Although transgender people are increasingly represented in academic studies and popular culture, they rarely have the opportunity to add their own voices to the conversation. In this remarkable book, Jackson Shultz records the stories of more than thirty Americans who identify as transgender. They range in age from fifteen to seventy-two; come from twenty-five different states and a wide array of racial, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds; and identify across a vast spectrum of genders and sexualities.
Giving voice to a diverse group of individuals, the book raises questions about gender, acceptance, and unconditional love. From historical descriptions of activism to personal stories of discrimination, love, and community, these touching accounts of gender transition shed light on the uncharted territories that lie beyond the gender binary. Despite encounters with familial rejection, drug addiction, and medical malpractice, each account is imbued with optimism and humor, providing a thoughtful look at the daily joys and struggles of transgender life.
With an introduction and explanations from the author, this work will appeal to transgender individuals, their significant others, friends, family, and allies; health-care providers, educators, and legal professionals; and anyone questioning their own gender, considering transition, or setting out on their own transition journey.
Made up almost exclusively of the words of 34 informants, the six chapters of Shultz’s eye-opening survey constitute not so much an oral history as a state-of-society report, highly critical but hardly despondent, on how America is treating those who have transitioned from one sex and/or gender to the other.
This is the book that we’ve been waiting for. . . . This deeply human title deserves a broad general and academic audience.
Shultz's collection of first-person voices offers a fascinating and eye-opening view of transgender individuals and communities that will aid healthcare and education professionals, anyone with questions about gender and the general public. The uplifting message is that these are simply people, as sympathetic, interesting and varied as any other.
Kudos to Jackson Wright Shultz for abandoning a pedantic, academic dissertation, and instead compiling an oral history. This is a book about what it means to be transgender in its most perfect form: with a diverse cast and many different voices all straight from the source.
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