Trans & Nonbinary 201
Class is in Session, Comrades
Almost a year ago, I posted “Trans & Nonbinary 101,” listing recommended readings to understand transgender people and their struggle better. I included what I believed to be foundational texts of trans liberation and transfeminism, foundational texts of intersectional feminism, several examples of intersectional transfeminism, and modern examples of literature by trans writers.
This is a follow-up to that post. As such, these texts are more rigorous, specific, and varied. Topics include transgender history, transgender theory, the AIDS Crisis, proletarian feminism, and a second volume of transgender literature recommendations.
I recommend rereading the original post and reading at least a couple of readings from each section before moving on to the ones I’m recommending here. I have also revised that post to include links to each text, improve its formatting, and change certain recommendations. If I had to pick just two foundational texts to read before proceeding, they would be Whipping Girl and Transgender History, but they shouldn’t be the only ones.
Transgender History
Suppose you’ve read Whipping Girl, Transgender History, and even Stone Butch Blues. In that case, you should have a general overview of the history of transgender people in the United States from the mid-1800s to today (though, from mostly a Euro-American perspective). Here are books on trans history that deal with specific topics, broader topics, and more theoretical elements.
Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman by Leslie Feinberg (1996)
Histories of the Transgender Child by Jules Gill-Peterson (2018)
Female Husbands: A Trans History by Jen Manion (2021)
Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender by Kit Heyam (2023)
A Short History of Trans Misogyny by Jules Gill-Peterson (2024)
Transgender Theory
These texts are meant to help you understand the political and philosophical aspects of living as a trans person and the necessary praxis for queer and trans liberation.
Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex” by Judith Butler (1993)
Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue by Leslie Feinberg (1998)
Females by Andrea Long Chu (2019)
Marxism and Transgender Liberation: Confronting Transphobia in the British Left by Red Fightback (2020)
Transgender Marxism, eds. Jules Joanne Gleeson & Elle O'Rourke (2021)
The AIDS Crisis and Its Consequences
The AIDS Crisis was a sort of central nexus point for queer/trans activism, history, and theory. While the disease spread beyond queer/trans peoples including other marginalized groups such as people of color—especially Black folk, there’s no denying that in the collective consciousness, AIDS was and is still seen as the “gay cancer” it was first reported as in the early-80s. As the cataclysmic event that shaped all queer/trans discourse after, it’s essential to read its history and understand the activism and theory that were shaped by and came into being because of it. Since the Crisis is a sensitive subject, not all its books, experiences, and interpretations will line up or agree with one another. Some might include problematic or contentious opinions.
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts (1987)
“Illness as Metaphor” and “AIDS and Its Metaphors” by Susan Sontag (1989)
Chronicle of a Plague, Revisited: AIDS and Its Aftermath by Andrew Holleran (2008)
Patient Zero and the Making of the AIDS Epidemic by Richard A. McKay (2017)
Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 by Sarah Schulman (2021)
Proletarian Feminism
Legal/liberal and radical feminism have proved to be insufficient with not just handling the transgender question or integrating queer/trans-ness into their theory but as paths for liberation in general. Proletarian feminism, however, is an advancing branch of feminism that avoids the opportunism of legal/liberal feminism and the chauvinism of radical feminism by looking at gendered oppression from a dialectical-materialist, international, and working-class perspective. I hope to see future developments that further integrate queer/trans topics into its framework.
Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour by Maria Mies (1986)
The Military Strategy of Women and Children by Butch Lee (2003)
Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation by Silvia Federici (2004)
People’s War and Women’s Liberation in Nepal by Hisila Yami (2006)
Philosophical Trends in the Feminist Movement by Anuradha Ghandy (2006)
Modern Transgender Literature, vol. 2
Here are more recommendations for books written by transgender authors. I tried to not include authors from the previous list, excluding Leslie Feinberg’s Drag King Dream since I technically recommended hir novel Stone Butch Blues in a different section and Casey Plett because she’s an editor on the collection Meanwhile, Elsewhere. If you did like any of the works I recommended in the last or current iteration, be sure to dive into that writer’s catalog! I also tried to have a wider variety of genres, so I’ve included graphic novels and horror and more memoirs and science fiction. I’m sorry if I underserved certain genres or demographics, these are mostly personal recommendations, so I’m limited to what I’ve read—and even then, some of these are based on recommendations from other people.
Format: Title by Author (Year) [Genre] {Gender of Author(s)}1
Drag King Dream by Leslie Feinberg (2006) [Novel] {Transmasc}2
The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story by A. Revathi (2010) [Memoir] {Trans woman/hijra}
I’ve Got a Time Bomb by Sybil Lamb (2014) [Novel] {Trans woman}
Reacquainted With Life by KOKUMỌ (2016) [Poetry] {Trans woman}
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor (2017) [Novel] {Nonbinary}
Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy From Transgender Writers, eds. Cat Fitzpatrick & Casey Plett (2017) [Short Story Collection] {Various}
The Bride was a Boy by Chii (2018) [Graphic Novel/Memoir] {Trans woman}
Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe (2019) [Graphic Novel/Memoir] {Nonbinary}
Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt (2023) [Horror] {Trans woman}
Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H (2023) [Memoir] {Nonbinary}
I tried my best to use the identities the writers themselves use or have been referred to in press releases and publications (interviews, bios, articles, profiles, etc.). As such, while certain authors can fall under multiple categories, I prioritized self-ID. Also, I apologize in advance if any of these are out-of-date, I tried my best to be as accurate as possible at the time of writing.
Feinberg described hirself as “a butch lesbian, a transgender lesbian.” While ze never used the term “transmasc” for hirself (as far as I’m aware), I’m using “transmasc” or “transmasculine” as an umbrella term here for the sake of the reader. Feinberg understood how gendering worked in different contexts and was all about making both hir and the general trans experience more accessible, not just for the cis public but for the closeted/isolated trans person. Hence hir favoring of she/her pronouns when writing for general audiences despite preferring “the gender neutral pronoun ‘ze/hir’” for hirself.