New York, NY — Transgender authors have come together from around the country to publish Trans Bodies, Trans Selves by Oxford University Press in June 2014.
Trans Bodies, Trans Selves is a book project inspired by Our Bodies, Ourselves, a pamphlet-turned-international-book-phenomenon organized by the Boston Women's Book Collective starting in the late 1960s. Just as women came together to share information about their bodies and lives that had been the purview of male doctors, transgender people are coming together now to share their expertise with each other in a world where trans stories are all too often told by non-trans people.
Hundreds of people have been involved in the creation of Trans Bodies, Trans Selves. The 50 chapter authors are all transgender or gender non-conforming people with expertise in a particular area. For example, the legal and immigration sections have authors who are trans lawyers and trans immigrants. Within each chapter are short pieces written by trans people, their friends and family members. There are also photographs of many of the short piece authors, as well as art produced by trans people.
The goal of Trans Bodies, Trans Selves is to get information about trans experiences out to as many people as possible, from the teenager questioning their gender identity in a small town to the parent of a gender non-conforming child, creating an easy way to gain knowledge about trans life.
One of the most important things about this book is that it is written by and for trans people. But that is what makes it so valuable to non-trans people too — it is a view into trans life that is not edited for another audience. Friends and relatives can learn about identity categories and coming out, parents can read about kids, health professionals can find up-to-date preventive and transitional care information, and partners can find tips on relationships — all written by the experts — trans people themselves.
About Trans Bodies, Trans Selves
Trans Bodies, Trans Selves is a book and outreach project intended to improve the lives of trans and gender non-conforming people. The book itself is a resource guide that brings together writing by prominent authors on the broad, multidimensional spectrum of trans and gender non-conforming identity, as well as on health, legal, cultural and social questions, history, theory, and more… all for the support of transgender, gender non-conforming, and gender-questioning people, their partners and families, students, professors, guidance counselors, providers, and others.
See transbodies.com/ .
