Trans 101

Info! Resources!

I get a lot of questions about trans people. These questions vary from the existential (what are trans people?) to the practical (what is “transition”?), and even the political (what rights do trans people still need?). I answer a lot of those questions on this blog, and will continue to answer more, but I wanted to create a quick list (which I will keep updated), with links to the best resources I know on trans issues. This guide is mostly meant for cisgender¹ people. If you have resources you think should be here, please send them!

Important: Please do not get overwhelmed by this to the point where you don’t read/watch any of it. Just pick whichever thing looks most interesting to you and jump in. When you’re done, maybe pick another one. Don’t worry if you never finish the list.

This post will be updated soon with a link to a presentation I am doing at Claremont United Church of Christ on Sunday, November 17th @ 11:30am. If we’re friends, and you want to join the Zoom for it online, feel free to message me and I’ll send you the link.

Perhaps self-serving, but the first resource I’d love if you signed up for is this newsletter, which you can do for free right here.

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(Trans)gender - What and Why?

I’ll recommend a lot of stuff by Abigail Thorn (aka Philosophy Tube), but this one has to be the top on the list. This was her coming out video. The man you see at the start is an actor who plays her pre-transition self (quite well), before the video switches to her reveal of her transitioned self. She talks a lot about what it even means to be trans, and if you listen to me, you’ll frequently hear echoes of this video.

For history, I can recommend the book Transgender History, though it is highly US-centric. I’m not aware of a good world-history of trans people, but this Wikipedia page is a good jumping off point. Trans people have always existed, across many cultures for millennia.

From a faith perspective, I recommend Austin Hartke’s Transforming and Shannon TL Kearns In the Margins.

I also recommend Julia Serano’s Whipping Girl for both who trans people are, as well as the discrimination we face. In fact, most of these books will not simply be an exploration of trans lives, but rather a work of education and advocacy, due to the current rampant transphobia facing us.

For a particular case, I recommend the new documentary Will & Harper on Netflix, about actor Will Ferrell and his trans friend Harper Steele.

And finally, for some philosophy, again, I’ll add Abigail Thorn’s recent video about Judith Butler:

Anti-recommendations

Because of wide-spread anti-trans views, I feel it necessary to highlight certain popular resources that I believe are not only anti-trans, but are functionally misinformation. If you read/watch these, do so knowing that you should be regularly fact checking their claims, big and small.

From a faith perspective, this has to include (not linking):

• Embodied - Preston Sprinkle

• The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self - Carl Trueman

Others notably include anything by Matt Walsh, but particularly his “documentary” What is a Woman.

Transition - When and How?

For this, I strongly recommend the book “Free to Be” by Jack Turban, MD. It’s all about what gender affirming care looks like for youth and young adults. It’s written accessibly by an expert in the field and will address the questions many have about this topic.

For some of the troubles with trans health care, I can recommend both of these videos, one by Abigail Thorn, and one by Lily Alexander (another transgender YouTuber).

Lily Alexandre’s videos are here, here, and here.

Political

Here we have a few options to address the huge anti-trans movement. Each of these creators has many more related works, but here are some highlights.

• Judith Butler - Who’s Afraid of Gender? (Book) - this is the inspiration for the first Philosophy Tube video I linked in this post.

• Philosophy Tube - Transphobia (video created prior to Abigail Thorn’s transition)

• Jessie Gender - The Anti-Trans Disinformation Pipeline (video)

• Lily Alexandre - The Feminist to Far-Right Pipeline (video)

• Caelan Conrad and Sarah (of the Leftist Cooks) - Drop the T - The Deadly Consequences of Gay Respectability Politics (video)

• ContraPoints (aka Natalie Wynn) - J.K. Rowling and The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling (videos)

• Lindsay Ellis - Tracing the Roots of Pop Culture Transphobia (video)

I wholeheartedly suggest you avoid Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier.

News

For trans related news, you really need to be following

Erin Reed

and Assigned Media.

I also cannot recommend the podcast The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: A Plot Against Equality enough. It’s not long - maybe 12 episodes (Season 3 just dropped), and produced by TransLash Media, headed by Imara Jones. It’s vital and explains so much.

Other Creators

Please also go subscribe to my friends!

• TRANSposition
  (Billie Hoard)

• Mae Forrest Barnes

• Jennifer Harris Dault

• Transvangelical’s Substack

Growing list

Ok, that’s the first set I came up with at midnight on a Saturday night (I know I’ve made egregious omissions) - I’ll keep adding more, and I’ll pin this to my homepage, feel free to recommend more in the comments!

1. People whose gender aligns with their sex assigned at birth.