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30 January 2013

Nancy Valverde (1932–) barber.

Nancy was raised in East Los Angeles. She normally wore men’s clothing and short hair. Most week-ends in 1955, when she was a student at barber school, she was arrested for ‘masquerading’. She often ended up in the Daddy Tank at Lincoln Heights Jail, and sometimes was not booked in, so that friends could not find her for days or even weeks.

Lavender Los Angeles p47
In 1959 she visited the Los Angeles County Law Library and found rulings from 1950  that wearing men’s clothing was not a crime in Los Angeles. She informed her lawyer of this and he was able to use it in her defense. Finally the police stopped arresting her, but harassment did not. The beat policeman made a habit of knocking loudly on her Brooklyn Avenue barber shop window with his nightstick.

Nancy lived with the same woman for 25 years and they raised four boys. After a lifetime as a barber, Nancy moved into assisted living, where she was found by lesbian historians and playwrights, and became a Chicano butch legend. The Butchlalis de Panochtitlan wrote The Barber of East L.A. based on her life.
  • Lillian Faderman & Stuart Timmons. Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians. New York: basic Books 430 pp 2006: 94-5.
  • Glenne McElhinney (dir). On These Shoulders We Stand, with Nancy Valverde and 10 others. US 75 mins 2009.
  • Raquel Gutierrez, Claudia Rodriguez & Mari Garcia (scr). The Barber of East L.A. Performed by Butchlalis de Panochtitlan. 2009.
  • Deborah Martin. "Tales of identity and culture at Jump-Start". MySA, 04/30/2009. http://blog.mysanantonio.com/artbeat/2009/04/tales-of-identity-and-culture-at-jump-start.
  • Tom De Simone, Teresa Wang, Melissa Lopez, Diem Tran, Andy Sacher, Kersu Dalal, Justin Emerick. Lavender Los Angeles. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Pub, 2011: 47.
  • Karen Tongson. Relocations: Queer Suburban Imaginaries. New York: New York University Press, 2011: 187,193.
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Nancy was butch rather than trans.  Her clothing style would hardly be noticed today, but the prohibition on transvestity in1950s Los Angeles had an extra twist in going after female as well as male cross dressers.   Fletcher Bowron, who had been mayor of Los Angeles 1938-53, had a particular antipathy to women in trousers.  In 1942 he declared to the city council that he loathed "to see masculine women much more than feminine traits in men" and got them to pass a regulation barring female employees at City Hall from wearing pants.  This was re-inforced by William Parker (played by Nick Nolte in the film Gangster Squad) who was Police Chief from 1950 until his death in 1966 who repeatedly sent his men to raid gay and lesbian bars and to treat gays and lesbians as if they were criminals.

It seems that Edward D. Wood and Virginia Prince, Los Angeles' most famous transvestites in the 1950s, avoided the police by avoiding gay bars, but Nancy was arrested several times simply walking on the street.  It was particularly insensitive of Prince to claim that women could wear whatever they wanted.

Of course the Los Angeles police did not apply the same rules to the stars of Hollywood even off-screen.  In 1953 Warner Brothers had starred Doris Day in the transvestic classic Calamity Jane, and she had sung a song that went to number 1 and became a lesbian anthem, Once I Had a Secret Love.

28 January 2013

Jordi Torremadé (1923 - ?) athlete, sales manager.

María Torremadé was raised in Barcelona. As a teenager she won Spanish and European awards in basketball and athletics and high jump. She ran 60 metres in 7.71 seconds, which was the European record and only four-tenths of a second short of the world record. She was the Spanish champion in 100 metres with 12.00 seconds, in 200 metres with 27 seconds.

In 1942 Torremadé announced that the original assignment of sex had been in error. Later that year he had surgery and announced that he, Jordi, was a man.  Maria's records were then invalidated.

Jordi married in 1952, and became a sales supervisor for a multinational corporation. He and his wife were located in Paris from 1959-69, and then returned to Barcelona.

26 January 2013

Barbara Lemay (1932 - 1993) hootch dancer.

Sammy Hoover was born in West Virginia, and at 16 joined a carnival. He was too pretty to just sell hotdogs, and was put in the girlie show.

Hoover became Barbara Lemay, and performed as Glamazon. She became a star hootch dancer. Once a man died of a heart attack during her show. His mortician came to see the woman who could send a man to his death with a smile and an erection. She also worked as a stripper and in burlesque, and as a go-go dancer.

In her 60s she was still stripping at a gay club in Los Angeles, when Rico Martinez made a documentary about her life.

*Not the mezzo-soprano, nor the wrestler, nor the album by RuPaul.
    • Rico Martinez (dir). Glamazon: A Different Kind of Girl, with Barbara Lemay. US 83 mins 1993.
    • ChrisStraayer. Deviant Eyes, Deviant Bodies: Sexual Re-Orientations in Film and Video. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996: 259-60. 

24 January 2013

Candis Cayne (1971–) dancer, actress.

Brendan McDaniel and her twin brother were born in California and raised in Maui, Hawai’i to parents who were teachers. In her late teens McDaniel was trained as a dancer in Los Angeles, and then moved to New York and won a scholarship to Steps Dance Studio.

McDaniel ran into Sherry Vine, whom she had previously met in Los Angeles, and was introduced to the New York drag scene. Her first job in drag was selling cigarettes and candy at the Roxy. She then started performing at Boy Bar as Candis Cayne. Candis, performed at the Wigstock drag festival with an elaborately choreographed act and then was asked to do the choreography in the film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, 1995. She acted in Stonewall, and performed in Wigstock, both also 1995. At her performances in New York she would talk about her transition, and a tip bucket went around to pay for her surgeries. Candis completed transition in 1996.

She was the title character in the film Mob Queen, 1998. In 2001 she was the winner of the Miss Continental USA pageant for transgender performers. From 2002 she was informally married to Marco McDermett, a New York DJ who worked with her in her show, and had a child from a previous marriage.

She was in one episode of CSI: NY in 2007 and was a recurring character in Dirty Sexy Money, also 2007, and in Season 6 of Nip/Tuck. In all of her films she has played transgender characters. She continues to appear in film and television and does live shows in New York and Los Angeles. Her marriage to Marco broke up in 2010
EN.WIKIPEDIA.    IMDB


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There is a question of how, if she became a woman in 1996, she was able to enter the Miss Continental USA pageant in 2001.  However unlike Miss Gay USofA or Miss Gay America which bar transgender contestants and/or those on female hormones,  Miss Continental USA encourages such contestants.

Of course Candis was not the first trans women to play a trans woman in a television series.  There were a dozen of so previously – see especially Carlotta in Number 96, in 1973.  See my detailed list.

21 January 2013

BB Gandanghari (1967 - ) actress.

Rustom Padilla was raised in a Filipino acting family. He did a BA in economics at St Louis University, Baguio, and studied filmmaking at University of California at Los Angeles.

Rustom became a matinee idol and then an action star in Filipino movies, making over 30 films between 1990 and 2007, and many television programmes.
In 1992 he was voted Best New Male TV by PMPC Star Awards for Television, and in 2007 he won the Gawad Urian Best Actor award.

He married actress Carmina Villaroel in 1994, but she filed for annulment after a few months.

Rustom was featured in Pinoy Big Brother:Celebrity Edition in March 2006 during which he declared himself to be a gay man, after which he played several gay roles on film and television.

In January 2009, on returning from New York, Padilla came out as transsexual and changed her name to BB Gandanghari (BB being an abbreviation of Binibining = Miss Beautiful King, and also a reference to "Be all that you can be").

In April that year BB was refused entrance to the Aruba Bar & Restaurant, Manila, which posts a sign saying no cross-dressing, even though BB was dressed as a women.

Since then BB has played a male-female dual role in the fantasy series Enchanted Garden, a trans woman torn between two lovers, a gay character in the film version of the comic book ZsaZsa Zaturnnah and , most recently, a double role in a stage version of Kiss of the Spider Woman as both Molina (William Hurt in the film) and Irena the spiderwoman (Sonia Branag in the film).

EN.WIKIPEDIA  TL.WIKIPEDIA   IMDB

19 January 2013

Nicole Murray Ramirez (194? - ) sex worker, changeback, LGBT and Latino activist

Ramirez was a Catholic alter boy, and initially wanted to be a priest. But being gay did not become so.

She was a sex worker in Los Angeles under the name Lolita, and then was working towards transgender surgery as Nicole. However she realized that she was not a female trapped in a male body, and became a drag queen instead. While hooking in San Diego she was picked up by a serial killer who had killed hookers and trans women, and was left for dead, and escaped only in that she was on Quaaludes.

Most of her boyfriends were marines who were bottoms. Ramirez changed his legal name to Nicole even though he did not proceed to a gender change.

In 1972 Nicole organized a successful boycott of local bars that refuse to admit trans women.

In 1974 he founded Teddy Roosevelt Republican Club, and his drag persona, the Empress of the Imperial Court de San Diego, rode in San Diego’s first Pride parade in an open vehicle amid jeers from hostile spectators. He was among the few to take the microphone and speak at the rally in the park immediately following. Regarding that day he said:
“It was a scary and lonely march down Broadway … nobody applauded. And most gay people didn’t come out to the sidelines because they were afraid".
In 1977 he was active against Anita Bryant-led Save Our Children which was really an attempt to reverse gay rights to non-discrimination, and in 1978 against the Briggs Initiative in California which would have banned gay and lesbian teachers, and was a friend and co-activist with Harvey Milk before his assassination in 1978.

On July 14 1990 Nicole became Empress de San Diego XIX in the Imperial Court Coronation.

Nicole knew Andrew Cunanan who went on a murder spree in 1997, and is quoted in most accounts of the spree.

In 1993 Nicole was on the national executive and emcee for the April 26 gay and lesbian March on Washington. In 1998 he was co-chair of National Latino/a Lesbian and Gay Organization.

In 2003 Nicole was appointed to San Diego Human Relations Commission. In 2004 Nicole was the Pride Grand Marshall for the 30th anniversary Pride March. In 2006 he was appointed a City Commissioner.

In 2007 at a Coronation Ball in Seattle, on Feb. 17, José Sarria formally handed leadership of the Imperial Court System over to Nicole, and she assumed the title “Queen Mother of the Americas”.

In 2010 Nicole completed an unprecedented 4th one-year term as chair of San Diego Human Right Commission. He has also been a national board member of the Harvey Milk Foundation, and has served a four year term on the board of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

He has a column in the San Diego LGBT Weekly.
  IMPERIAL COURT TRANS HEROES.





The Wikipedia article on Nicole says that he was born in 1921, which would make him 91 years old, and also that he was 40+ going on 50 when he was a trans sex worker in Los Angeles. If so he must have a youth elixar to stay so young.

17 January 2013

Yvonne Sinclair (1934 – 2013) sailor, changeback, activist, actor.

Sinclair was born in the Old Kent Road, London, and was cross-dressing by the age of three. One of the sisters assisted in this. After experimenting with men, Sinclair married a girlfriend when she became pregnant, but the marriage did not last.

After a period in the Merchant Navy, Sinclair was increasingly Yvonne. She worked on stage, but often had to revert to her male persona to obtain work. She later described herself as a 'lapsed transsexual': she was once within 14 days of the operation, but then changed her mind.

The TV/TS Group (sometimes called Friend TV/TS Group) started in 1976 as an offshoot of London Friend, which in turn was an offshoot of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality. London Friend sublet space at 274 Upper St. Soon Yvonne took over the running, supposedly for a month at first.

Men in Frocks, p76
By then the Gay Liberation Front Transvestite, Transsexual and Drag Queen Group and Bethnal Rouge were defunct. The almost forgotten UK branch of the Transsexual Action Organization (TAO) had broken away from its US parent and shortly afterwards had ceased to exist. The other group with a US parent, The Beaumont Society was then still under the influence of Virginia Prince and thus restrictive (no gays, no transsexuals, no trans men) and worked from a Post Office Box Number and required vetting. SHAFT (Self-Help Association For Transsexuals) was not founded until 1980.

Thus, apart from the Porchester Hall Drag Balls, held every three months, the TV/TS Group was the only venue where a trans person could just turn up for a small admission fee (at first £2.00), no questions asked, and the doors were open every weekend. The premises consisted of two small rooms and a single toilet on the first floor and a changing room on the top floor. Food and drink were provided, but more importantly advice, straight talking and the chance to meet other trans people. There was of course a telephone support line.

From 1982 onwards drag balls were run at the Tudor Lodge and continued until 1995. They were different from the Porchester Balls in that the East End location attracted fewer professional drag artistes and gays, and was less high spirited. Also in 1982 Yvonne organised two boat trips on the Thames to raise money for the group: "the guests including trannies, drag queens, gays, wives, partners and anyone who just wanted to be there really. It was great fun."

The same years a membership was formed with the idea of running a dress shop with meeting rooms attached. The group's magazine, The Glad Rag, was started, and the office was open five days a
week. The aim was to own or lease their own building. The group was now more so a collective effort, but it was Yvonne who was the most visible, and who appeared on radio programs and became the name given out by newspaper agony aunts.

Kris Kirk and Ed Heath who were developing what became their seminal book, Men In Frocks, 1984, came to the group to meet people, and Yvonne and several others are featured in it.

The 36 page booklet, Transvestism within a partnership of marriage and families, also 1984, was written by Yvonne with contributions from a couple of others. This was the first English book on the topic (another pamphlet was issued a few years later by the Wives of the Beaumont Society WOBS). Woodhouse compares Sinclair's booklet with Virginia Prince's 1967 book The Transvestite and His Wife, which she regards as "the wishful projections of some transvestites who want it all their own way". Sinclair recognises that a transvestite can harm "those whom they least wish to hurt". Three wives recount their experiences. Sinclair admonishes a transvestite not to abuse his wife's acceptance:
"Putting on a frock is not being a woman. Most of the time, for the average woman, the routine is pretty boring, and housework a drudge. It might be fun for you to tie a scarf around your wig and then start dusting the shelves and mop the floor; she will have to follow you round afterwards and do it properly. She scrubs the floor in an old dress; not like you, in a pretty print dress and high heels that are more suited to the local tea dance."
By 1985 London Friend knew that the lease at 274 Upper St was about to expire and that both groups must find new premises. The TV/TS Group was registered as a charity. After a couple of prospects falling through, Yvonne found the building at 2 French Place in Shoreditch, and signed a 12 year lease. Much work needed to be done. Fortunately one member, Christina, was a builder, and gave up a month's work to make the building liveable. A member who was a plumber fitted the central heating. Others pitched in to do the physical work, and the doors were opened 5 July 1986.

A Partners' Support Group was set up in 1986 at the initiative of a couple of wives, and even set up their own phone line. It ran into problems in that their husbands did not always respect privacy and even walked into the meeting. Some felt threatened by a group that excluded them. The wives reasonably concentrated on mutual support of each other rather than prioritising support for their husbands, but this became a contention with the larger group. At this time Annie Woodhouse was developing her book, Fantastic Women, 1989, and met with both the wives and the transvestites.

One special event was a discussion with psychiatrist Russell Reid, who helped so many transsexuals on their way. Yvonne continued to appear on radio and television programs and was interviewed by newspapers and magazines. In 1987 the group ran a TV/TS conference in Scarborough, and made a profit on the event.

However when she took a break later that year, an anti-Yvonne clique developed, and Yvonne decided in June 1988 that she had had enough, and left the group. The group was then co-ordinated by Vic Sherman and Janette Scott (later on the executive of the Beaumont Society). In 1990 the Co-ordinator's job went to Derek Shaw-Larkman, who had previously run Obstretric Practioners Ltd. The Group finally closed in February 1992. In 1988 the Group had £35,000 in bank deposits and an annual turnover of £50,000. When it closed it had zero assets.

Yvonne continued offering a change-away service, but after thefts and the building being trashed, she closed the operation in 1996. She suffered a mild stroke in 2004, but still made it to transvestite events.

She was one of the contributors to Surya Monro's Gender Politics.

Yvonne died aged 78.

*Not the 1930s actress, nor the gospel singer, nor the marriage counsellor.
  • Yvonne Sinclair. Transvestism within a partnership of marriage and families. Transvestite /Transsexual Social Group. 36 pp. 1984. Online
  • Kris Kirk and Ed Heath. Men In Frocks. Gay Men's Press. 159pp 1984: 74,76,80-1. 
  • Annie Woodhouse. Fantastic Women: Sex, Gender, and Transvestism. Rutgers University Press, 1989: 49-51, 124, 130-1. 
  • Virginia Ironside. "Dilemmas: Is he also Shirley from Purley?". The Independent, 03 March 1994. www.independent.co.uk/life-style/dilemmas-is-he-also-shirley-from-purley-1426694.html.
  • Surya Monro. Gender Politics:  Citizenship, Activism, and Sexual Diversity. Pluto Press, 2005: 17, 111, 205. 
  • www.yvonnesinclair.co.uk
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I attended the group in 1988, but was naively unaware of the politics going on.

Yvonne claims the 1987 conference as a first, but this is to ignore the Leeds 1974 conference and the Leicester 1975.

Apart from an unexplained 1-line reference in Male Femaling, there is no mention at all of Yvonne in the Richard Ekins books.  However what she did fits right in with what Ekins was writing about.  The lack should be explained.

09 January 2013

Diane Baransky (193? - ?) hairdresser


Diane Baransky apparently had surgery at the Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic in 1963.  Her brief moment of fame was in February 1967 when she and John Money were interviewed by Alvin Davis on the CBC program This Hour Has Seven Days.  Her purpose was to demonstrate how convincing as a woman a transsexual could be.  It was not stated whether she were Canadian, or whether she had come from the US with John Money.

As John Colapinto summarizes her appearance:

‘At this point the camera cut from Dr, Money and his questioner to a a blond women who walked out onto the set.  Dressed in a narrow skirt, high heels, and a matching close-fitting jacket, she took a seat in the chair across from the two men.  A close-up shot revealed that her round, pretty face was expertly made up, in the style of the mid-1960s, with heavy eyeliner, mascara, and foundation, her mouth thickly painted with lipstick.
“This is Mrs. Diane Baransky,” the show’s announcer said.  “Until four years ago, her name was Richard.” …
Now she was accepted as a woman and had recently married her husband, a fellow hairdresser. ‘
The show was watched by Mr and Mrs Reimer in Winnipeg, who wrote the next day to John Money for advice about their son who had been left without a penis after a botched circumcision by cauterization.
  • John Colapinto. As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised As a Girl.  HarperCollins, 2000: 21-6.
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There are a couple of problems with this account.  The standard account is the first transsexual to have surgery at Johns Hopkins was Phyllis Wilson in 1966, and in February 1967, Johns Hopkins was claiming to have done only two such surgeries.  From the ‘four years ago’ it is implicit that she transitioned in 1963.  However transition may take some years.  It is possible that Diane was the second patient after Phyllis in late 1966, or that she had gone to Europe or Morocco like so many transsexuals at that time.  The account in Colapinto’s book does not clarify the issue.

The second problem is that according to Colapinto the CBC program was This Hour Has Seven Days.  According to CBC Archives page This Hour Has Seven Days was a satirical news program, and most importantly, it ran from October 1964 to May 1966.  That it, it was no longer being broadcast in February 1967. Nor is there an Alvin Davis listed as one of its interviewers.  Very likely Mr and Mrs Reimer mis-remembered the name of the program – that is very easy to do. Again Colapinto’s account does not clarify the issue.   However the BBC documentaries were able to find the relevant clip, but do not give the broadcast details.

“Diane Baransky” was probably, according to the customs of the time, a pseudonym.  Certainly the one woman of that name who is found in a Google search is too young to be the same person.  Like Agnes, who was in the news a few years earlier, she successfully managed to stay out of the news for the rest of her life.

02 January 2013

Some Events of the Year 2012: Part 11: Bookshops, Archives, Books.


Part 1: Organizations, Equal marriage.
Part 2: Other Legislation.
Part 3: Persons.
Part 4: Spouses, Family, Kids.
Part 5: Political, Celebrities, Sports, Festivals.
Part 6: Schools, Universities & Colleges, Imprisonment, Nemeses, Internet.
Part 7: Doctors & Sexologists, Medicine, Genetics, Obituaries.
Part 8: Fashion, Beauty Pageants, Music, Dance & Performance.
Part 9: Art, Television, Adverts, Theatre, Cinema.
Part 10: Jargon, News Media, Theses & Studies.
Part 11: Bookshops, Archives, Books.

++ added later

Bookshops


Glad Day, Toronto, saved by a consortium of investors.

Beyond Stonewall, Ottawa, to continue under new ownership.

Archives


Transgender Archives, University of Victoria.

Maria Sundin, Sweden and a friend have an extensive archive of Swedish material, but have been unable to interest any institution.

    Books


    $£¥ €=Excessively overpriced books.
    • Chantal Aubrey. La femme et le travesti. Editions du Rouergue, 2012. "Des acteurs traditionnels onnagata japonais au moderne Kazuo Ohno, des garçons travestis de Shakespeare aux personnages de cabaret de Pina Bausch, on plonge avec ravissement dans le livre de Chantal Aubry...
      Très complet, l'ouvrage de Chantal Aubry est un transport amoureux et un regard vif sur la société. On peut passer des heures devant une seule image, Iggy Pop en femme fatale par exemple. La riche iconographie ne fait qu'embellir le propos."
    • Hanne Blank. Straight: the Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality. Boston: Beacon Press, 2012. "The heterosexual was invented in the 1860s and swiftly transformed Western culture. The idea of 'the heterosexual' was unprecedented." There have been previous books on this topic by Louis-George Tin (see below) and Jonathan Katz.
    • Amity Pierce Buxton & R.L. Pinely. Unseen-Unheard: The Journey of Straight Spouses. Food for Thought Books, 2012. "Spouses of these men and women feel a great loss and anger when they realize that their spouses are homosexuals or lesbians; they often feel cheated and lied to and have a very difficult time recovering; but in time recover they do." 
    • Ronald Cohn & Jesse Russell. Transsexual News Telegraph. VSD, 2012.
    • ++ Trystan Theosophus Cotten (ed). Hung Jury: Testimonies of Genital Surgery by Transsexual Men. Transgress Press, 2012. "The first book of personal testimonies focusing exclusively on FTM genital surgery and the important ways it changes our lives. Contributors write about the details and ups and downs of this transformative journey and dispel many myths and misinformation. They provide an in depth, understanding of the surgical, social, sexual, somatic, spiritual, and psychological aspects."
    • Anne Enke (ed). Transfeminist Perspectives: in and Beyond Transgender and Gender Studies. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2012. "If feminist studies and transgender studies are so intimately connected, why are they not more deeply integrated? ... Working from the premise that transgender is both material and cultural, the contributors address such aspects of the university as administration, sports, curriculum, pedagogy, and the appropriate location for transgender studies."
    • Maxime Foester. Elle ou lui?: Une histoire des transsexuels en France. La Musardine, 2012. A new edition of his 2006 book, with an additional chapter.   How does €16 become $89 in the US -- buy from Amazon.FR and pay the postage.
    • $£¥ € Anne A. Lawrence. Men Trapped in Men's Bodies: Narratives of Autogynephilic Transsexualism. Springer Verlag, 2012. "These narratives about autogynephilia ... provide the first comprehensive documentation of the erotic ideation that underlies the most common form of MtF transsexualism." Even the Kindle edition is $98.
    • Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry & Dru Pagliassotti. Boys' Love: Manga Essays on the Sexual Ambiguity and Cross-Cultural Fandom of the Genre. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co, 2008.
    • Jennifer L. Levi & Elizabeth E. Monnin-Browder (eds). Transgender Family Law: A Guide to Effective Advocacy, GLAD, 2012. Newsarticle.
    • $£¥ € Geertje Mak. Doubting Sex: Inscriptions, Bodies and Selves in Nineteenth-Century Hermaphrodite Case Histories. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012. "Here praxiography moves into history. The result is stunning. Learn how sexed bodies and selves-with-a-sex got crafted in 19th century western Europe." "three hundred European case histories of people whose sex was doubted during the long nineteenth century ... shows how sex changed from an outward appearance inscribed in a social body to something to be found deep inside body and self."  Paperback version due in 2013.
    • $£¥ € Kazumi Nagaike. Fantasies of Cross-Dressing: Japanese Women Write Male-Male Erotica. Leiden: Brill, 2012.
    • Nat Smith & Eric A. Stanley. Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex. Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2011. Review.
    • Dean Spade. Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of  Law. Brooklyn, NY: South End Press, 2011. Newsarticle.
    • $£¥ €  Christer Strömholm. Les Amies De Place Blanche. Stockport: Dewi Lewis, 2011. Photographs of trans women in 1960s Paris – re-issued in association with an exhibition in New York. 
    • Maud-Yeuse Thomas, with Karine Espinera & Arnaud Alessandrin. La Transyclopedie: tout savoir sur les transidentités. Lulu.com, 2012. "la clarification des concepts qui entourent les trans : de l'histoire des associations, à l'évolution du droit, en passant par la culture et la santé, les médias, la sexualité (pornographie, prostitution. . .), les religions ou encore la transparentalité et la transphobie. "
    • Tin, Louis-Georges. The Invention of Heterosexual Culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012. Finally in English translation. "Tin maps the emergence of heterosexual culture in Western Europe and the significant resistance to it from feudal lords, church fathers, and the medical profession. Tin writes that before the phenomenon of 'courtly love' in the early twelfth century, the man-woman pairing had not been deemed a subject worthy of more than passing interest. "
    • Sam Winter. Lost in Transition: Transgender People, Rights and HIV Vulnerability in the Asia-Pacific Region. UNDP, 2012. Download. Newsarticle.

    Guidebooks

    • Anne L. Boedecker. The Transgender Guidebook: Keys to a Successful Transition. Kindle, 2012.
    • Meghan Chavalier. Your True Self: An Informative Guide For Transitioning Transgender Women. Kindle, 2012.
    • Eleanor A. Hubbard & Cameron T. Whitley (eds). Trans-Kin: A Guide for Family & Friends of Transgender People. 2012. Webpage.
    • Nick Teich. Transgender 101: A Simple Guide to a Complex Issue. Columbia University press, 2012. Newsarticle.

    Transphobic

    • $£¥ €  Sheila Jeffreys & Lorene Gottshalk. Gender Hurts: A Feminist Analysis of the Politics of Transgenderism. Routledge Press, 2013.   Yes: $124 !!!!
    • Mark Geoffrey Young. The Best Ever Book of Transsexual Jokes: Lots and Lots of Jokes Specially Repurposed for You-Know-Who. CreateSpace, 2012.

    (Auto)biography 

    • William Edward Beck edited by Peter Farrer. Happenings: The Story of Bessie. Liverpool: Karn, 2012. Webpage. A historically verified tale of a boy subjected to petticoat punishment who grows up to be a transvestite. 
    • Christine Benvenuto. Sex Changes: A Memoir Of Marriage, Gender And Moving On. St Martin’s Press, 2012. Also see her husband's account: Joy Ladin, below. 
    • Jessica Angelina Birch. Confessions of a Transsexual Physician. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012. "Jessica Angelina Birch (pen name) is a family physician in Amherst, New Hampshire. She owns and operates her own family practice and advocates for gender diversity."
    • Kate Bornstein. A Queer and Pleasant Danger: The true story of a nice Jewish boy who joins the Church of Scientology and leaves twelve years later to become the lovely lady she is today. Beacon Press, 2012. Will be in paperback this summer. The title describes the contents.
    • T. Cooper. Real Man Adventures. San Francisco, CA: McSweeneys Books, 2012. Review. "Cooper can try to 'live completely stealthily as a man', hoping that he’s never discovered to be an 'imposter' by the wrong redneck. Or he can lay it all out for everyone to see, hoping that if he presents his transness in the context of all the beauty and complexity of his life, everyone will just learn to deal."
    • Marie Edith Cypris. Mémoires d'une transsexuelle. La belle au moi dormant. Presses Universitaires De France, 2012. "Ce texte dessine deux lignes parallèles autour du changement de sexe : d'une part celle du récit autobiographique, d'autre part celle des questions que se pose l'auteur. Une réflexion théorique qui interroge sa souffrance et qu'elle tente de mettre en perspective avec un discours universitaire riche en controverses. Cela ne dure pas, car l'auteur prend davantage le parti de l'humour pour nous confier son histoire que celui de la conférence ; même si elle opère fréquemment des allers-retours entre les styles. Elle conclut par une synthèse qui dévoile les problématiques en cascade qui surviendraient si certaines politiques vers l'abolition des genres devaient aboutir. "
    • Jill Davidson. Undercover Girl: Growing up Transgender. Kindle, 2012. "She embarks, at age 50, to become a woman outwardly, while continuing to work in schools. Jill, expecting a difficult transition, is surprised by the support she receives from colleagues, parents, and students as she goes about her work in her true gender. "
    • Monika Donner. Tiger in High Heels: Zweimal Käfig und zurück. Berger & Söhne, 2012. "Monika Donner wurde 1971 in Linz als Junge geboren, maturierte an einem Jesuitenkollegium und war Offizier des österreichischen Bundesheers. Heute arbeitet sie als selbständige Lebensberaterin und als Juristin im Verteidigungsministerium. Sie ist eine rebellische Transfrau und lebt in einer »hetero-lesbischen« Partnerschaft mit einer Frau. Ihre Transidentität empfindet sie als wesentlichen Lebensbestandteil. 2009 hat sie beim Verfassungsgerichtshof erkämpft, dass für Transsexuelle der Zwangscharakter geschlechtsanpassender Operationen aufgehoben wurde. Das tat sie, kurz gesagt, weil es ihr als Mann verwehrt war, ihre geliebten High Heels zu tragen. Deshalb zeigte sie der Gesellschaft, dass es Frauen mit Sti(e)l gibt. "
    • Alex Drummond. Grrl Alex. A personal journey to a transgender identity. Kindle, 2012. "The author has broken new ground too. 'Gender-queering' challenges the assumption that to cross genders requires 'passing' - convincing others that you really are the 'opposite' gender. What the author's work shows is that this is not necessarily the case, and that an honest presentation of self, even if unconventional, can find much more acceptance than many (including even the author) would have thought possible."
    • David Dumortier. Travesti. Le Dilettante, 2012. "David Dumortier est poète, mystique et travesti. Lyrique en diable et salope au lit, entre plume, téléphone et cierge à la Vierge."  How does €19become $88.  Buy from Amazon.FR.
    • Michael Foster & Barbara Foster. A Dangerous Woman: The Life, Loves, and Scandals of Adah Isaacs Menken, 1835-1868, America's Original Superstar. Guilford, Conn: Lyons Press, 2011. Superstar, male impersonator, transvestite.
    • Teraina E. Hird. Unashamedly Me:The Story of a Transsexual Woman's Struggle to Become Herself. Upfront Publishing, 2012. Newsarticle. Garage mechanic transitions in her 50s.
    • ++ Gregory L. Hudson. Why I Sued Eddie Murphy. Rosedog Pr, 2012. 
    • Cindi Jones. Squirrel Cage. CreateSpace, 2012. Review. AuthorBlog. 3Rd edition. 
    • Joy Ladin. Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey between Genders. Madison, Wis: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2012. Newsarticle. Another. See also her wife's account: Christine Benvenuto, above.
    • Bambi L. Lobdell. A Strange Sort of Being: The Transgender Life of Lucy Ann/Joseph Israel Lobdell, 1829-1912. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co, 2012. Review. The 19th century frontiers trans man. 
    • Greg Mitchell & Kevin Gosztola. Truth and Consequences: The U.S. Vs. Bradley Manning. New York: Sinclair Books, 2012. 
    • Adrienne Nash. A Strange Life. Kindle, 2012.
    • João W. Nery. Viagem Solitária - Memórias de um Transexual 30 anos depois. Editora Leya, 2011. Nery is Brazil's first surgical trans man.
    • Laura Newman. A Love Less Ordinary: Sharing Life, Laughter and Handbags with My Transgender Partner. Kindle, 2012.
    • Toni Newman and Kevin Hogan. I Rise: The Transformation of Toni Newman. Hollywood, Calif: SPI Productions LLC, 2011. Newsarticle. An African-American upbringing: "I strongly disagree that I am out of the will of God. I believe that the truth I live in is a truth that God demands of us."
    • Denver Nicks. Private: Bradley Manning, Wikileaks, and the Biggest Exposure of Official Secrets in American History. Chicago, Ill: Chicago Review Press, 2012. 
    • Rachel Pepper (ed). Transitions of the Heart: Stories of Love, Struggle and Acceptance by Mothers of Transgender and Gender Variant Children. Berkeley, CA: Cleis Press, 2012.
    • José Carlos García Rodríguez. El infante maldito. La biografía de Luis Fernando de Orleans, el más depravado príncipe Borbón. Barcelona: Editorial Espasa Calpe (Grupo Planeta), 2012. Luís Fernando Orleans, bad boy and transvestite of the Spanish royal family. 
    • Nell Rose. Transition The Story Of My Life With A Transgender. Kindle, 2012.
    • Ryan K. Sallans. Second Son: Transitioning Toward My Destiny, Love and Life. Green Bay, WI: Title Town Publishing, 2012. Webpage
    • Diana Wyndham. Norman Haire and the Study of Sex. Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2012. Review. The sexologist who made Hirschfeld available to English-speaking readers.

    GLB history with Trans Content.

    • Tracy Baim (ed). Out and Proud in Chicago: An Overview of the City's Gay Community. Chicago: Surrey Books, 2008. There was an associated television program and now DVD.
    • Tracy Baim & Owen Keehnen. Jim Flint: The Boy from Peoria. Chicago: Prairie Ave. Productions, 2011. Flint became a drag impresario in Chicago. Several of his artists later transitioned. Webpage.
    • St. Sukie de la Croix. Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago Before Stonewall. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2012.
    • Peter A. Jackson (ed). Queer Bangkok: Twenty-First-Century Markets, Media, and Rights. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2011. Review
    • Thomas Keith (ed). Love, Christopher Street: Reflections of New York City. New York: Vantage, 2012. Review. Includes trans man Amos Mac and drag artist Penny Arcade. 

    Fiction

    • Karin Bishop. I Should Have Known. Kindle, 2012.
    • Rachel Eliason. Run Clarissa, Run. Kindle, 2012. A young adult novel of trans and computers.
    • Roz Kaveney,. Rhapsody of Blood. A Novel of the Fantastic Volume One, Rituals. San Francisco, Calif: Plus One Press, 2012. Wikipedia.  
    • Tom Léger & Riley MacLeod (eds). The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard. Topside Press, 2012. WebPage. Review
    • Daniel C. Merrill. Trapped. Kindle, 2012. Historical fiction describing the pioneering transsexual program at the University of Minnesota Health Sciences Center by Dr. Colin Markland and his team of Urologic Surgeons. By the author of The Conservative Pulpit blog. "I have selected three of the fifteen or so transsexuals I met and cared for at the University as the main characters of this novel. These people were real and I have made every attempt to portray them as accurately as possible. Unfortunately, at this point in time, all these years later, I do not recall, with the exception of the Cuban dancer Shalimar's stage name, their actual names. I never did know much about their lives before, or for that matter after surgery, with the exception of one person, the truck driver. This person, and her husband, subsequently moved to California in the 1980's and I met her again when she resurfaced at the Martinez Veterans Administration Medical Center Hospital in Martinez California where I spent the last years of my career as Chief of Urology. I selected these three individuals because I felt that they each had a unique story to tell with respect to their lives as transsexuals before, and in one instance, after sex-reassignment surgery. "
    • Brit Mandelo (ed). Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction. Lethe Press, 2012. Review.
    • Justine Saracen. Sarah, Son of God. Valley Falls, NY: Bold Strokes Books, 2011. Webpage. Review
    • Jaime Stryker. Two Spirit Ranch. Chances Pres, 2012. A romance novel. WebPage. Reviews.
    • Tom Tame. Little Brown Girl. Kindle, 2012. A magic ritual to rejuvenate a rich man makes him a young women.