Trans History

On an NPR debate show I participated which discussed the International Olympic Committee’s decision to ban trans women from competing in women’s events, my opponent ranted that “this whole trans thing” is a recently invented ruse to allow men to win gold medals using subterfuge. I called her out on the cheating allegations, but beyond that I called her out on the idea that transgender people have suddenly appeared out of nowhere. I said that there is a long and increasingly well-documented history of trans people, that the scholarship on it was quite good, and I would be happy to send her a reading list.

Of course she did not take me up on the offer because she doesn’t want to rattle her absolute belief in the binary, which forms the basis for the trans prohibitions. But one of my followers on Bluesky said they would love to have the list. So here it is. Easiest to compile on Substack which does not have a word limit, and share the link on short-form social media.

Compiled 4/19/2026

There is one novel in here, a couple of books on the history of intersex, two on the history of biologists trying to tame the sex category, and one contemporary book on social policy definitions of gender.

• Currah, P. (2022). Sex is as sex does: Governing transgender identity. New York, New York University Press.

• Drescher, Jack and William Byne eds. (2012) Treating transgender children and Adolescents: An interdisciplinary discussion. Routledge

• Eakett, Andrew and Combs, Alex L. (2025) Trans history: A graphic novel. Candlewick Press. (aimed at teens)

• Feinberg, Leslie (1996) Transgender warriors: making history from Joan of Arc to RuPaul. Beacon Press.

• Feinberg, Leslie (1998)Trans liberation: beyond pink or blue. Beacon Press.

• Feinberg, Leslie Stone Butch Blues (1993), a classic novel considered the finest account of the complexities of a transgendered existence, available for free online.( https://www.lesliefeinberg.net/)

• Gill-Peterson, Jules. (2024) A short history of trans misogeny. Verso Books

• Gill-Peterson, J. (2018). Histories of the transgender child. University of Minnesota Press.

• Kates, Gary. (1995) Monsieur D’eon Is a woman: A tale of political intrigue and sexual masquerade. Basic Books.

• Manion, J. (2020). Female husbands: A trans history. Cambridge, England, Cambridge University Press.

• Markowitz, S. (2024). The gender binary and the invention of race. London, Routledge.

• Meyerowitz, Joanne. (2002) How sex changed: a history of transsexuality in the United States. Harvard University Press

• Oosterhuis, Harry (2000) Stepchildren of nature: Krafft-Ebing, psychiatry and the making of sexual identity. University of Chicago Press

• Reay, Barry. Trans America: A counter-history ( 2020) Polity Press.

• Reis, Elizabeth (2021) Bodies in doubt: An American history of intersex. Johns Hopkins University Press

• Richardson, Sarah (2013) Sex itself: The search for male and female in the human genome. University of Chicago Press

See also: https://www.history.com/articles/chevalier-d-eon-french-spy-man-woman

• Skidmore, Emily (2017) True sex: The lives of trans men at the turn of the twentieth century. NYU Press.

• Snorton, C. R. (2017). Black on both sides : a racial history of trans identity. University of MInnesota Press.

• Stryker, S. and S. Whittle, Eds. (2006). The transgender studies reader. New York, Routledge.

• Stryker, Susan. Transgender history: The roots of today’s revolution. 3rd ed., Seal Press, 2026.

• Valentine, David (2007) Imagining transgender: an ethnography of a category. Duke University Press

• Velocci, Beans. Sex isn′t real: The invention of an incoherent binary. Duke University Press, 2026.