Sociology, Anthropology and History

This short book is intended to be a resource primarily for non-trans people who wish to get a simple grasp on current transgender issues.  Perfect for older high school students, university undergraduates from many fields who need a simple explanation to the back ground of their project work, and for family and friends of trans people who simply want to understand.
    It addresses the historical, social, legal and medical issues surrounding the new community.  The book throws light onto what are complex issues, clarifying them in a way that all those who think they know what gender roles mean, will be called to question the certainties they are no longer about.
    Transgender has become a cultural obsession.  From the high camp of Ru Paul to the working class transsexual icon, Hayley of the UK’s longest running soap “Coronation Street”, it pervades our lives.  Yet for many it remaines a freakish interest on the sidelines.  For transsexual and transgender people, though, it is a reality bound up in complexities, legal contradictions, family discord, and a desperate need to explain what it means to be a man or a woman, or neither, or both.
    — Stephen Whittle

“Sometimes, when I read newspaper articles discussing trans people as a novelty, when I’ve talked to a journalist who’s new to trans issues, and all too often when I read medical literature on the subject, I despair of how little we all know about our history. Feinberg is a wonderful writer determined to fill that big gap … and this well-researched and beautifully produced book will be an eye-opener to many, as it was to me.” — CMcN

“Politically, this is perhaps the most significant book to have emerged so far from within the trans community. It marks an important step in the rediscovery of the evidence that despite the widespread portrayal of trans people as a 20th century novelty, we do actually have a history, a history of which we can be exceedingly proud and at the suppression of which we can feel justified outrage.
   The real liberation of any oppressed minority necessarily involves a reclaiming of their history … and trans people are no different. The mere recognition of the fact that there have been trans people in all societies and in all eras is a huge advance and, in this respect, the importance of Transgender Warriors cannot be overstressed.
   Joan of Arc, Billy Tipton, Stonewall and countless more: they have been stolen from us, denying our very existence. The presentation of Joan of Arc as merely some kind of romantic tomboy, of Billy Tipton as a butch dyke forced into disguise in order to pursue his musical career and, most reprehensible of the lot, the denial even of trans people’s involvement in, let alone our actual leadership of, the resistance to police brutality at Stonewall - all these contribute to trans people being written out of history as a way of avoiding the inconvenience of dealing with the very difficult questions which would be raised by recognition of our existence.
   It is vital that we reclaim our history for ourselves, and Leslie Feinberg’s book is essential reading for all trans people and our allies.” — M.MacD.

“Where were you twenty-five years ago Millie? How many lives could your book have saved? How many families? How much anguish?
    The transgendered world has been crying out for a book like this for more than a quarter of a century. A book which explains what ordinary people need to know about Gender Dysphoria … and how to HELP.” — from a review by Christine Burns