The Lives of Transgender People Paperback – Illustrated, November 15, 2011

Every therapist needs to read this book. This topic was not addressed when you were in school. As the need to become aware of the many aspects of diversity this book helps to address that need.

Well done! Great Resource!

Interesting research. Well written.

Was a very good read on the lives of the Transgendered community.

Great book, timely delivery.

When Geeny Beemyn and Susan Rankin set out to conduct a study of transgender people in the United States, they did something most people writing about transgender never do: they listened. They invited thousands of people to participate in surveys and to "self-identify," whether it was as transgender, transvestite, genderqueer, androgyne, drag queen or any other variation that described a gender identity other than binary male or female and in keeping with the gender one was assigned at birth. They also included people who used to identify as transgender but no longer did (as in the case of MTF or FTM transgenders who no longer identified as transgender after gender reassignment). By casting a wide net and allowing people to self-identify, the authors include voices often not heard in other studies, particularly among young people. It doesn't hurt that at least one of the authors also identifies as a member of the transgender community herself.For more, please visit my blog, CozyLittleBookJournal.Disclaimer: I received a digital galley of this book free from the publisher from NetGalley. I was not obliged to write a favourable review, or even any review at all. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.

There are few surprises in this report for those of us who have been allies or activists for many years, but this book is the best I have seen so far to help those outside our community understand transgender at least a little better. It should be required reading in all gender studies courses.Fortunately, the authors use the term transgender in it's broadest meaning. One surprising result of their study is expressed as follows: "In our survey, respondents offered more than a hundred different descriptions for their gender identity besides the traditional categories of men, women, and transgender." Many, or perhaps most, of these unique categories are somewhere under the relatively new category genderqueer.This is the most difficult of all for those of us who have spent much of our lives in a binary world. We understand male and female. We may even understand transition from female to male or male to female, although it may be outside our personal experience. It is the hundreds of "in-between" genders that are difficult to understand. If you share this puzzlement, "Nina Here Nor There" by Nick Krieger (available at Amazon.com) is an outstanding book by a transgender writer whose experience places them firmly in the genderqueer category somewhat on the male side of the middle between male and female.Authors Beemyn and Rankin do a pretty good job of explaining this category through exposition and anecdotal segments quoted from survey participants. The size of their survey group (about 3500 respondents) provides a higher statistical probability to their conclusions. The breadth of their survey - incorporating diversity in gender, ethnicity, race, and religion - further validates that transgender is endemic to all populations.I heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand the path our transgender friends have taken - or will take - in their lives.

The authors Beemyn and Rankin present results of their exhaustive research in an understandable way. It shows there is no single way of being transgender but many. Since transpeople are relatively few, the lives of transgender people rely greatly on the awareness of the cisgendered. Their work would undoubtedly raise awareness in the population if widely read. Spread the word.