What does it mean to be non-binary in the 21st Century? Our gender identity is impacted by our personal histories; the cultures, communities and countries we are born into; and the places we go and the people we meet. But the representation of contemporary non-binary identities has been limited, until now. Pushing the narrative around…
The history of transgender and gender nonconforming people in the United States is one of struggle, but also of self-determination and community building. Transgender groups have participated in activism and education around many issues, including gender expectations, depathologization, poverty, and discrimination. Like many other marginalized people, our history is not always preserved, and we have…
Small zine trans timeline autobiography
Intersex Oral History Project
This riveting account of the transformation of the Danish painter Einar Wegener into Lili Elbe is a remarkable journey from man to woman. Einar Wegener was a leading artist in late 1920’s Paris. One day his wife Grete asked him to dress as a woman to model for a portrait. It was a shattering event…
Grace Lavery is a reformed druggie, an unreformed omnisexual chaos Muppet, and 100 percent, all-natural, synthetic female hormone monster. As soon as she solves her “penis problem,” she begins receiving anonymous letters, seemingly sent by a cult of sinister clowns, and sets out on a magical mystery tour to find the source of these surreal…
Janet Mock—writer, activist, television host, director—has become a leading voice for transgender women of color in the twenty-first century. In 2014, Mock published Redefining Realness with Atria Books. Shortly thereafter, Mock became a New York Times best-selling writer and garnered the critical praise of folks such as bell hooks, Melissa Harris-Perry, Oprah Winfrey, and more.…
The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions is a beloved queer utopian text written by Larry Mitchell with lush illustrations by Ned Asta, published by Calamus Press in 1977. Part-fable, part-manifesto, the book takes place in Ramrod, an empire in decline, and introduces us to the communities of the faggots, the women, the queens, the…
In autumn 2012, the writer and philosopher Maxim Februari, known until then as Marjolijn Februari, announced his intention to live as a man. In The Making of a Man he describes how the news was greeted and how people began to react: with unease, interest and sometimes a slightly too comradely tone. Whatever the response,…
Through an empirical analysis of YouTube videos, blogs, and interviews, this article explores how partners experience intimacy and desire in relation to trans men’s body modifications. Building on Salamon’s conception of trans bodies as emerging within relations of desire, I argue that partners’ experiences of trans men’s bodies are crucially shaped by their intimate bonds…