
Before We Were Trans
A New History of Gender
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Narrated by:
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Dr. Kit Heyam Ph.D
About this listen
A groundbreaking global history of gender nonconformity
Today’s narratives about trans people tend to feature individuals with stable gender identities that fit neatly into the categories of male or female. Those stories, while important, fail to account for the complex realities of many trans people’s lives.
Before We Were Trans illuminates the stories of people across the globe, from antiquity to the present, whose experiences of gender have defied binary categories. Blending historical analysis with sharp cultural criticism, trans historian and activist Kit Heyam offers a new, radically inclusive trans history, chronicling expressions of trans experience that are often overlooked, like gender-nonconforming fashion and wartime stage performance. Before We Were Trans transports us from Renaissance Venice to seventeenth-century Angola, from Edo Japan to early America, and looks to the past to uncover new horizons for possible trans futures.
©2022 Dr. Kit Heyam, PhD (P)2022 Seal PressListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Before We Were Trans is a thoughtful, fun, and refreshingly readable romp through the history of gender variance before the invention of contemporary ‘transgender’ categories and concepts.—Susan Stryker, author of Transgender History
"Before We Were Trans provides much needed context, nuance, and breadth to our understanding of human gender diversity throughout history and in different cultures. While people who we might now call transgender or LGBTQIA+ have always existed, Kit Heyam shows how both individuals' and societies' understanding of sex, gender, and sexuality are situational, multifaceted, and constantly evolving.—Julia Serano, author of Whipping Girl and Sexed Up
"Before We Were Trans enlarges our understanding of trans histories and highlights the beauty, complexity, and contradictions of doing historical work - all in a voice that invites the reader in, and not only teaches us what to think about trans lives in the past, but how to think about them.—Hugh Ryan, author of The Women’s House of Detention
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Performance
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In this fabulous, fashion-forward guide, transgender icons Gigi Gorgeous and Gottmik discuss the ins and outs of being transgender with their honest, hilarious, and GORGEOUS tales of what it means to be true to oneself—and they've picked up a few friends along the way. Whether you're embarking on your own transgender journey or seeking the knowledge to be the best ally you can be, there is something to be learned from every story they tell.
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Very Interesting
- By sccergirl22 on 12-06-24
By: Gigi Gorgeous, and others
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It Gets Better . . . Except When It Gets Worse
- And Other Unsolicited Truths I Wish Someone Had Told Me
- By: Nicole Maines
- Narrated by: Nicole Maines
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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For the first time, in her own words, Nicole tells the story of her journey from childhood in rural Maine to the spotlights of Hollywood, sharing the lessons she’s learned along the way. With clever wit and unflinching honesty, she tackles some of the most insidious messaging absorbed by queer kids and all young women, from the idea that any one thing can (or should) ever really “fix” you, to wondering what’s wrong with you when things don’t always feel better, and reminding us that, sometimes, a happy ending is only the beginning of the story.
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Everyone should read this book!
- By Melanie Rule on 03-08-25
By: Nicole Maines
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Tomorrow Will Be Different
- Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality
- By: Sarah McBride, Joe Biden - foreword
- Narrated by: Sarah McBride
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Before she became the first transgender person to speak at a national political convention in 2016 at the age of twenty-six, Sarah McBride struggled with the decision to come out—not just to her family but to the students of American University, where she was serving as student body president. She’d known she was a girl from her earliest memories, but it wasn’t until the Facebook post announcing her truth went viral that she realized just how much impact her story could have on the country.
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Amazing Trans story
- By MNB on 02-07-21
By: Sarah McBride, and others
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Gender Magic
- Live Shamelessly, Reclaim Your Joy, & Step into Your Most Authentic Self
- By: Rae McDaniel MED LCPC CST
- Narrated by: Rae McDaniel MED LCPC CST
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Taking everything they know from more than a decade of working with the queer and trans community, their personal journey of gender exploration, and clinical best practices, licensed therapist, coach, and speaker Rae McDaniel created the Gender Freedom Model. A uniquely supportive narrative for gender exploration and transition grounded in queer joy, their nine-pillar model has helped thousands of transgender and nonbinary individuals explore gender through play, pleasure, and freedom. And now, it can help you too.
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Eh not for me
- By Dana on 10-24-23
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A Clinician's Guide to Gender-Affirming Care
- Working with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Clients
- By: Sand C. Chang PhD, Anneliese A. Singh PhD LPC, Lore M. Dickey PhD
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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This book provides up-to-date information on language, etiquette, and appropriate communication and conduct in treating TGNC clients, and discusses the history, cultural context, and ethical and legal issues that can arise in working with gender-diverse individuals in a clinical setting. You'll also find information about informed consent approaches that call for a shift in the role of the mental health provider in the position of assessment and referral for the purposes of gender-affirming medical care (such as hormones, surgery, and other procedures).
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Highly Informative
- By Siz2741 on 12-03-21
By: Sand C. Chang PhD, and others
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Falling Back in Love with Being Human
- Letters to Lost Souls
- By: Kai Cheng Thom
- Narrated by: Kai Cheng Thom
- Length: 1 hr and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Kai Cheng Thom grew up a Chinese Canadian transgender girl in a hostile world. As an activist, psychotherapist, conflict mediator, and spiritual healer, she’s always pursued the same deeply personal mission: to embrace the revolutionary belief that every human being, no matter how hateful or horrible, is intrinsically sacred.
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The words I have needed to hear
- By Matthew on 07-20-24
By: Kai Cheng Thom
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Gender Outlaw
- On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us
- By: Kate Bornstein, S. Bear Bergman
- Narrated by: Kate Bornstein
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Author Kate Bornstein ushers listeners on a funny, fearless, and wonderfully scenic journey across the terrains of gender and identity. On one level, Gender Outlaw details Bornstein's transformation from heterosexual male to lesbian woman, from a one-time IBM salesperson to a playwright and performance artist. But this particular coming-of-age story is also a provocative investigation into our notions of male and female, from a self-described nonbinary transfeminine diesel femme dyke who never stops questioning our cultural assumptions.
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wonderful book read very well by an amazing person
- By Amazon Customer on 11-02-18
By: Kate Bornstein, and others
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On Your Terms
- Gender Transition Redefined for Adults
- By: Dr. Natalia P Zhikhareva
- Narrated by: Gwyn Clark
- Length: 2 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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This book will help to empower you to own who you are, even if you feel afraid. To reclaim yourself. To own your identity unapologetically. To heal and to grow.
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Concise and helpful
- By DK on 06-29-24
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Trans Like Me
- Conversations for All of Us
- By: C.N. Lester
- Narrated by: CN Lester
- Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In Trans Like Me, CN Lester takes listeners on a measured, thoughtful, intelligent yet approachable tour through the most important and high-profile narratives around the trans community, turning them inside out and examining where we really are in terms of progress. From the impact of the media's wording in covering trans people and issues to the way parenting gender variant children is portrayed, Lester brings their charged personal narrative to every topic and expertly lays out the work left to be done.
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An essential perspective
- By Sophia Clay on 10-07-19
By: C.N. Lester
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Trans
- When Ideology Meets Reality
- By: Helen Joyce
- Narrated by: Helen Joyce
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Gender identity ideology is about more than Twitter storms and using the right pronouns. In just 10 years, laws, company policies, school and university curricula, sport, medical protocols, and the media have been reshaped to privilege self-declared gender identity over biological sex. People are being shamed and silenced for attempting to understand the consequences of redefining "man" and "woman". While compassion for transgender lives is well-intentioned, it is stifling much-needed inquiry into the significance of our bodies.
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rational, clear criticism of trans ideology
- By M. Horne on 02-08-22
By: Helen Joyce
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Enemy Feminisms
- TERFs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation
- By: Sophie Lewis
- Narrated by: Helen Phillips
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In recent years, "white feminism" and girlboss feminism have taken a justified beating. We know that leaning in won't make our jobs any more tolerable and that white women have proven to be, at best, unreliable allies. But in a time of rising fascism, ceaseless attacks on reproductive justice, and violent transphobia, we need to reckon with what Western feminism has wrought if we have any hope of building the feminist world we need.
By: Sophie Lewis
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Real Queer America
- LGBT Stories from Red States
- By: Samantha Allen
- Narrated by: Samantha Allen
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In Real Queer America, Samantha Allen takes us on a cross-country road-trip stretching all the way from Provo, Utah to the Rio Grande Valley to the Bible Belt to the Deep South. Her motto for the trip: "Something gay every day." Making pit stops at drag shows, political rallies, and hubs of queer life across the heartland, she introduces us to scores of extraordinary LGBT people working for change, from the first openly transgender mayor in Texas history to the manager of the only queer night club in Bloomington, Indiana, and many more.
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Not what I expected
- By KiroPhoto on 04-09-19
By: Samantha Allen
What listeners say about Before We Were Trans
Highly rated for:
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- Lars Nioclás
- 02-12-24
My introduction to Queer History
I use queer as in abnormal to the status quo in the title. I don't remember where or who online recommended this book but I'm glad I saved it. I was hoping for a history book on possible trans history that was inclusive to marginalized groups of people besides just trans people, this is exactly that (coming from a white person and this book was written by a white person). The stories told by Kit were riveting and I can see myself in many of these vastly different humans. More than anything, the detail put on how we do not know if many of these people were trans but they could have been; they also could have been a plethora of different identities, including or excluding being gender queer. I have only an American public school education, learning true history, the history colonizers tried to erase, is so deeply comforting
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- Michael D. Kilman
- 03-07-24
A fascinating and important work
The core idea, that gender has never been static and that there were always individuals who played with different concepts is a cornerstone of history. This book, which successfully challenges the inevitability of gender, is an important work of history and I can't recommend it enough. Very little of our modern worldview is inevitable and it's books like this that demonstrate humans have always been both curious and complex in the ways they move through the world.
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- Serena
- 10-29-24
FANTASTIC
This is an amazing book, my favorite to date. I see myself reflected in these pages
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- Modulus16
- 03-29-23
Lovely Broad Overview of Trans History
I really loved the broad overview of trans history, and the careful view of ensuring readers understand applying the same labels we use today to the past isn't always accurate, even if people in the past experienced very similar things people experience today. At the same time, helping us see the feelings we feel are valid and are not unique to just this brief period of time and people have been experiencing these feelings for generations.
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- Markus
- 01-10-24
I have learned SO much!
Thank you for sharing your wisdom. I am happy to continue a path of learning, growing, and loving.
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- Shannon Glenn
- 03-08-24
Understanding
I wasn't sure what to think at first, there was so much detail, good, but lots of information in the intro. The history, the quality of respect given to all peoples, the stories, were all fantastic. I appreciate the references and the facts, deeply. So good! It would be great if everyone read this book.
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- Sheen
- 07-06-24
Love the history & information
Well thought out book and great references. Love the history but lost me a little at the white part… nonetheless it’s a good read with great stories!
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- Anonymous User
- 09-14-24
forgot to review this 09-13-25
yeah no this is pretty good
kinda surface level, but it was a good look at history
what i liked about it more than the actual historical analysis was the methods she described and the reasoning for why we should look at things from a certain lense
and it complemented my knowledge well as i read other books about queer feminist history
a bit disapointed tbh but i think that speaks more to the quality of the other books ive read so far and not to the lack of quality of this one. worth the buy imo
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- XPaul Lopez
- 04-05-25
Written with care
The author gives an overview of gender variant history across time and cultures. They take great care to define terms within the context of cultural and historical relevance, stating that our modern (and Western) idea of trans identity doesn’t necessarily describe the gender variances and experiences of other persons who exist outside our perspective. They also spend time describing how identities and recognition of trans/nonbinary people have shifted, largely due to colonialism, putting a spotlight on the erase of trans history. To know yourself is to know where you come from and this history is vital to reclaim for us all.
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- Daniel Hebert
- 04-11-23
The history we need right now
Loved it. Extremely informative, with fascinating insights into the intersections of trans history with gay history, racial history, colonial history, intersex history, culture, and spirituality.
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2 people found this helpful