Erickson-Schroth - Trans bodies, trans selves : a resource for the transgender community

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Trans bodies, trans selves : a resource for the transgender community / edited by Laura Erickson-Schroth.

pages cm

ISBN 9780199325351 (paperback)

eISBN 9780199325375

1. Transgender people. 2. Transgenderism. 3. Gender identity. I. Erickson-Schroth, Laura.HQ77.9.T714 2014306.768dc232014007921

SECTION 1
WHO WE ARE

HOLIDAY SIMMONS AND FRESH! WHITE

KORTNEY RYAN ZIEGLER AND NAIM RASUL

KATE KOURBATOVA AND ELANA REDFIELD

SYRUS MARCUS WARE AND ZACK MARSHALL

Delfin Bautista AND QUINCE MOUNTAIN WITH HEATH MACKENZIE REYNOLDS

LAURA ERICKSON-SCHROTH, MIQQI ALICIA GILBERT, AND T. EVAN SMITH

SECTION 2
LIVING AS OURSELVES

REID VANDERBURGH

HEATH MACKENZIE REYNOLDS AND ZIL GARNER GOLDSTEIN

JESSICA LINA STIRBA, ZIL GARNER GOLDSTEIN, AND CECILIA GENTILI, WITH HEATH MACKENZIE REYNOLDS, TOBI HILL-MEYER, AND DEAN SCARBOROUGH

KYLAR W. BROADUS AND SHANNON PRICE MINTER

SECTION 3
HEALTH AND WELLNESS

NICK GORTON AND HILARY MAIA GRUBB

MADDIE DEUTSCH

JULES CHYTEN-BRENNAN

RUBEN HOPWOOD AND lore m. dickey

TAMAR CARMEL, RUBEN HOPWOOD, AND lore m. dickey

SECTION 4
OUR RELATIONSHIPS AND FAMILIES

SARAH E. BELAWSKI AND CAREY JEAN SOJKA

TOBI HILL-MEYER AND DEAN SCARBOROUGH

KEL POLLY AND RYAN G. POLLY

SECTION 5
LIFE STAGES

AIDAN KEY

COLT KEO-MEIER AND LANCE HICKS

JOE IPPOLITO AND TARYNN M. WITTEN

SECTION 6
CLAIMING OUR POWER

GENNY BEEMYN

LAZLO ILYA PEARLMAN, JAE DK SZESZYCKI-TRUESDELL, AND KESTRYL CAEL LOWREY

PETER CAVA

This project would not have been possible without our professional editor, Celeste LeCompte, who agreed to work on this book practically as a probono project because she believed so strongly in it. Jonah A. Siegel and A. Robin Williams were core organizers for this project when it was in its infancy. We also received assistance very early on from Scott Edelstein, who helped to shape our proposal to publishers. One of the most enthusiastic responses to our inquiries came from Dana Bliss of Oxford, who continued to send excited e-mails almost weekly throughout the process of putting together this book. Probono legal advice came from Maura Wogan (Frankfurt, Kurnit, Klein, and Selz) and Victoria S. Belyavsky, Jesse M. Brush, Adam E. Fleisher, Jennifer Kroman, Garth Spencer, and Stephanie Atwood (Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen, and Hamilton). On a personal note, the editor would like to thank her partner, Amanda Rosenblum, for her extensive work on the editing and shaping of this book, as well as organization of book-related events and the creation of the books nonprofit entity. In addition to participating in this process, she was patient through times when the work did not stop at home.

I was 12 years old when I first opened my mothers copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves (OBOS). I was fascinated by just about everything I read. I flipped through for interesting photos and pored over diagrams. Among my favorite parts were the quotes that appeared on nearly every page, representing the voices of hundreds of women. In some cases, I yearned to have their experiences; in others, I hoped I would never have to face them. I was comforted by all of the stories, knowing that they came from real people.

A few years ago, I bought a copy of an early edition of OBOS in a used bookstore. It was older than the one my mother owned. (Though she had seen this edition, she had been good at updating her collection.) Published in 1973, it was yellowing and thinner than the newer editions I was used to. On the cover was a photo of an older woman and a younger woman holding up a sign together that read, Women Unite.

The 1973 edition of OBOS was billed as by and for womena strikingly radical proposition then. At a time when over 90% of physicians were men, and only a small number of states allowed legal abortions, it was an extremely daring and exciting thing to publish a book in which women taught other women about their bodies, their sexuality, and their rights. This wasnt the stuff of polite conversation. It was about abortion rights, rape, intimate partner violence, and lesbian and bisexual identity. From the very beginning, OBOS questioned the medical establishment. If male doctors would not allow women access to information about their bodies, they would get that information, and they would share it with other women. Childbirth, once clouded in secrecy, would be a two-page photo spread, so that women could see just what they were in for if they decided to make that choice. To the writers of OBOS, it was clearly a choice. They believed that no one had the right to tell women whether or when to have children.

Trans Bodies, Trans Selves (TBTS) is written by and for transgender and gender nonconforming people (although we hope that many allies will read it as well!). We have endeavored to make it as radical as its predecessor. Where OBOS challenged the medical establishments monopoly on knowledge about womens bodies, TBTS shares trans health information and implores medical providers to educate themselves about trans bodies. Where the original questioned psychiatrys condemnation of lesbian identity, we fight the similar treatment of transgender identity. As a psychiatrist, one of my personal goals for activism is to help lead the fight against pathologization of trans identities.

Not all feminists are trans allies, but I believe they should be. I wasnt sure what to expect when I first reached out to Judy Norsigian and Wendy Sanford, current board members of OBOS. Immediately I received mountains of enthusiasm for our new book, as well as indication that they were working hard to update the latest edition of theirs to include information on transgender and genderqueer identities. They even printed a story about our project in their most recent book. It was invigorating to see that they understood that all of our fates are linked.