Resources/Links

I’ve been reading everything I could find about gender and by/about genderqueer and trans people. Here’s an attempt at rounding it all up. Click on a title to jump to the links in that category.

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Trans resources
–General trans info
–For people questioning their gender
–For families, friends and allies
–Activism
–Law and rights
–For fun
Literature
Photography & portraits
Videos
Music & podcasts
Spoken word & slam poetry
Blogs

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TRANS RESOURCES

General trans info

Vancouver Coastal Health‘s resources for trans people, family and friends: tons of pdf booklets about trans youth, advocacy, hormone therapy, surgery, and diverse health issues. I found the trans youth booklet to be especially useful: it explains in a clear, complete way how it feels to be trans, plus tips on coming out and transitioning.

Trans Youth: links to lots of  resources, listed by theme: health, school, work, coming out and more. Not just for youth.

Hudson’s FTM Resource Guide: on hormones, surgery, hairstyles, clothes, “passing”…

GIRES information guides for trans people, schools, families, employers and more. Huge amounts of information on health and well-being, such as “Should trans men have a hysterectomy?” and a bereavement guide for trans people, or the family of a trans person who has died

Primed: safer sex guide for queer trans men and their partners (mature content; not safe for school or work).

HRC (Human Rights Campaign) on trans issues: the HRC may not have the best track record when it comes to trans, it does have nice resources such as Trangender Americans: A Handbook for Understanding and the Coming Out as Transgender guide.

glbtq: an encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender & queer culture. Spotlight on transgender issues.

Gender variant biographies.

T-Vox: an advice, information and support website/wiki  for genderqueer, intersex, transgender and transsexual people, their friends and their family.

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For people who are questioning their gender or coming out

GQ: guide for gender-questioning people and their friends.

A guide for young trans people

Trans Living at Youth Resource: for questioning, genderqueer and transgender youth.

I think I might be transgender; now what do I do?

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For families, friends and allies

Families in TRANSition — an excellent guide for parents of young trans people. By Central Toronto Youth Services.

PFLAG’s TNET: The organization Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays has a Transgender Network with articles and online brochures such as “Our trans children” (Spanish edition here) and Welcoming our Trans Family and Friends.

Trans Youth Family Allies: resources for parents and caregivers.

Raising a Gender-Variant Child.

List of resources for parents of gender-variant youth.

GenderPalooza! A Sex & Gender Primer from Scarleteen (”sex ed for the real world”).

Suggested Rules for Non-Trans People Writing about Trans.

Creating GLBTQIA-inclusive forms: suggestions for policy and implementation.

You know you’re gender normative if…

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Activism & trans inclusion

Beyond the Binary: A Tool-Kit for Gender Identity Activism in Schools.

Bending the Mold: An action kit for transgender students.

Peeing in Peace: A Resource Guide for Transgender Activists and Allies.

Tha Gay and Lesbian Task Force has published “Transgender Equality: a handbook for activists and policy makers” and” Opening the Door to the Inclusion of Transgender People: The Nine Keys to Making LGBT Organizations Fully Transgender-Inclusive.”

The US’s National Center for Transgender Equality’s resources include “Teaching Transgender: A guide to leading effective trainings” and “52 things you can do for transgender equality.”

Lambda 10 Project: resources for changing fraternities, sororities and campuses in general.

Transgender and gender non-conforming youth: recommendations for schools from the Transgender Law Center.

Gender.org‘s materials for gender educators.

List of resources for LGBTQ activism.

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Law and rights

Transgender Law Center: US legal information and tips for working with trans people. Also includes Beyond the Binary: A Tool-Kit for Gender Identity Activism in Schools and Peeing in Peace: A Resource Guide for Transgender Activists and Allies.

The Yogyakarta Principles: a set of principles on the application of international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity.

International Bill of Gender Rights.

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For fun

Yay genderform!: list of almost 1000 gender terms; create your own unique, complex gender!

Trans man mapping project: “If you’ve ever had that feeling of being alone in your transition, a quick look at the map will show you otherwise. We really are everywhere! –Gender Outlaw”

Kate Bornstein’s Gender Aptitude Test and a comic book she made for hospital staff about her trans status.

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LITERATURE

Beyond Masculinity – essays by queer men on gender & politics,

Beyond Masculinity is a groundbreaking collection of 22 provocative essays on sexuality, gender, and politics — all written by gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer men. Part audiobook, part-blog, and part-anthology, brings together a smart, diverse group of queer male writers all critically examining maleness and the construction of masculinity and gender norms for men. Contributions focus on five key areas: Desire, Sex and Sexuality; Negotiating Identities; Queer Feminist Politics; Beyond Binary Gender; and Transforming Masculinity.

It includes several essays by trans men and other gender-diverse people. The essay by Elliot Long, in particular, made me totally rethink transition. Also see Tarheels and Transfags and Top to Bottom.

Queer zines: list of several trans and gender-related zines.

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PHOTOGRAPHY & PORTRAITS

Bois & Dykes: Sophia Wallace’s photo essay:

Bois and Dykes is a long-term documentary project that examines the concept of ‘feminine masculinity’ by visually telling the stories of people who live within a spectrum of identities ranging from dyke and butch, to tomboy, aggressive, and transgender. Existing within a society that rarely understands or acknowledges their presence, these individuals face a variety of personal and political struggles. Bois and Dykes aims to show its subjects in an uncensored and honest light.

GQ: “a stencil portrait series honoring genderqueer individuals who have shaped the ‘female masculinity’ landscape”.

Visual artist Del Lagrace Volcano‘s portfolio. Ze says:

As a gender variant visual artist I access ‘technologies of gender’ in order to amplify rather than erase the hermaphroditic traces of my body. I name myself. A gender abolitionist. A part time gender terrorist. An intentional mutation and intersex by design, (as opposed to diagnosis), in order to distinguish my journey from the thousands of intersex individuals who have had their ‘ambiguous’ bodies mutilated and disfigured in a misguided attempt at ‘normalization’. I believe in crossing the line as many times as it takes to build a bridge we can all walk across.

Genderfork (curator blog)explores androgyny and gender variance through artistic photography. Now it’s also a nice community for discussing androgyny, fluidity and genderqueer.

XX Boys: artistic photographs of trans men of all kinds — guys with and without hormones, with and without chest surgery, guys who took T for some time and then stopped, etc. By Kael T Block.

Embodiment: A Portrait of Queer Life in America: photographs of diverse queer people (trans, genderqueer, butch, femme and more):

As I photograph throughout both urban and rural spaces across the United States, I am discovering how age, race, gender, sex and geography intersect to form a fantastically diverse range of experiences with a similar center point. This constantly growing series of portraits creates a story about love and the process of growing into one’s self. It is about the complexity of relationships forged between a diverse community of people who playfully reveal unique and subtle shades of gender expression and with a glance or a touch reassemble the sometimes delicate anatomy of a family. — Molly Landreth

Transformational Project by photographer Jen Rosenstein. Beautiful portraits of trans people. One of the trans male models said:

I had originally intended to just pose in my jeans and boots without a shirt but the morning of the shoot I was looking in the mirror at my reflection in a pair of black boxer briefs. “F**k it,” I thought, “I’m just gonna pose nude…I’m proud of my body…I own who I am today!”

Amanda Morgan: photography.  Besides the portraits of her trans lover, in her I AM A MAN series she takes on various male signifiers to explore issues of performative masculinity and its intersection with race, class and sexual orientation.

Sociological Images (Seeing is Believing): briefly-commented media images that represent cultural attitudes towards different subjects; for instance, the construction of gender, transgender, sexual orientation and intersex.

The Transgender Book Project includes pictures of trans individuals alongside handwritten texts where they talk about their identities.

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VIDEOS

Wrong Bathroom: hilarious yet realistic account of gender-diverse people’s restroom troubles.

Gender Rebel: documentary about three female-born genderqueer people, one of whom is physically transitioning.

Transgender Basics: nice introduction to the gender binary (and alternatives to it), trans men, trans women, and genderqueers.

Silent T Party: talking about trans inclusion in anti-discrimination acts. I like Kalil Cohen’s description of his trans childhood.

LGBtotheT AtoZ is an alphabetical collection of short videos narrating “biographies, pivotal historic moments and critical contemporary issues facing the trans community”. They’re pretty shallow, in my opinion, but good for a quick intro to new subjects. For instance, I hadn’t ever heard of the Dewey’s Lunch Counter protest, a trans protest that happened years before the Stonewall riots.

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MUSIC & PODCASTS

The Cliks: great rock band with a superhot trans man singer, Lucas Silveira.

Coyote Grace: “Girl meets Girl. Girl becomes Boy. Girl and Boy become a band. Meet COYOTE GRACE.” A folk-ish duo.

Gender Talk: radio talk show about gender and trans issues. Available for online listening or download.

TransFM: podcasts such as The Radical Trannies (mostly about activism, at least the episodes I listened to) and TransPonder (about transition, the trans world and life in general).

Gender Blender: radio show on transgender and gender in general.

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SPOKEN WORD & SLAM POETRY

Kit Yan: Kit slams about gender, race and food in a style that can go from funny to poignant and every emotion in between. He’s part of Good Asian Drivers, “a music and spoken word duo that only pretends to gig and mostly uses touring as an excuse to eat random foods.” My post about him lists my favorite poems.

Andrea Gibson: Genderqueer poet. She slams about queer gender in Swingset (“are you a boy or a girl?”) and Andrew.

Athens Boys Choir: The Athens Boys Choir isn’t a choir at all – it’s Harvey Katz, a trans spoken-word/hip-hop performer. See my post about him.

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BLOGS

–Gender theorizing

Below the Belt: deconstructing gender, one kick to the groin at a time.

Sugarbutch: the sex, gender and relationship adventures of a kinky queer butch top.

–By/about trans and gender-diverse people

A Gender Agenda Blog: Gender rights are human rights.

Being a teenage crossdresser: Wearing a skirt has never been so difficult…

Cheerful Megalomaniac: Ryan is an extremely opinionated young transexual person from Canberra, Australia. (no longer updated)

Female-to-FuckYou: The trials and tribulations of a trans-masculine college student.

Gender 3.0: A San Francisco trans dyke’s tales of life in and beyond the gender binary. (no longer updated)

Gender Outlaw: FTM transition journal.

gender, rants and sodomy: an eighteen year old, queer identified, tranny fag.

GenoTypo: Someone forgot to use the genetic spell check — it’s XY, not XX — but I’m getting the correction fluid.

Labels Are For Jars: blog by a mother who doesn’t force societal gender norms onto her boy.

My Life as a Drag King: Performing gender and exploring boundaries

Radical If: “My name is Ryan Radclyffe-Hall. I’m a young Australian activist, who passionately believes that positive social change is possible in my lifetime.”

Tboy Jacky: Just another FTM chronicle

TRANS∙pose: Gender identity, transition, and sexuality through the eyes of a queer, genderqueer living in Los Angeles. (no longer updated)

Transsexual and Transparent: Pushing Boundaries: One Man’s Reality – Following the Experiences of a Transition from Female to Male

–Gay, lesbian, queer

Lesbian Dad is a personal essay/photography blog about parenthood generally, and lesbian parenthood in particular, with especial attention to the experiences of non-birth and/or butch mums and the many larger questions our unique kind of parenthood opens up.

Queers United: The activist blog Uniting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersexual, Asexual community & Allies in the fight for equality.

–Other

blue milk: thinking + motherhood = feminist

Kate Bornstein: Blog for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws