Safezone Collection: Trans Resources

A groundbreaking work of LGBT literature takes an honest look at the life, love, and struggles of transgender teens. Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them thoughtfully and respectfully before, during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender preference. Portraits, family photographs, and candid images grace the pages, augmenting the emotional and physical journey each youth has taken. Each honest discussion and disclosure, whether joyful or heartbreaking, is completely different from the other because of family dynamics, living situations, gender, and the transition these teens make in recognition of their true selves.

This book is about how to finally give up on feeling bad about yourself and discover the best person you can be. Through Jeffrey's own story of growing up fabulous in a small farming town, along with the stories of hero/ines who have transcended the stereotypes of race, age, and gender, you will discover that you are not alone, can deepen your relationship with yourself, and find the courage to take a leap that will change your life.

Available online through Ebook Central.
Based on 150 in-depth interviews, this text brings together the voices of sex- and gender-diverse people who speak with absolute candor about their lives.

The Transgender Studies Reader puts between two covers fifty influential texts with new introductions by the editors that, taken together, document the evolution of transgender studies in the English-speaking world.

In 2011, Marie Claire magazine published a profile of Janet Mock in which she publicly stepped forward for the first time as a trans woman. Since then, Mock has gone from covering the red carpet for People.com to advocating for all those who live within the shadows of society. Redefining Realness offers a bold new perspective on being young, multiracial, economically challenged and transgender in America.

Espinoza's debut is an interrogation of the world and the self at once. Here, the body is a fixation, as if to look away from it, even briefly, is to risk having it erased. As such, this is a book of unblinking human preservation, and how we trespass ourselves seeking safer spaces.

In this fascinating, personal journey through history, Leslie Feinberg--one of the most prominent gender rights activists today--uncovers persuasive evidence that there have always been people who crossed the cultural boundaries of gender. Out of hir embattled childhood and teenage years as a gender outlaw, Feinberg began a search for others like hir in history. Ze found a long tradition of fighting back against injustice—from Joan of Arc to the Welsh peasants who cross-dressed to protest taxes; from the Black and Latina drag queens who led the Stonewall Rebellion to transsexual parents today. Despite the sometimes terrible price that traditional society often exacted of these transgender warriors, Feinberg urges us to receive them as heroes and visionaries.

Available online through Ebook Central.
Covering American transgender history from the mid-twentieth century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events. Chapters cover the transsexual and transvestite communities in the years following World War II; trans radicalism and social change, which spanned from 1966 with the publication of The Transsexual Phenomenon, and lasted through the early 1970s; the mid-'70s to 1990-the era of identity politics and the changes witnessed in trans circles through these years; and the gender issues witnessed through the '90s and '00s.

From the time she was two years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl's brain in a boy's body. She loved pink and dressing up as a mermaid and didn't feel like herself in boys' clothing. This confused her family, until they took her to a doctor who said that Jazz was transgender and that she was born this way. Jazz's story is based on her real-life experience and she tells it in a simple, clear way that will be appreciated by picture book readers, their parents, and teachers.

Woman or man? That's the question that rages like a storm around Jess Goldberg, clouding her life and her identity. Growing up differently gendered in a blue--collar town in the 1950's, coming out as a butch in the bars and factories of the prefeminist '60s, deciding to pass as a man in order to survive when she is left without work or a community in the early '70s. This powerful, provocative and deeply moving novel sees Jess coming full circle, as she learns to accept the complexities of being a transgender person in a world demanding simple explanations: an emerging whole, weathering the turbulence.

A bright, bold debut about a girl who seems like a boy, but refuses to let that stand in the way of her dream. More than anything else, George wants to play Charlotte in her fourth-grade class's production of Charlotte's Web. The problem is, her teacher won't let her, because George is a boy. But George isn't about to let that squash her dream. With the help of her best friend, George must learn to stand up for her wish - and brave a few bullies along the way. Transcending all categories and genres, George is a pertinent and poignant middle-grade read for kids of all backgrounds.

Becoming Johanna is a compelling story that follows the struggles transgender teens face every day. In the end, Johanna refuses to let her mother’s rejection define her life and she continues the journey toward becoming comfortable in her own skin. She finds mentors and a family-of-choice who love and support her and enable her to thrive. Johanna’s story is as beautiful as she is, and will leave you hopeful that we can build communities that accept all of our children just the way they are.

Growing Up Coy is a feature-length documentary about a Colorado family who engages in a highly publicized legal battle and landmark civil rights case, as they fight for their 6-year-old transgender daughter's right to use the girls' bathroom at her elementary school. The film asks a universal question that any parent could face: "How far would you go to fight for your child’s rights?"