiations and the dynamics of attraction, homophobia (including internalized fears), and bullying.

She exposes the guilt and the shame that “gender police” use in their attempts to exert control and points out the many ways transpeople are discriminated against in daily life, from filling out identification documents to gender-segregated bathrooms. By showing us a variety of descriptions of diverse real lives and providing a thorough exploration of the embodied experiences of gender variant people, Girshick demonstrates that there is nothing inherently binary about gender, and that the way each of us experiences our own gender is, in fact, normal and natural."

Full title: "Man Enough to Be a Woman" by Jayne County, published in 1995 and republished in 2021.

"Born in rural Georgia in 1947, Jayne moved to New York and became part of the 60s art scene surrounding Andy Warhol's Factory. Jayne's story follows the arc of LGBT liberation in the US - she came of age living hand-to-mouth, faced off against police at Stonewall and came out as a trans woman while she was touring Europe with her band.

She went everywhere and met everyone and lived to tell the tale. Man Enough to Be a Woman is the funny, fierce memoir of Jayne's extraordinary journey, now including a new epilogue where she reflects on how the world has (almost) caught up with her."

Original title: "Xem mī̀ kathey h̄æ̀ng pī m" เอมมี่ กะเทยแห่งปี (Emmy's Story... Transgender of the Year) by Emmy.

The book tells the story about the life of a transgender woman named "Emmy", a woman with an interesting personality and identity. In terms of story Emmy has a diverse and adventurous life because she had to face many difficulties in life. The story has a mix of love, humanity and struggles with various obstacles related to her transition.

In addition to the interesting story, the book includes beautiful images that made Emmy become a popular character and widely known in Thai society. Furthermore, Emmy... Transgender of the Year was one of the most popular TV series in Thailand in the year 2017 (2017) and received a lot of attention from the general public and various media.

Full title: "Skirting Gender: Life and Lessons of a Crossdresser" by Vera Wylde.

"What is a crossdresser? What is genderfluid? How does one come to the conclusion that they are either of these? These questions and more are laid out as Vera Wylde details her life of gender non-conformity and the lessons she's learned along the way.

Full of personal stories and practical advice, this book is a guide for those questioning for themselves, wishing to understand a loved one, or simply state their own curiosity."

"Vera Wylde was born in Northern California and grew up in Northeast Vermont with her mother. After leaving college she moved to Boston and then later New York where she began to perform in drag and burlesque shows as some of her earliest public displays of gender fluidity.

Even after returning to Vermont, she has never stopped performing for the last 13 years. In 2011 she began uploading videos to YouTube in an effort to offer support and guidance to any other cross dressing or gender fluid people who were not as far along their path as she was.

This would ultimately culminate in the self-publishing of her first book, Skirting Gender, in 2018. She continues to live in Vermont with her family and is pursuing works of fiction as well as video production."

Available via Amazon

Full title: "Forward!: Thoughts of a Trans Woman on the Christian Journey" by Lynn Elizabeth Walker.

"While there are many books containing essays on "ordinary" life from a spiritual or religious perspective, there are only a few with a perspective grounded in the trans identity. Moreover, a number of books for or about trans people have to do with the "exceptional" aspects of life of individual trans folks.

This book offers the perspective of a trans-identified clergy member in gaining greater understanding of ordinary life, seen through the specific lens of her lived experience. Forward! is a series of essays addressing issues that might arise for trans women during their transition journey. In general, the focus is on such aspects of day-to-day living as religion, philosophy, society, church, people, love, alienation, families, aging, and work."

"README.txt" is the Swedish language edition of "README.txt: A Memoir" by Chelsea Manning.

"While working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq for the United States Army in 2010, Chelsea Manning disclosed more than seven hundred thousand classified military and diplomatic records that she had smuggled out of the country on the memory card of her digital camera.

In 2011, she was charged with twenty-two counts related to the unauthorized possession and distribution of classified military records, and in 2013, she was sentenced to thirty-five years in military prison. The day after her conviction, Manning declared her gender identity as a woman and began to transition, seeking hormones through the federal court system. In 2017, President Barack Obama commuted her sentence and she was released from prison."

Full title: "My Life Inside the Chrysalis" by S. Jane Hill.

"My Life Inside the Chrysalis is an autobiography about what molded me from birth to transition to the present. It is a sometimes brutal, often philosophical, story of my life and that which moulded me into the true self I am today… the strong woman that I have become."

"Susan Jane Hill was born as Steven Wayne Hill at Annandale in Sydney, Australia on the 16th of July 1968. She had a talent for writing and art from an early age, but did not follow these pursuits until much later in life. Having spent her life accumulating information through various educational sources and employment, her predominant career was within the banking and finance industry. She married in 1991 and remained so until she was divorced, in 2001. Up until the age of 50 she lived as her born sex, male, but after almost a lifetime of physical and mental abuse she had shed her fear and began living full time as a transgender woman, her true self."

Full title: "Hi There! I'm the New Girl In Town" by Miss Jayee Chapman.

"Forty-Four Years. That's how long it took Jayee to start questioning if she was really who she wanted to be, who she was meant to be. Coming to this realization wasn't easy for Jayee, and neither was her transition from male to female. She was overwhelmed with information, unsure about opening up to anyone, and frightened, though excited, about what the future would hold. But the real trouble began when she started hormone replacement therapy.

She could no longer hide her true self from her loved ones, which led to lost relationships. And even when she came out to those she loved, she still had to hide her true identity from her abusive, judgmental roommate. Despite these challenges, Jayee grew into a strong, independent woman with a wonderful support system, love for herself, and a dream of sharing her story with the friends, family, and bullies of people like her."

Original title: "กะเทยอีสาน" Kathey xīs̄ān (Journal of Transgender Isaan) by Panat Srinuan (เต้ย – ปณต ศรีนวล).

We often hear the myth that Thailand is a paradise for LGBTQ people. Past incidents of sexual violence and testimonials from the community indicate that the above sentence is a huge exaggeration as shown in this book.

The founder and editor of GendersMatter, as well as the author of this book, wrote this book to expose transgender lives in places where economic mobility is low. This book tells about the lives of transgender women in Sisaket province, one of the poorest provinces in Thailand.

Full title: "Tonacity: The Tona Brown Story" by Tona Brown.

In Tonacity: The Tona Brown Story, readers are offered an unfiltered, emotionally resonant, and deeply inspiring look into the life of one of America's most trailblazing artists, Tona Brown. This compelling collection of interviews, compiled over four years by St. Louis-based writer and musician Chris King, presents not only the raw and riveting narrative of Tona's journey as a transgender musician of color but also serves as a vital cultural artifact documenting the resilience, complexity, and brilliance of Black transgender women in America.

Tona Brown, a classically trained violinist and mezzo-soprano, is a history-maker: the first transgender woman to perform at Carnegie Hall and the first African American transgender woman to perform for a U.S. president. Yet Tonacity reveals that behind these milestones lies a woman whose journey has been shaped by profound pain, hard-won triumphs, and a relentless drive to uplift others. Structured around interview transcriptions, the book captures Tona’s voice with exceptional authenticity. The format allows her story to unfold naturally, raw, reflective, and powerfully human. Chris King’s role is more than that of an interviewer; he is a thoughtful curator who knows when to step back and let Tona speak, and when to frame her words with valuable context drawn from academic research, cultural commentary, and lived experiences of the broader transgender community.

Full title: "The Spectrum of Sex" by Hida Viloria and Maria Nieto.

"This transformative guide completely breaks down our current understanding of biological sex and gender diversity. Introducing readers to seven variations of human sex, commonly considered intersex, the book challenges the myth that sex and gender are exclusively binary and explores the inherent diversity of biological sex and its relationship to gender identity and expression, and the impact this has on society."

"Examining historical, linguistic and socio-cultural understandings of sex and gender, as well as genetic and scientific definitions, the book is an important resource for dismantling gender and sexuality-based discrimination and promoting understanding and inclusivity. Co-written by one of the world's leading intersex activists and a highly respected scholar in biological sciences, and accompanied with detailed anatomical illustrations throughout, this pioneering text is the essential introduction to gender and sex diversity for gender studies, women's studies, biology and genetics courses, as well as professionals working with intersex and trans communities."

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Forest Jay Handford - A Trans Feminist's Past

Claudia Edelman & J. Gia Loving - Hispanic Star en español

Scott Disick - KIM PETRAS: Unholy Hip Hop's Baddest Bitch

Albert Marshall - Transgeezer: My 80 Years on A Gender Tightrope

Wiebke ter Lichten - Wiebke sein I: Teil VII

Katie Louise Miller - Night and Day

Deanna Homar - I Am Deanna

Stefanie Claudia Schmitz - Wie aus Daniel, Stefanie wurde

Heinz Duthel - Kathoey Ladyboy: Thailand's Got Talent

Frida Cartas - How to be trans and be murdered in the attempt

Julie-Ann Sue Munday - Julie auf dem Besenstiel

Selina Stone - Confessions of a Crossdressing Exhibitionist...

Jake Graf & Hannah Graf - Becoming Us

Charlotte von Mahlsdorf - Ich bin meine eigene Frau

Robbin Servis - A Life Never Lived: New Beginnings

McKenzie Wark - Love and Money, Sex and Death: A Memoir

Sandra Forgues - Un jour peut-être

Lori B. Girshick - Transgender Voices: Beyond Women and Men

Jayne County - Man Enough to Be a Woman

Emmy - Xem mī̀ kathey h̄æ̀ng pī

Vera Wylde - Skirting Gender: Life and Lessons of a Crossdresser

Lynn Elizabeth Walker - Forward!

Chelsea Manning - README.txt

S. Jane Hill - My Life Inside the Chrysalis

Miss Jayee Chapman - Hi There! I'm the New Girl In Town

Panat Srinuan - Kathey xīs̄ān

Tona Brown - Tonacity: The Tona Brown Story

Hida Viloria & Maria Nieto - The Spectrum of Sex

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