Autobiographies
I personally love to read other people’s stories. It gives me insight, empathy and greater understanding, especially in regards to navigating life with a transgender loved one.
You can also check your local library to see if they carry a title you are interested in, or if they can get you an interlibrary loan.
Sections:
​WRITTEN BY PARENTS OF TRANS CHILDREN
​WRITTEN BY TRANSGENDER, NON-BINARY OR GENDER DIVERSE PEOPLE
​WRITTEN BY THE PARTNER OF A TRANSGENDER PERSON
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WRITTEN BYPARENTS OF TRANS CHILDREN
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CANADA:
Love lives here: A story of thriving in a transgender family (Ontario, Canada)
By Amanda Jetté Knox. 2019. Website: https://www.amandajetteknox.com/about
” An inspirational story of accepting and embracing two trans people in a family–a family who shows what’s possible when you “lead with love.” All Amanda Jetté Knox ever wanted was to enjoy a stable life. She never knew her biological father, and while her mother and stepfather were loving parents, the situation was sometimes chaotic. At school, she was bullied mercilessly, and at the age of fourteen, she entered a counselling program for alcohol addiction and was successful. While still a teenager, she met the love of her life. They were wed at 20, and the first of three children followed shortly. Jetté Knox finally had the stability she craved–or so it seemed. Their middle child struggled with depression and avoided school. The author was unprepared when the child she knew as her son came out as transgender at the age of eleven. Shocked, but knowing how important it was to support her daughter, Jetté Knox became an ardent advocate for trans rights.”
www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/love-lives-here-a-story/9780735235175-item.html?ikwid=transgender&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0
Uncommon girls
By Carla Grant. 2018. (Alberta, Canada)
It is increasingly evident that Eliot is not only autistic, but is also an uncommon girl. Eliot’s mother, Carla, recounts their journey down an unfamiliar path riddled with dismissive medical consultations and mental health referrals to clinics with epic waiting lists. Eliot transitions to Ella, with ambitions of being a trophy wife. Her parents attempt to set limits but Ella, in a typically teenage way, resists anything she deems as trying to squelch her true feminine self. Ella is “outed” repeatedly by teachers she trusted and stops attending school. Carla’s rage morphs into a motivating sense of injustice and she engages in a successful campaign for her child’s civil rights. Carla and Ella are not superheroes, they are just a couple of uncommon girls determined to leave a bumpy road a little smoother for the next travelers.”
Mentioned on supportiveparents.ca site: http://www.supportiveparents.ca/2018/10/12/uncommon-girls/
To purchase: www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/uncommon-girls/9781945805714-item.html?ikwid=uncommon+girls+grant&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0
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​US & INTERNATIONAL
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The bold world: A memoir of family and transformation
By Jodie Patterson. 2019.
Inspired by her transgender son, activist Jodie Patterson explores identity, gender, race, and authenticity to tell the real-life story of a family’s history and transformation.
“A courageous and poetic testimony on family and the self, and the learning and unlearning we must do for those we love.”—Janet Mock.
In 2009, Jodie Patterson, mother of five and beauty entrepreneur, has her world turned upside down when her determined toddler, Penelope, reveals, “Mama, I’m not a girl. I am a boy.” The Pattersons are a tribe of unapologetic Black matriarchs, scholars, financiers, Southern activists, artists, musicians, and disruptors, but with Penelope’s revelation, Jodie realizes her existing definition of family isn’t wide enough for her child’s needs. In The Bold World, we witness Patterson reshaping her own attitudes, beliefs, and biases, learning from her children, and a whole new community, how to meet the needs of her transgender son. In doing so, she opens the minds of those who raised and fortified her, all the while challenging cultural norms and gender expectations. ….. Transition, we learn, doesn’t just belong to the transgender person. Transition, for the sake of knowing more and becoming more, is the responsibility of and gift to all.”
https://www.amazon.ca/Bold-World-Memoir-Family-Transformation/dp/0399179011/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+bold+world&qid=1618010571&sr=8-1
Found in transition: A mother’s evolution during her child’s gender change
By Paria Hassouri. 2020. (US)
“On Thanksgiving morning, Paria Hassouri finds herself furiously praying and negotiating with the universe as she irons a dress her fourteen-year-old, designated male at birth, has secretly purchased and wants to wear to dinner with the extended family. In this wonderfully frank, loving, and practical account of parenting a transgender teen, Paria chronicles what amounts to a dual transition: as her child transitions from male to female, she navigates through anger, denial, and grief to eventually arrive at acceptance. Despite her experience advising other parents in her work as a pediatrician, she was blindsided by her child’s gender identity. Paria is also forced to examine how she still carries insecurities from her past of growing up as an Iranian-American immigrant in a predominantly white neighborhood, and how her life experience is causing her to parent with fear instead of love. Paria discovers her capacity to evolve, as well as what it really means to parent and the deepest nature of unconditional love. This page-turning memoir relates a tender story of loving and parenting a teenager coming out as transgender and transitioning. It explores identity, self-discovery in adolescence and midlife, and difference in a world that values conformity. At its heart, Found in Transition is a universally inspiring portrait of what it means to be a family”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/found-in-transition-a-mothers/9781608687084-item.html?ikwid=Found+in+Transition%3a+A+Mother%27s+Evolution+During+Her+Child%27s+Gender+Change&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0#algoliaQueryId=b1573497b86546cb1499ad53068ea1e6
He’s always been my son
By Janna Barkin. 2017. (US)
“This inspiring and moving story, told from the heart of an extraordinary family, recounts the emotional and uplifting journey of raising a transgender son. Janna Barkin’s family has come a long way since their child, Amaya, first told them he was a boy and not a girl and this captivating memoir charts the family’s experiences of raising Amaya, from birth through to adulthood. With powerful chapters written by Amaya’s family and friends, Janna shares personal stories of the support and discoveries her family has encountered and provides a ‘care package’ of advice for families facing similar issues, including a glossary of terms and a list of hand-picked support sources. Written with warmth and humor, He’s Always Been My Son reminds us to accept others for who they are and will support, educate and inspire anyone who reads it.”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/hes-always-been-my-son/9781785927478-item.html?ikwid=He%27s+Always+Been+My+Son&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0#algoliaQueryId=3bebf76c894996145316ef87ba0c1706
How we sleep at night: A mother’s memoir
By Sara Cunningham. 2014 (US)
“A Christian mother comes to terms with her son being gay through a personal journey that starts with the Church and ends at the Pride Parade. Sara is in partnership with Jamie Lee Curtis, who has purchased the rights to her book and will release a movie based on her story.” Sara is the founder of Free Mom Hugs
https://www.amazon.ca/How-We-Sleep-At-Night/dp/1499725388/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=sara+cunningham&qid=1618342275&s=books&sr=1-1
I promised not to tell: Raising a transgender child
By Cheryl B. Evans. 2016. (US)
“Cheryl Evans and her husband Jim raised their children telling them: 'You can be anything and do anything you want in life.' They just never expected to learn that what their youngest daughter desired most in the world was to be a boy. Experience this powerful, raw and, deeply personal story as one family invites you to bear witness as they support their transgender child’s transition from female to male. While I Promised Not to Tell will help enlighten anyone interested in this topic it is especially valuable for a parent, relative or friend of a gender questioning or transgender person. Truly it is a book that should be read by every human being. It is a genuine, heartfelt and unforgettable LGBT parenting) memoir. A wonderfully written and thought provoking true story that transitions beautifully between the family’s personal journey and some of the larger societal issues that face the transgender community today. While I Promised Not to Tell may not be as heavy on the science as some other books, (the author covers that in her 2nd book: What Does God Think?), this transgender book delves deeply into the social, emotional and surgical side of the transgender journey. Even if you don’t know a transgender person this book will make you feel as if you do. One Amazon reviewer even said: “By the end of the book I felt like I had become part of the family. If you are a transgender person, this book might be an excellent way to introduce the topic to parents and loved ones. Coming out can be a scary time and this book may help make your experience a little easier. Perhaps even pave the way to acceptance and understanding.“
www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/i-promised-not-to-tell/9780995180710-item.html?ikwid=transgender&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=69
Love, Ellen: A mother/daughter journey
By Betty DeGeneres. Apr 2000. (US)
"Mom, I'm gay."
“With three little words, gay sons and daughters can change their parents' lives forever. Twenty years ago, during a walk on a Mississippi beach, Ellen DeGeneres spoke those simple, powerful words to her mother. That emotional moment eventually brought mother and daughter closer than ever, but it was not without a struggle. In Love, Ellen, Betty DeGeneres tells her story: the complicated path to acceptance and the deepening of her friendship with her daughter, the media's scrutiny of their family life, and the painful and often inspiring stories she's heard on the road as the first non-gay spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign's National Coming Out Project. Insightful, universally touching, and uncommonly wise, Love, Ellen is a story of friendship between mother and daughter and a lesson in understanding for all parents and their children.”
The picture wall: One woman’s story of being (his) (her) their mother
By C.A. Gibbs. Nov 2020. (US)
“The Picture Wall: One Woman’s Story of Being His Her Their Mother takes us on an intimate and emotional journey toward healing as Gibbs comes to terms with raising an autistic child, parenting a transgender adult child, telling family a child is transgender, letting go as children grow up to live authentic lives on their own terms, and embracing being empty nesters.”
Raising my rainbow: Adventures in raising a fabulous, gender creative son
By Lori Duron. Forward by Neil Patrick Harris. 2013. (US)
” ‘Raising My Rainbow’ is Lori Duron’s frank, heartfelt, and brutally funny account of her and her family’s adventures of distress and happiness raising a gender-creative son.
Whereas her older son, Chase, is a Lego-loving, sports-playing boy’s boy, Lori’s younger son, C.J., would much rather twirl around in a pink sparkly tutu, with a Disney Princess in each hand while singing Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi.” C.J. is gender variant or gender nonconforming, whichever you prefer. Whatever the term, Lori has a boy who likes girl stuff—really likes girl stuff. He floats on the gender-variation spectrum from super-macho-masculine on the left all the way to super-girly-feminine on the right. He’s not all pink and not all blue. He’s a muddled mess or a rainbow creation. Lori and her family choose to see the rainbow. Written in Lori’s uniquely witty and warm voice and launched by her incredibly popular blog of the same name, Raising My Rainbow is the unforgettable story of her wonderful family as they navigate the often challenging but never dull privilege of raising a slightly effeminate, possibly gay, totally fabulous son.”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/raising-my-rainbow-adventures-in/9780770437725-item.html?ikwid=RAISING+MY+RAINBOW&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0#algoliaQueryId=60622d2af4cfc252109b6fe52878947e
Raising them: Our adventure in gender creative parenting
By Kyl Myers. 2020. (US)
What did you have? A boy or a girl?” Kyl and Brent imagined it would be years before their child would identify with a gender. Until then…
“As a first-time parent, Kyl Myers had one aspect dialed in from the start: not being beholden to the boy-girl binary, disparities, or stereotypes from the day a child is born. With no wish to eliminate gender but rather gender discrimination, Kyl and her husband, Brent, ventured off on a parenting path less traveled. Raising a confident, compassionate, and self-aware person was all that mattered. In this illuminating memoir, Kyl delivers a liberating portrait of a family’s choice to dismantle the long-accepted and often-harmful social construct of what it means to be assigned a gender from birth. As a sociologist, Kyl explores the science of gender and sex and the adulthood gender inequities that start in childhood. As a loving parent, Kyl shares the joy of watching an amazing child named Zoomer develop their own agency to grow happily and healthily toward their own gender identity and expression.
Candid and surprising, Raising Them is an inspiration to parents and to anyone open to understanding the limitless possibilities of being yourself.”
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YDB9Q95/ref=apubna_mq_gr_26645_tr_dp_dp_2009?fbclid=IwAR0SR5e_UzHleIHr6atiil2ShtNu7iKvA20HsyE03UIa4r39hBKnpUGTHiI
Transitions of the heart: Stories of love, struggle and acceptance by mothers of transgender and gender variant children
By Rachel Pepper. 2012. (US)
“Transitions of the Heart is the first collection to ever invite mothers of transgender and gender variant children of all ages to tell their own stories about their child’s gender transition. Often “transitioning” socially and emotionally alongside their child but rarely given a voice in the experience, mothers hold the key to familial and societal understanding of gender difference. Sharing stories of love, struggle, and acceptance, this collection of mother’s voices, representing a diversity of backgrounds and sexual orientations, affirms the experience of those who have raised and are currently raising transgender and gender variant children between the ages of 5-50. Edited by Rachel Pepper, a gender specialist and co-author of the acclaimed book The Transgender Child, Transitions of the Heart will prove an invaluable resource for parents coming to terms with a child’s gender variance or transition.”
https://www.amazon.ca/Transitions-Heart-Struggle-Acceptance-Transgender/dp/1573447889/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1545106242&sr=1-5&keywords=rachel+pepper
Two spirits, one heart: A mother, her transgender son, and their journey to love and acceptance
By Marsha Aizumi. 2012. (US)
“When this book was first published in 2012, it was the first book of its kind—mother, educator, and LGBT activist Marsha shares her compelling story of parenting a young woman who came out as a lesbian, then transitioned to male. Two Spirits, One Heart chronicles Marsha’s personal journey from fear, uncertainty, and sadness to eventual unconditional love, acceptance, and support of her child who struggled to reconcile his gender identity. Told with honesty and warmth, this book is a must-read for parents and loved ones of LGBTQ+ individuals everywhere.
In the past decade. Marsha has traveled the world sharing her journey and joy of parenting her trans son to diverse places such as religious groups, colleges and LGBTQ+ and PFLAG organizations.
Two Spirits, One Heart is honest and impactful, and I am immensely grateful to both Marsha and Aiden for sharing their personal journey with everyone. As Executive Director of PFLAG National—an organization focused on the journey of parents and families of LGBTQ+ people—I’m moved by Marsha’s passion to make this world a better place for all people, and by her unwavering love for her trans child. —Brian K. Bond, Executive Director. PFLAG National“
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/two-spirits-one-heart-a/9781626015753-item.html?ikwid=two+spirits%2c+one+heart&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=2#algoliaQueryId=5b3a9b3823caaff8389f0e7f1c1efabc
What we will become: A mother, a son, and a journey of transformation
By Mimi Lemay. 2019. (US)
“A mother’s memoir of her transgender child’s odyssey, and her journey outside the boundaries of the faith and culture that shaped her. From the age of two-and-a-half, Jacob, born “Em,” adamantly told his family he was a boy. While his mother Mimi struggled to understand and come to terms with the fact that her child may be transgender, she experienced a sense of déjà vu—the journey to uncover the source of her child’s inner turmoil unearthed ghosts from Mimi’s past and her own struggle to live an authentic life. Mimi was raised in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish family, every aspect of her life dictated by ancient rules and her role as a woman largely preordained from cradle to grave. As a young woman, Mimi wrestled with the demands of her faith and eventually made the painful decision to leave her religious community and the strict gender roles it upheld. Having risen from the ashes of her former life, Mimi was prepared to help her son forge a new one — at a time when there was little consensus on how best to help young transgender children. Dual narratives of faith and motherhood weave together to form a heartfelt portrait of an unforgettable family. Brimming with love and courage, What We Will Become is a powerful testament to how painful events from the past can be redeemed to give us hope for the future.”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/home/search/?keywords=What%20We%20Will%20Become#internal=1
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WRITTEN BY TRANSGENDER, NON-BINARY
OR GENDER DIVERSE PEOPLE
CANADA:
Care of: Letters, connections, and cures
By Ivan Coyote. Yukon, Canada. Jun 8, 2021. (Canada)
“Beloved storyteller Ivan Coyote returns with their most intimate and moving book yet.
Writer and performer Ivan Coyote has spent decades on the road, telling stories around the world. For years, Ivan has kept a file of the most special communications received from readers and audience members—letters, Facebook messages, emails, soggy handwritten notes tucked under the windshield wiper of their truck after a gig. Then came Spring, 2020, and, like artists everywhere, Coyote was grounded by the pandemic, all their planned events cancelled. The energy of a live audience, a performer’s lifeblood, was suddenly gone. But with this loss came an opportunity for a different kind of connection. Those letters that had long piled up could finally begin to be answered.
Care Of combines the most powerful of these letters with Ivan’s responses, creating a body of correspondence of startling intimacy, breathtaking beauty, and heartbreaking honesty and openness. Taken together, they become an affirming and joyous reflection on many of the themes central to Coyote’s celebrated work—compassion and empathy, family fragility, non-binary and Trans identity, and the unending beauty of simply being alive, a giant love letter to the idea of human connection, and the power of truly listening to each other.”
Ivan Coyote is a (non-binary) writer and storyteller. Born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, they are the author of thirteen books, the creator of four films, six stage shows, and three albums that combine storytelling with music. Coyote’s books have won the ReLit Award, been named a Stonewall Honour Book, been longlisted for Canada Reads, shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Prize for non-fiction, and awarded BC and Yukon Book Prize’s inaugural Jim Deva Prize for Writing That Provokes. In 2017 Ivan was given an honorary Doctor of Laws from Simon Fraser University for their writing and activism.
He said, she said: Lessons, stories and mistakes from my transgender journey
By Gigi Gorgeous 2019. (Canada)
“Today, Gigi Gorgeous is beloved for her critically-acclaimed documentary, her outrageous sense of humor, her no-holds-barred honesty, and her glam Hollywood lifestyle. Ten years ago, she was a gawky Canadian teen named Gregory. In He Said, She Said, Gigi brings us on her personal journey from Gregory to Gigi, going deeper than ever before and exposing her vulnerability behind each struggle and triumph, with her signature humor on every page.
With stunning photography and heirloom snapshots, He Said, She Said takes us back to Gigi’s early years as an Olympic-bound diver and high school mean girl, losing her mom at a tragically young age, and her journey of opening up about her sexuality and gender identity. She walks us through her transition, baring it all about dating and heartbreak in her stories of falling in love with both men and women. Uproarious, unconventional, and unabashedly candid, Gigi shares never-before-heard stories, inspiration, and advice about how your life can take you to incredible places once you get real with yourself.”
www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/he-said-she-said-lessons/9780525573425-item.html?ikwid=transgender&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=5
I’m afraid of men
By Vivek Shraya. 2018. (Canada)
“A trans artist explores how masculinity was imposed on her as a boy and continues to haunt her as a girl--and how we might reimagine gender for the twenty-first century.
Vivek Shraya has reason to be afraid. Throughout her life she's endured acts of cruelty and aggression for being too feminine as a boy and not feminine enough as a girl. In order to survive childhood, she had to learn to convincingly perform masculinity. As an adult, she makes daily compromises to steel herself against everything from verbal attacks to heartbreak.
Now, with raw honesty, Shraya delivers an important record of the cumulative damage caused by misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia, releasing trauma from a body that has always refused to assimilate. I'm Afraid of Men is a journey from camouflage to a riot of colour and a blueprint for how we might cherish all that makes us different and conquer all that makes us afraid.”
Named a Best Book by: The Globe and Mail, Indigo, Out Magazine, Audible, CBC, Apple, Quill & Quire, Kirkus Reviews, Brooklyn Public Library, Writers’ Trust of Canada, Autostraddle, Bitch, and BookRiot.
Finalist for the 2019 Lambda Literary Award, Transgender Nonfiction // Nominated for the 2019 Forest of Reading Evergreen Award
Winner of the 2018 Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design – Prose Non-Fiction
"Cultural rocket fuel." --Vanity Fair
"Emotional and painful but also layered with humour, I'm Afraid of Men will widen your lens on gender and challenge you to do better. This challenge is a necessary one--one we must all take up. It is a gift to dive into Vivek's heart and mind." --Rupi Kaur, bestselling author of The Sun and Her Flowers and Milk and Honey
Like a boy but not a boy: Navigating life, mental health, and parenthood outside the gender binary
By andrea bennett. 2020. (Canada)
“A revelatory book about gender, mental illness, parenting, mortality, bike mechanics, work, class, and the task of living in a body.
Inquisitive and expansive, Like a Boy but Not a Boy explores author andrea bennett's experiences with gender expectations, being a non-binary parent, and the sometimes funny and sometimes difficult task of living in a body. The book's fourteen essays also delve incisively into the interconnected themes of mental illness, mortality, creative work, class, and bike mechanics (apparently you can learn a lot about yourself through trueing a wheel).
In "Tomboy," andrea articulates what it means to live in a gender in-between space, and why one might be necessary; "37 Jobs 21 Houses" interrogates the notion that the key to a better life is working hard and moving house. And interspersed throughout the book is "Everyone Is Sober and No One Can Drive," sixteen stories about queer millennials who grew up and came of age in small Canadian communities.
With the same poignant spirit as Ivan Coyote's Tomboy Survival Guide, Like a Boy addresses the struggle to find acceptance, and to accept oneself; and how one can find one's place while learning to make space for others. The book also wonders what it means to be an atheist and search for faith that everything will be okay; what it means to learn how to love life even as you obsess over its brevity; and how to give birth, to bring new life, at what feels like the end of the world.
With thoughtfulness and acute observation, andrea bennett reveals intimate truths about the human experience, whether one is outside the gender binary or not.”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/like-a-boy-but-not/9781551528212-item.html
Rebent sinner
By Ivan Coyote. 2019. (Yukon, Canada)
“BC Book Prize winner (Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes); Forest of Reading Evergreen Award finalist
”Ivan takes on the patriarchy and the political, as well as the intimate and the personal in these beguiling and revealing stories of what it means to be trans and non-binary today, at a time in their life when they must carry the burden of heartbreaking history with them, while combatting those who would misgender them or deny their very existence. These stories span thirty years of tackling TERFs, legislators, and bathroom police, sure, but there is joy and pleasure and triumph to be found here too, as Ivan pays homage to personal heroes like the late Leslie Feinberg while gently guiding younger trans folk to prove to themselves that there is a way out of the darkness. Rebent Sinner is the work of an accomplished artist whose plain truths about their experience will astound readers with their utter, breathtaking humanity.
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/rebent-sinner/9781551527734-item.html
Woman enough: How a boy became a woman and changed the world of sport
By Kristen Worley, Johanna Schneller. 2019. (CDN / Ontario)
”A powerful and inspiring story of self-realization and legal victory that upends our basic assumptions about sexual identity. In 1966, a male baby, Chris, was adopted by an upper-middle-class Toronto couple. From early childhood, Chris felt ill-at-ease as a boy and like an outsider in his conservative family. An obsession with sports–running, waterskiing and especially cycling–helped him survive what he would eventually understand to be a profound disconnect between his anatomical sexual identity and his gender identity. In his twenties, with the support of newfound friends and family and the medical community, Chris became Kristen. Chris had been a world-class cyclist, and now Kristen wanted to compete for her country and herself in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She became the first athlete in the world to submit to the International Olympic Committee’s gender verification process, the Stockholm Consensus. An all-male jury determined she fit their biological criteria–but the IOC ultimately objected to her use of testosterone supplements. They, and other sports bodies, regard them as performance enhancing, when in fact all transitioned female athletes need the hormone to stay healthy and to compete. So Kristen filed a complaint against the sports bodies standing in her way with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. And she won. Woman Enough is the account of a human rights battle with global repercussions for the world of sport; it’s a challenge to rethink fixed ideas about gender; and it’s the extraordinary story of a boy who was rejected for who he wasn’t, and who fought back until she found out who she is.”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/woman-enough-how-a-boy/9780735273009-item.html?ikwid=woman+enough&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0#algoliaQueryId=d2f457c638c0d169fb4e833d6021b841
US & INTERNATIONAL:
As a woman: What I learned about power, sex, and the patriarchy after I transitioned
By Paula Stone Williams. Coming Mar 2022. (US)
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At last we’ve found you: A transgender triumph: An autobiography
By Rosemary Richards. 2016. ( (UK)
”Born to Change”
“How do you tell a life story? Hmmm. Well, suppose you are me and have lived two lives? Now, imagine you are writing for understanding from people, including your only surviving child? How do you tell it? I tell it this way. Painfully. Honestly. Completely. In 1939, I was born a rather self-aware boy in the UK and was given the name Richard Lockley by my parents. I lived the adventurous life of a well-off world traveler. I was a rugged man riding the outback and sailing the various waters, including the Greek islands. Eventually, I married and had a son and a daughter. But, I was never quite comfortable with who I was. I never felt…right. In 1997, at age 58, I gave myself the name Rosemary and surgically switched my gender. I had finally found myself. I went from never feeling at home in my body to euphoria. At Last We’ve Found You is my story. Love made me write it. Please read it for a personal, unexpected experience of truth and triumph.”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/at-last-weve-found-you/9780995353404-item.html?ikwid=transgender&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=37
The autobiography of a transgender scientist
By Ben Barres. 2018. (US)
“A leading scientist describes his life, his gender transition, his scientific work, and his advocacy for gender equality in science. Ben Barres was known for his groundbreaking scientific work and for his groundbreaking advocacy for gender equality in science. In this book, completed shortly before his death from pancreatic cancer in December 2017, Barres (born in 1954) describes a life full of remarkable accomplishments-from his childhood as a precocious math and science whiz to his experiences as a female student at MIT in the 1970s to his female-to-male transition in his forties, to his scientific work and role as teacher and mentor at Stanford. Barres recounts his early life-his interest in science, first manifested as a fascination with the mad scientist in Superman; his academic successes; and his gender confusion. Barres felt even as a very young child that he was assigned the wrong gender. After years of being acutely uncomfortable in his own skin, Barres transitioned from female to male. He reports he felt nothing but relief on becoming his true self. He was proud to be a role model for transgender scientists. As an undergraduate at MIT, Barres experienced discrimination, but it was after transitioning that he realized how differently male and female scientists are treated. He became an advocate for gender equality in science, and later in life responded pointedly to Larry Summers’s speculation that women were innately unsuited to be scientists. Privileged white men, Barres writes, “miss the basic point that in the face of negative stereotyping, talented women will not be recognized.” At Stanford, Barres made important discoveries about glia, the most numerous cells in the brain, and he describes some of his work. “The most rewarding part of his job,” however, was mentoring young scientists. That, and his advocacy for women and transgender scientists, ensures his legacy.”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/the-autobiography-of-a-transgender/9780262039116-item.html?ikwid=transgender&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=17
Becoming Nicole: The extraordinary transformation of an ordinary family
By Amy Ellis Nutt. 2017. (US)
“NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The inspiring true story of transgender actor and activist Nicole Maines, whose identical twin brother, Jonas, and ordinary American family join her on an extraordinary journey to understand, nurture, and celebrate the uniqueness in us all. Nicole appears as TV’s first transgender superhero on CW’s Supergirl.
When Wayne and Kelly Maines adopted identical twin boys, they thought their lives were complete. But by the time Jonas and Wyatt were toddlers, confusion over Wyatt’s insistence that he was female began to tear the family apart. In the years that followed, the Maineses came to question their long-held views on gender and identity, to accept Wyatt’s transition to Nicole, and to undergo a wrenching transformation of their own, the effects of which would reverberate through their entire community. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Amy Ellis Nutt spent almost four years reporting this story and tells it with unflinching honesty, intimacy, and empathy. In her hands, Becoming Nicole is more than an account of a courageous girl and her extraordinary family. It’s a powerful portrait of a slowly but surely changing nation, and one that will inspire all of us to see the world with a little more humanity and understanding.
Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by People • One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review and Men’s Journal • A Stonewall Honor Book in Nonfiction • Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/becoming-nicole-the-inspiring-story/9780812995435-item.html?ikwid=becoming+nicole&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0#algoliaQueryId=dd5058879a60368af411389f69057ae4
Before I had the words: On being a transgender young adult
By Skylar Kergil. 2017. (US)
“At the beginning of his physical transition from female to male, then-seventeen-year-old Skylar Kergil posted his first video on YouTube. In the months and years that followed, he recorded weekly update videos about the physical and emotional changes he experienced. Skylar’s openness and positivity attracted thousands of viewers, who followed along as his voice deepened and his body changed shape. Through surgeries and recovery, highs and lows, from high school to college to the real world, Skylar welcomed others on his journey. Before I Had the Words is the story of what came before the videos and what happened behind the scenes. From early childhood memories to the changes and confusion brought by adolescence, Skylar reflects on coming of age while struggling to understand his gender. As humorous as it is heartbreaking and as informative as it is entertaining, this memoir provides an intimate look at the experience of transitioning from one gender to another. Skylar opens up about the long path to gaining his family’s acceptance and to accepting himself, sharing stories along the way about smaller challenges like choosing a new name and learning to shave without eyebrow mishaps. Revealing entries from the author’s personal journals as well as interviews with his mother, brother, and friends lend remarkable depth to Skylar’s story. A groundbreaking chronicle of change, loss, discovery, pain, and relief, Before I Had the Words brings new meaning to the phrase “formative years.”
www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/before-i-had-the-words/9781510723061-item.html?ikwid=transgender&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=2
Being Jazz: My life as a transgender teen
By Jazz Jennings. 2017. (US)
“Teen advocate and trailblazer Jazz Jennings–named one of “The 25 Most Influential Teens” of the year by Time–shares her very public transgender journey, as she inspires people to accept the differences in others while they embrace their own truths.
Jazz Jennings is one of the youngest and most prominent voices in the national discussion about gender identity. At the age of five, Jazz transitioned to life as a girl, with the support of her parents. A year later, her parents allowed her to share her incredible journey in her first Barbara Walters interview, aired at a time when the public was much less knowledgeable or accepting of the transgender community. This groundbreaking interview was followed over the years by other high-profile interviews, a documentary, the launch of her YouTube channel, a picture book, and her own reality TV series–I Am Jazz–making her one of the most recognizable activists for transgender teens, children, and adults. In her remarkable memoir, Jazz reflects on these very public experiences and how they have helped shape the mainstream attitude toward the transgender community. But it hasn’t all been easy. Jazz has faced many challenges, bullying, discrimination, and rejection, yet she perseveres as she educates others about her life as a transgender teen. Through it all, her family has been beside her on this journey, standing together against those who don’t understand the true meaning of tolerance and unconditional love. Now Jazz must learn to navigate the physical, social, and emotional upheavals of adolescence–particularly high school–complicated by the unique challenges of being a transgender teen. Making the journey from girl to woman is never easy–especially when you began your life in a boy’s body. See Jazz’s story come to life with two inserts featuring personal photos.”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/being-jazz-my-life-as/9780399554674-item.html?ikwid=transgender&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=7
Beyond magenta: Transgender teens speak out
By Susan Kuklin. March 2015.
A 2015 Stonewall Honor Book. “A groundbreaking work of LGBT literature takes an honest look at the life, love, and struggles of transgender teens. Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them thoughtfully and respectfully before, during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender preference. Portraits, family photographs, and candid images grace the pages, augmenting the emotional and physical journey each youth has taken. Each honest discussion and disclosure, whether joyful or heartbreaking, is completely different from the other because of family dynamics, living situations, gender, and the transition these teens make in recognition of their true selves.”
www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/beyond-magenta-transgender-teens-speak/9780763673680-item.html?ikwid=transgender&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=4
Blood, marriage, wine & glitter
By S. Bear Bergman. 2013. (US)
”S. Bear Bergman is an acclaimed writer and lecturer who travels regularly across North America to speak on trans issues. Bears first two books, Butch Is a Noun and The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You, are considered essential texts on the subject of trans life. In his third essay collection, Bear enters, describes, and rearranges our ideas about family as a daughter, husband, father, and friend. In Bear' extended family “orchard,” drag sisters, sperm-donors parents, Sparkles and other relations provide more branches of love, support, and sustenance than a simple family tree. Defiantly queer yet full of tenderness and hilarity, Blood, Marriage, Wine & Glitter is a beautifully thought-provoking book that redefines the notion of what family is and can be. Bear is also co-author of Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation and author of the groundbreaking trans-positive children’s books Backwards Day and The Adventures of Tulip, Birthday Wish Fairy.”
Lambda Literary Award finalist. “The celebrated essayist sheds necessary (and humorous) light on gender, sexuality, and family.”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/blood-marriage-wine-glitter/9781551525112-item.html?ikwid=blood%2c+marriage%2c&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0#algoliaQueryId=97da1a81a72995f10f37152dab4a7513
Feeling wrong in your own body: Understanding what it means to be transgender
by Jaime A. Seba 2014
“Boys who play with Barbie dolls. Girls who join the football team. What is gender? What are gender roles? What’s the difference between being a tomboy and being transgender? Is it possible to be in the wrong body? Explore the answers to these questions with an in-depth look at what it means to be transgender, based on the personal experiences of the men and women who have taken steps to transition. Learn from the experiences of transgender young people who make the significant choice to live openly as another gender while still in high school. Uncover the reality of this often misunderstood group and how it fits into the LBGT community.”
www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/feeling-wrong-in-your-own/9781422296783-item.html?ikwid=transgender&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=51
The gender games: The problem with men and women, from someone who has been both
By Juno Dawson. 2018. (UK)
“ ‘It’s a boy!’ or ‘It’s a girl!’ are the first words almost all of us hear when we enter the world. Before our names, before we have likes and dislikes – before we, or anyone else, has any idea who we are. And two years ago, as Juno Dawson went to tell her mother she was (and actually, always had been) a woman, she started to realise just how wrong we’ve been getting it. Gender isn’t just screwing over trans people, it’s messing with everyone. From little girls who think they can’t be doctors to teenagers who come to expect street harassment. From exclusionist feminists to ‘alt-right’ young men. From men who can’t cry to the women who think they shouldn’t. As her body gets in line with her mind, Juno tells not only her own story, but the story of everyone who is shaped by society’s expectations of gender – and what we can do about it. Featuring insights from well-known gender, feminist and trans activists including Rebecca Root, Laura Bates, Gemma Cairney, Anthony Anaxagorou, Hannah Witton, Alaska Thunderfuck and many more, The Gender Games is a frank, witty and powerful manifesto for a world in which everyone can truly be themselves.”
https://www.amazon.ca/Gender-Games-Problem-Women-Someone/dp/1473648602/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=gender+games+juno&qid=1613769826&sr=8-1
Gender queer: A memoir
By Mala Kobabe. 2019. (US)
“2020 ALA Alex Award Winne// r 2020 Stonewall — Israel Fishman Non-fiction Award Honor Book
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.
Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.
"It’s also a great resource for those who identify as nonbinary or asexual as well as for those who know someone who identifies that way and wish to better understand." — SLJ (starred review)“
How we do family: From adoption to trans pregnancy, what we learned about love and LGBTQ parenthood
By Trystan Reese (creator of the “Trans Fertility Co. website”). To be published June 8, 2021. (US)
“When Trystan Reese was just a year into his relationship with Biff (now his husband), the couple learned that Biff’s niece and nephew were about to be removed from their home by Child Protective Services. Immediately, Trystan and Biff took in one-year-old Hailey and three-year-old Lucas, becoming caregivers overnight to two tiny survivors of abuse and neglect. From this surprising start, Trystan and Biff built a loving marriage and happy home – learning to parent on the job. They adopted Hailey and Lucas, and soon decided to grow their family biologically with a child that Trystan, who is transgender, would carry. Trystan’s groundbreaking pregnancy attracted media fanfare, and the family welcomed baby Leo in 2017. In How We Do Family, Trystan shares their unique story and what he’s learned about being the best parent, partner, and person you can be. Through crisis, adoption, pregnancy-and all the usual challenges of parenting – Trystan shows that more important than getting things right is doing them with love.”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/how-we-do-family-from/9781615197569-item.html?ikwid=how+we+do+family&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0#algoliaQueryId=043da06c08061357646ed4d36d145949
https://transfertility.co/ -- Trans Fertility Co. website
Once a girl, always a boy: A family memoir
By Jo Ivester. 2020. (US)
“Jeremy Ivester is a transgender man. Thirty years ago, his parents welcomed him into the world as what they thought was their daughter. As a child, he preferred the toys and games our society views as masculine. He kept his hair short and wore boys” clothing. They called him a tomboy. That’s what he called himself. By high school, when he showed no interest in flirting, his parents thought he might be lesbian. At twenty, he wondered if he was asexual. At twenty-three, he surgically removed his breasts. A year later, he began taking the hormones that would lower his voice and give him a beard – and he announced his new name and pronouns. Once a Girl, Always a Boy is Jeremy’s journey from childhood through coming out as transgender and eventually emerging as an advocate for the transgender community. This is not only Jeremy’s story but also that of his family, told from multiple perspectives – those of the siblings who struggled to understand the brother they once saw as a sister, and of the parents who ultimately joined him in the battle against discrimination. This is a story of acceptance in a world not quite ready to accept.”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/once-a-girl-always-a/9781631528866-item.html?ikwid=once+a+girl&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0#algoliaQueryId=d79d5731d9d274d14bdfe8f0690b9f31
Interview with the author about the book: https://www.kveller.com/this-jewish-familys-story-of-transgender-acceptance-and-advocacy-is-so-important/
Self-ish: A transgender awakening
By Chloe Schwenke. 2018. (US)
“SELF-ish is a narrative drawn from an international life, beginning with some early glimpses out at the world by a girl in a boy’s body. Chloe Schwenke was raised as Stephen in a Marine Corps family, and was sent off at age fourteen to “man-up” at a military academy. Later-and still embodied as a man-she ventured abroad to work in some of the roughest regions of Africa, the Gaza Strip, Turkey, and many other locales. Her far-flung global journey was matched in intensity by an inner identity and spiritual struggle and the associated ravages of depression, before she came to the revelation of being a transgender woman. At a time when many Americans are just waking up to the reality of the transgender phenomenon, this portrayal of Chloe’s life, her challenging gender transition, and her many accomplishments and adventures along the way (including being among the first three transgender political appointees in U.S. history, under President Obama), creates a poignant story of authenticity, self-discovery, and the meaning of gender set against a fascinating international backdrop.”
www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/self-ish-a-transgender-awakening/9781597096089-item.html?ikwid=transgender&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=28
She’s not there: A life in two genders
By Jennifer Finney Boylan. 2013. (US)
“The bestselling, seminal work of trans literature: a story of love, sex, selfhood, and understanding from Jennifer Finney Boylan. When she changed genders, she changed the world. It was the groundbreaking publication of She’s Not There in 2003 that jump-started the transgender revolution. By turns hilarious and deeply moving, Boylan – a cast member on I Am Cait; an advisor to the television series Transparent, and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times — explores the territory that lies between men and women, examines changing friendships, and rejoices in the redeeming power of love and family. She’s Not There was one of the first works to present trans experience from the perspective of a literary novelist, opening a door to new understanding of love, sex, gender, and identity. Boylan inspired readers to ask the same questions she asked herself: What is it that makes us—ourselves? What does it mean to be a man, or a woman? How much could my husband, or wife, change—and still be recognizable as the one I love? Boylan’s humorous, wise voice helped make She’s Not There the first bestselling work by a transgender American–and transformed Boylan into a national spokeswoman for LGBTQ people, their families, and the people that love them. This updated and revised edition also includes a new epilogue from Jenny’s wife Grace; it also contains the original afterward by her friend, novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo. “Love will prevail,” said Boylan’s conservative mother, as she learned about her daughter’s identity. She’s Not There is the story that helped bring about a world in which that change seems almost possible.”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/shes-not-there-a-life/9780385346979-item.html?ikwid=JENNIFER+FINNEY+BOYLAN&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=3#algoliaQueryId=e639953d73c01ca4472baa6fec863628
Sissy: A coming-of-gender story
By Jacob Tobia. 2020. (US)
“As a young child in North Carolina, Jacob Tobia wasn't the wrong gender, they just had too much of the stuff. Barbies? Yes. Playing with bugs? Absolutely. Getting muddy? Please. Princess dresses? You betcha. Jacob wanted it all, but because they were "a boy," they were told they could only have the masculine half. Acting feminine labelled them "a sissy" and brought social isolation. It took Jacob years to discover that being "a sissy" isn't something to be ashamed of. It's a source of pride. Following Jacob through bullying and beauty contests, from Duke University to the United Nations to the podiums of the Methodist church -- not to mention the parlors of the White House -- this unforgettable memoir contains multitudes. A deeply personal story of trauma and healing, a powerful reflection on gender and self-acceptance, and a hilarious guidebook for wearing tacky clip-on earrings in today's world, Sissy guarantees you'll never think about gender -- both other people's and your own -- the same way again.
"Transformative ... If Tobia aspires to the ranks of comic memoirists like David Sedaris and Mindy Kaling, Sissy succeeds." --The New York Times Book Review (A Paperback Row Pick)
A heart-wrenching, eye-opening, and giggle-inducing memoir about what it's like to grow up not sure if you're (a) a boy, (b) a girl, (c) something in between, or (d) all of the above.
"A beautiful book . . . honest and funny."--Trevor Noah, The Daily Show
"Sensational."--Tyler Oakley
"Jacob Tobia is a force." --Good Morning America
"A trans Nora Ephron . . . both honest and didactic." --OUT Magazine
"A rallying cry for anyone who's ever felt like they don't belong." --Woman''s Day
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/sissy-a-coming-of-gender/9780735218840-item.html
Some assembly required: The not-so-secret life of a transgender teen
By Arin Andrews. 2015. (US)
“Seventeen-year-old Arin Andrews shares all the hilarious, painful, and poignant details of undergoing gender reassignment as a high school student in this winning first-of-its-kind memoir. Now with a reading group guide and an all-new afterword from the author! In this revolutionary first-of-its-kind memoir, Arin Andrews details the journey that led him to make the life-transforming decision to undergo gender reassignment as a high school junior. In his captivatingly witty, honest voice, Arin reveals the challenges he faced as a boy in a girl’s body, the humiliation and anger he felt after getting kicked out of his private school, and all the changes—both mental and physical—he experienced once his transition began. Some Assembly Required is a true coming-of-age story about knocking down obstacles and embracing family, friendship, and first love. But more than that, it is a reminder that self-acceptance does not come ready-made with a manual and spare parts. Rather, some assembly is always required. Now with a reading group guide and an all-new afterword from the author! In this revolutionary first-of-its-kind memoir, Arin Andrews details the journey that led him to make the life-transforming decision to undergo gender reassignment as a high school junior. In his captivatingly witty, honest voice, Arin reveals the challenges he faced as a boy in a girl’s body, the humiliation and anger he felt after getting kicked out of his private school, and all the changes—both mental and physical—he experienced once his transition began. Some Assembly Required is a true coming-of-age story about knocking down obstacles and embracing family, friendship, and first love. But more than that, it is a reminder that self-acceptance does not come ready-made with a manual and spare parts. Rather, some assembly is always required.”
www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/9781481416764-item.html?ref=item_page:richrel:rr-carousel:json1
Sorted: Growing up, coming out, and finding my place (A transgender memoir)
By Jackson Bird. 2019. (US)
“An unflinching and endearing memoir from LGBTQ+ advocate Jackson Bird about how he finally sorted things out and came out as a transgender man. When Jackson Bird was twenty-five, he came out as transgender to his friends, family, and anyone in the world with an internet connection. Assigned female at birth and raised as a girl, he often wondered if he should have been born a boy. Jackson didn’t share this thought with anyone because he didn’t think he could share it with anyone. Growing up in Texas in the 1990s, he had no transgender role models. He barely remembers meeting anyone who was openly gay, let alone being taught that transgender people existed outside of punchlines.
In this “soulful and heartfelt coming-of-age story”, Jackson chronicles the ups and downs of growing up gender-confused. Illuminated by journal entries spanning childhood to adolescence to today, he candidly recalls the challenges and loneliness he endured as he came to terms with both his gender and his bisexual identity. With warmth and wit, Jackson also recounts how he navigated the many obstacles and quirks of his transition––like figuring out how to have a chest binder delivered to his NYU dorm room and having an emotional breakdown at a Harry Potter fan convention. From his first shot of testosterone to his eventual top surgery, Jackson lets you in on every part of his journey—taking the time to explain trans terminology and little-known facts about gender and identity along the way.”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/sorted-growing-up-coming-out/9781982130756-item.html?ikwid=jackson+bird&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0#algoliaQueryId=a508f981445ee0454260b7292c023749
Stuck in the middle with you: A memoir of parenting in three genders
By Jennifer Finney Boylan. 2014. (US)
New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Finney Boylan returns with a remarkable memoir about gender and parenting that discusses how families are shaped and the difficulties and wonders of being human.
”A father for six years, a mother for ten, and for a time in between, neither, or both, Jennifer Finney Boylan has seen parenthood from both sides of the gender divide. When her two children were young, Boylan came out as transgender, and as Jenny transitioned from a man to a woman and from a father to a mother, her family faced unique challenges and questions. In this thoughtful, tear-jerking, hilarious memoir, Jenny asks what it means to be a father, or a mother, and to what extent gender shades our experiences as parents. Through both her own story and incredibly insightful interviews with others, including Richard Russo, Edward Albee, Ann Beattie, Augusten Burroughs, Susan Minot, Trey Ellis, Timothy Kreider, and more, Jenny examines relationships between fathers, mothers, and children; people’s memories of the children they were and the parents they became; and the many different ways a family can be. With an Afterword by Anna Quindlen, Stuck in the Middle with You is a brilliant meditation on raising—and on being—a child.”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/stuck-in-the-middle-with/9780767921770-item.html?ikwsec=Books&ikwidx=6#algoliaQueryId=d8ca0bf7eb256d06a09f21d1a328b8a5
To survive on this shore: Photographs and interviews with transgender and nonconforming older adults
By Jess T. Dugan. 2018. (US)
“Representations of older transgender people are nearly absent from our culture and those that do exist are often one-dimensional. For over five years, photographer Jess T. Dugan and social worker Vanessa Fabbre traveled throughout the United States creating To Survive on this Shore: Photographs and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Older Adults . Seeking subjects whose lived experiences exist within the complex intersections of gender identity, age, race, ethnicity, sexuality, socioeconomic class, and geographic location, they traveled from coast to coast, to big cities and small towns, documenting the life stories of this important but largely underrepresented group of older adults. The featured individuals have a wide variety of life narratives spanning the last ninety years, offering an important historical record of transgender experience and activism in the United States. The resulting monograph provides a nuanced view into the struggles and joys of growing older as a transgender person and offers a poignant reflection on what it means to live authentically despite seemingly insurmountable odds.”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/to-survive-on-this-shore/9783868288544-item.html?ikwid=transgender&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=41
Tomorrow will be different: Love, loss and the fight for trans equality
by Sarah McBride 2019. Forward by Joe Biden. (US)
“A brave, powerful memoir.” —PEOPLE
A captivating memoir that will change the way we look at identity and equality in this country
“Before she became the first transgender person to speak at a national political convention in 2016 at the age of twenty-six, Sarah McBride struggled with the decision to come out — not just to her family but to the students of American University, where she was serving as student body president. She’d known she was a girl from her earliest memories, but it wasn’t until the Facebook post announcing her truth went viral that she realized just how much impact her story could have on the country. Four years later, McBride was one of the nation’s most prominent transgender activists, walking the halls of the White House, advocating inclusive legislation, and addressing the country in the midst of a heated presidential election. She had also found her first love and future husband, Andy, a trans man and fellow activist, who complemented her in every way . . . until cancer tragically intervened. Informative, heartbreaking, and profoundly empowering, Tomorrow Will Be Different is McBride’s story of love and loss and a powerful entry point into the LGBTQ community’s battle for equal rights and what it means to be openly transgender. From issues like bathroom access to health care to gender in America, McBride weaves the important political and cultural milestones into a personal journey that will open hearts and change minds. As McBride urges: “We must never be a country that says there’s only one way to love, only one way to look, and only one way to live. The fight for equality and freedom has only just begun.”
https://www.amazon.ca/Tomorrow-Will-Be-Different-Equality/dp/1524761486/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1545197759&sr=8-6&keywords=am+i+transgender%3F
Transition: Becoming who I was always meant to be
By Chaz Bono, Billie Fitzpatraick. May 2012. (US)
“Imagine knowing, for decades, that the person you are and the body you inhabit don’t match up. Imagine pushing that feeling down so deep that you convince yourself, for years, that it doesn’t even exist. Imagine the havoc wreaked by such a secret. Now, imagine living this life under the scrutiny of the public eye. Chaz Bono has lived this life.”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/transition-becoming-who-i-was/9780452298002-item.html?ikwid=Transition%3a+Becoming+Who+I+Was+Always+Meant+to+Be&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0#algoliaQueryId=afe76e1cc8bd338903b7b9570d3fa8a9
Warrior princess: A U.S. Navy Seal’s journey to coming out transgender
by Kristin Beck. 2013. (US)
“Chris Beck played high school football. He bought a motorcycle, much to his mother’s dismay, at age 17. He grew up to become a U.S. Navy SEAL, serving our country for twenty years on thirteen deployments, including seven combat deployments, and ultimately earned a Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. To everyone who saw him, he was a hero. A warrior. A man. But underneath his burly beard, Chris had a secret, one that had been buried deep inside his heart since he was a little boy – one as hidden as the pantyhose in the back of his drawer. He was transgender, and the woman inside needed to get out. This is the journey of a girl in a man’s body and her road to self-actualization as a woman amidst the PTSD of war, family rejection and our society’s strict gender rules and perceptions. It is about a fight to be free inside one’s own body, a fight that requires the strength of a Warrior Princess. Kristin’s story of boy to woman explores the tangled emotions of the transgender experience and opens up a new dialogue about being male or female: Is gender merely between your legs or is it something much bigger?”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/warrior-princess-a-u-s/9781935866428-item.html?ikwid=transgender&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=53
Where’s the mother? Stories from a transgender dad
by Trevor MacDonald. 2016.
“In a time when to most people ‘pregnancy’ automatically means ‘motherhood’,” what is it like to get pregnant, give birth, and breastfeed a child all while being an out transgender man? When Trevor MacDonald decided to start a family, he knew that the world was going to have questions for him. As a transgender man in a gay relationship, Trevor has gone through the journeys of pregnancy, childbirth, and nursing all while exploring (and sometimes defending) his role as a trans dad. Trevor and his partner tackle all the questions new parents are familiar with, such as: Should we feed our baby breast milk or formula? Should we have a hospital or home birth? Other questions are much less familiar: How can a man cope with gender dysphoria when going through such female-coded rituals as childbirth and breastfeeding? How can a person breastfeed after having had chest masculinization surgery? How do we find donor milk to supplement our own modest milk supply? Luckily for the reader, Trevor explains his own answers to these questions with grace and humour. His stories convey the intimate and sometimes surprising realities of the transgender parenting experience. This memoir is a book about being a breastfeeding parent and a transgender man, and the many beautiful, moving, and difficult ways these two identities collide. It shows us that, ultimately, the parenting journey is beyond all our assumptions and preconceptions. “Where’s the Mother?” is a memoir about love and family like no other.”
https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/wheres-the-mother-stories-from/9780991964505-item.html?ikwid=Where%27s+the+Mother+Stories+from+a+Transgender+Dad&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0#algoliaQueryId=d211a371d2f26132c050a697f57af474
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WRITTEN BY THE
PARTNER OF A TRANSGENDER PERSON:
Love lives here: A story of thriving in a transgender family (CDN / Ontario)
by Amanda Jetté Knox. 2019. Website: https://www.amandajetteknox.com/about
” An inspirational story of accepting and embracing two trans people in a family–a family who shows what’s possible when you “lead with love.” All Amanda Jetté Knox ever wanted was to enjoy a stable life. She never knew her biological father, and while her mother and stepfather were loving parents, the situation was sometimes chaotic. At school, she was bullied mercilessly, and at the age of fourteen, she entered a counselling program for alcohol addiction and was successful. While still a teenager, she met the love of her life. They were wed at 20, and the first of three children followed shortly. Jetté Knox finally had the stability she craved–or so it seemed. Their middle child struggled with depression and avoided school. The author was unprepared when the child she knew as her son came out as transgender at the age of eleven. Shocked, but knowing how important it was to support her daughter, Jetté Knox became an ardent advocate for trans rights.”
www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/love-lives-here-a-story/9780735235175-item.html?ikwid=transgender&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0
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