Serving the Community College of Vermont & Vermont State University
Serving the Community College of Vermont & Vermont State University
“Never forget that our joy, our pleasure, and the unique delight and connection we can find through our queer and trans identities are not only some of the things that will help us the most to get us through hard times, they're also some of our most powerful forms of rebellion.”
– Heather Corinna
First established in San Francisco in 2021 (on the 55th anniversary of the Compton's Cafeteria Riots), Transgender History Month celebrates the history and cultural milestones of transgender people.
A sampling of recent books highlighting transgender history and the contributions of transgender individuals and communities. All electronic titles are available to read online and our physical titles may be requested for pick-up at a VSCS library or sent to your home.
A fascinating exploration of three individuals in fin-de-siècle France who pushed the boundaries of gender identity.
Within queer, transgender, and Latinx and Chicanx cultural politics, brown transgender narratives are frequently silenced and erased. Brown trans subjects are treated as deceptive, unnatural, nonexistent, or impossible, their bodies, lives, and material circumstances represented through tropes and used as metaphors. Restoring personhood and agency to these subjects, Francisco J. Galarte advances "brown trans figuration" as a theoretical framework to describe how transness and brownness coexist within the larger queer, trans, and Latinx historical experiences.
Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn't hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart.
Leading activist and essayist Brynn Tannehill tells you everything you ever wanted to know about transgender issues but were afraid to ask. The book aims to break down deeply held misconceptions about trans people across all aspects of life, from politics, law and culture, through to science, religion and mental health, to provide readers with a deeper understanding of what it means to be trans.
Long before people identified as transgender or lesbian, there were female husbands and the women who loved them. Female husbands - people assigned female who transed gender, lived as men, and married women - were true queer pioneers. Moving deftly from the colonial era to just before the First World War, Jen Manion uncovers the riveting and very personal stories of ordinary people who lived as men despite tremendous risk, danger, violence, and threat of punishment.
A textured, sharply written memoir about coming of age in the fourth decade of one's life and embracing one's truest self in a world that demands gender fit in neat boxes. From the outside, Oliver Radclyffe spent four decades living an immensely privileged, beautifully composed life. As the daughter of two well-to-do British parents and the wife of a successful man from an equally privileged family, Oliver played the parts expected of him. He checked off every box-marriage, children (four), a white-picket fence surrounding a stately home in Connecticut, and a golden retriever. But beneath the shiny veneer, Oliver was desperately trying to stay afloat as he struggled to maintain a facade of normalcy. And between his hair falling out and incapacitating mood swings, Oliver realized the life of a trapped housewife was not one he was ever meant to live.
So often the stories shared by trans people about their transition centre on gender dysphoria: a feeling of deep discomfort with their birth-assigned gender, and a powerful catalyst for coming out or transitioning. But for many non-cisgender people, it's gender euphoria which pushes forward their transition: the joy the first time a parent calls them by their chosen name, the first time they have the confidence to cut their hair short, the first time they truly embrace themself. In this ground-breaking anthology, nineteen trans, non-binary, agender, gender-fluid and intersex writers share their experiences of gender euphoria: an agender dominatrix being called 'Daddy,' an Arab trans man getting his first tattoos, a trans woman embracing her inner fighter.
In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.
Amanda Hardy only wants to fit in at her new school, but she is keeping a big secret, so when she falls for Grant, guarded Amanda finds herself yearning to share with him everything about herself, including her previous life as Andrew.
In eighth grade, Amy was voted “Most likely to appear on Jeopardy!” by her classmates. Decades later, this trailblazer finally got her chance. Not only did she walk away with $1.3 million while captivating the world with her impressive forty-game winning streak, but she made history and won an even greater prize—the joy of being herself on national television and blazing a trail for openly queer and transgender people around the world.
This is the first introductory textbook for trans, transgender, or *trans studies for first or second year college students as well as community college students.
This new edition in the Great Events series chronicles important historical events that have identified, defined, and legally established the rights of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities.
For two years Ester Newton did field research in the world of drag queens--homosexual men who make a living impersonating women. Newton spent time in the noisy bars, the chaotic dressing rooms, and the cheap apartments and hotels that make up the lives of drag queens, interviewing informants whose trust she had earned and compiling a lively, first-hand ethnographic account of the culture of female impersonators.
Nepantla Squared maps the lives of two transgender mestiz@s, one during the turn of the twentieth century and one during the turn of the twenty-first century, to chart the ways race, gender, sex, ethnicity, and capital function differently in different times. To address the erasure of transgender mestiz@ realities from history, Linda Heidenreich employs an intersectional analysis that critiques monopoly and global capitalism. Heidenreich builds on the work of Gloria Anzaldúa's concept of nepantleras, those who could live between and embody more than one culture, to coin the term nepantla², marking times of capitalist transition where gender was also in motion. Transgender mestiz@s, too, embodied that movement.
Welcome to Andover, where superpowers are common, but internships are complicated. Just ask high school nobody, Jessica Tran. Despite her heroic lineage, Jess is resigned to a life without superpowers and is merely looking to beef up her college applications when she stumbles upon the perfect (paid!) internship--only it turns out to be for the towns most heinous supervillain. On the upside, she gets to work with her longtime secret crush, Abby, whom Jess thinks may have a secret of her own. Then theres the budding attraction to her fellow intern, the mysterious "M," who never seems to be in the same place as Abby. But what starts as a fun way to spite her superhero parents takes a sudden and dangerous turn when she uncovers a plot larger than heroes and villains altogether.
hough frequently ignored by the music mainstream, queer and transgender country and Americana artists have made essential contributions as musicians, performers, songwriters, and producers. Queer Country blends ethnographic research with analysis and history to provide the first in-depth study of these artists and their work.
The Shape of Sex is a pathbreaking history of nonbinary sex, focusing on ideas and individuals who allegedly combined or crossed sex or gender categories from 200–1400 C.E. Ranging widely across premodern European thought and culture, Leah DeVun reveals how and why efforts to define “the human” so often hinged on ideas about nonbinary sex.
From the acclaimed novelist, a first-of-its-kind, deeply personal, and moving oral history of a generation of trans and gender nonconforming elders of color--from leading activists to artists to ordinary citizens--who tell their own stories of breathtaking courage, cultural innovations, and acts of resistance. So Many Stars knits together the voices of trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, and two-spirit elders of color as they share authentic, intimate accounts of how they created space for themselves and their communities in the world.
In Sporting Gender: The History, Science, and Stories of Transgender and Intersex Athletes, Joanna Harper provides an in-depth examination of why gender diverse athletes are so controversial. She not only delves into the history of these athletes and their personal stories, but also explains in a highly accessible manner the science behind their gender diversity and why the science is important for regulatory committees—and the general public—to consider when evaluating sports performance.
Powerful, provocative, and deeply moving account of a he- she coming to terms with the complexities of a transgenderecl existence.
With over 200 entries ranging from Ancient Egypt to contemporary developments in law, media, and politics, the Transgender Encyclopedia shows how gender diversity spans the world and has done so for millennia. Read about how cultures have recognized and affirmed third and fourth genders. The history and development of trans activism is highlighted, making this an outstanding volume for those in the community who seek connection and inspiration, as well as for those who want to grow as an ally.
This text starts with the history of transgender science and provides current, evidence-based information on theories and treatment procedures, concluding with projections of future scientific developments.
Covering American transgender history from the mid-twentieth century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events. Transgender History includes informative sidebars highlighting quotes from major texts and speeches in transgender history and brief biographies of key players, plus excerpts from transgender memoirs and discussion of treatments of transgenderism in popular culture.
This groundbreaking book--far ahead of its time when first published in 1996 and still galvanizing today--interweaves history, memoir, and gender studies to show that transgender people, far from being a modern phenomenon, have always existed and have exerted their influence throughout history.
Within a trans-embodied framework, this anthology identifies transmovimientos as the creative force or social mechanism through which queer, trans, and gender nonconforming Latinx communities navigate their location and calibrate their consciousness.
Trans Talmud places eunuchs and androgynes at the center of rabbinic literature and asks what we can learn from them about Judaism and the project of transgender history.
Trans Historical explores the plurality of gender experiences that flourished before the modern era, from Late Antiquity to the eighteenth century, across a broad geographic range, from Spain to Poland and Byzantium to Boston.
Essays, conversations, and archival investigations explore the paradoxes, limitations, and social ramifications of trans representation within contemporary culture.
A selection of films highlighting transgender history and the contributions of transgender individuals and communities from the library streaming video databases: Kanopy and Films on Demand.
If you haven't accessed Kanopy before, learn how to set up your account in this FAQ.
2006 1 hr. 19 min.
The Believers is an unprecedented feature documentary that shatters assumptions about faith, gender, and religion. Built around the world's first transgender gospel choir, the film portrays the choir's dilemma: how to reconcile their gender identity with a widespread belief that changing one's gender goes against the word of God.
2020 - 1hr 32min
2018 1hr 37min
When Jennifer Laude, a Filipina transwoman, is brutally murdered by a U.S. Marine, three women intimately invested in the case; an activist attorney, a transgender journalist, and Jennifer’s mother, galvanize a political uprising, pursuing justice and taking on hardened histories of U.S. imperialism.
1990 1 hr. 17 min.
Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City’s African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene.
2015 22 min.
Profiling the lives of three young transmen of color, this short doc explores what life is like living as a black man, when no one knows you are transgender, and how each man perceives his own journey with gender after many years of being presumed as a cisgender man
2020 - 1hr 05min
There are 30 transgender, ordained ministers in the United States. Six are in North Carolina. Dawn Flynn, Mykal Shannon, Liam Hooper, and Debra Hopkins fight intolerance and discrimination in the Bible Belt and battle narrow-mindedness within the religious community, fellow state natives, and their own families.
2019 1 hr. 38 min.
Trailblazing artists, activists, and everyday people from across the spectrum of gender and sexuality defy social norms and dare to shine in this kaleidoscopic view of LGBTQ+ culture in contemporary Japan. From glossy pride parades to playfully perverse underground parties, Queer Japan pictures people living brazenly unconventional lives in the sunlight, the shadows, and everywhere in between.
2008 1 hr. 26 min.
Edifying and intimate, Trinidad acquaints viewers with three extraordinary transwomen whose paths cross in an unlikely setting—the unassuming town of Trinidad, Colorado. Against the backdrop of the town’s history of transgender surgery, Trinidad invokes the passions and gender politics of these three individuals as they search for a place of empowerment and belonging.
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
