TRANS/gressive

How Transgender Activists Took on Gay Rights, Feminism, the Media & Congress… and Won!

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Gender Studies, History, Modern
Cover of the book TRANS/gressive by Riki Wilchins, Riverdale Avenue Books LLC
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Riki Wilchins ISBN: 9781626013674
Publisher: Riverdale Avenue Books LLC Publication: June 1, 2017
Imprint: Magnus Language: English
Author: Riki Wilchins
ISBN: 9781626013674
Publisher: Riverdale Avenue Books LLC
Publication: June 1, 2017
Imprint: Magnus
Language: English

In the early 1990s, no one talked about transgender people, and no one knew one. We were not on TV or in movies. What formed the visible part of the transcommunity – overwhelmingly white, urban, and middle class – was also overwhelmingly focused on conferences, surgery or hormones and cisgender acceptance.

This was still a determinedly non-political population, often in defensive crouch because it was also constantly under attack by the media, police, local legislatures, feminists and even LGB-but-never-T advocates.

We were a group that still thought of ourselves as a collection of separate individuals, not a movement. What made political consciousness so difficult was that there was no “transgender section” of town, where we saw each other regularly.

And mainstream society mostly ignored us. And when it didn’t, it usually made clear it despised us. We were freaks. We were gendertrash.

We lived in a transient and indoor community that knew itself only a few days at a time during conferences at hotels out on the interstate.

But all that was about to change.

Even when politics are avoided, bringing despised and marginalized people together is itself a political act. Without realizing or intending it, the community was reaching critical mass.

Even in those pre-Internet, pre-cellphone days, enough transpeople were running into one another often enough to begin realizing we could be a force, that we didn’t really need cisgender acceptance. What we needed was our civil rights.

This is the inside story of how in just a few years, a handful of trans activists would come together in the face of enormous difficulties and opposition to launch from the very margins of society what would grow into the modern political movement for gender rights.

 

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In the early 1990s, no one talked about transgender people, and no one knew one. We were not on TV or in movies. What formed the visible part of the transcommunity – overwhelmingly white, urban, and middle class – was also overwhelmingly focused on conferences, surgery or hormones and cisgender acceptance.

This was still a determinedly non-political population, often in defensive crouch because it was also constantly under attack by the media, police, local legislatures, feminists and even LGB-but-never-T advocates.

We were a group that still thought of ourselves as a collection of separate individuals, not a movement. What made political consciousness so difficult was that there was no “transgender section” of town, where we saw each other regularly.

And mainstream society mostly ignored us. And when it didn’t, it usually made clear it despised us. We were freaks. We were gendertrash.

We lived in a transient and indoor community that knew itself only a few days at a time during conferences at hotels out on the interstate.

But all that was about to change.

Even when politics are avoided, bringing despised and marginalized people together is itself a political act. Without realizing or intending it, the community was reaching critical mass.

Even in those pre-Internet, pre-cellphone days, enough transpeople were running into one another often enough to begin realizing we could be a force, that we didn’t really need cisgender acceptance. What we needed was our civil rights.

This is the inside story of how in just a few years, a handful of trans activists would come together in the face of enormous difficulties and opposition to launch from the very margins of society what would grow into the modern political movement for gender rights.

 

More books from Riverdale Avenue Books LLC

Cover of the book Waves of Pleasure by Riki Wilchins
Cover of the book John McCain by Riki Wilchins
Cover of the book Christian Mingle by Riki Wilchins
Cover of the book Persephone’s Beastly Lover by Riki Wilchins
Cover of the book Fifty Shades of Grey Fedora by Riki Wilchins
Cover of the book Masquerade Menage by Riki Wilchins
Cover of the book Her Stepbrother is a Monster by Riki Wilchins
Cover of the book The Naughty Angel and Her Three Very Wise Men by Riki Wilchins
Cover of the book Inside Grey’s Anatomy: The Unauthorized Biography of Jamie Dornan by Riki Wilchins
Cover of the book Happy MILF Day by Riki Wilchins
Cover of the book Her Three Men by Riki Wilchins
Cover of the book A Christmas Carl by Riki Wilchins
Cover of the book The Naughty Stepbrothers by Riki Wilchins
Cover of the book An Anthology of Evil Men by Riki Wilchins
Cover of the book Ghosts of Christmas Passion by Riki Wilchins
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy