Advocate Bookshelf: Best Non-Fiction Transgender Books

The Lives of Transgender People ($24, Columbia University Press)
In this new groundbreaking book, out Nov. 22, authors Genny Beemyn and Susan Rankin respond to a critical need for greater perspectives on transgender life, analyzing one of the largest surveys ever conducted in the U.S on gender development and identity-making among transsexual men and women, crossdressers, and genderqueer individuals. The Lives of Transgender People tracks the formation of gender identity across 3,500 individuals, beginning in childhood and marking the "touchstones" that led participants to identify as transgender. Beemyn and Rankin discuss the psychological toll of living in secrecy and fear and the ongoing discrimination, violence, and social and economic disenfranchisement that trans people still face, even in an age where a trans celebrity can headline a reality TV show on primetime TV.