Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender

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. 

Author: Kit Heyam
Publisher: Seal Press (CA)
Published: 09/13/2022
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.30w x 1.40d
ISBN13: 9781541603080
ISBN10: 1541603087
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | LGBTQ+ Studies | Transgender Studies
- Social Science | Gender Studies
- History | World | General

About the Author
Kit Heyam is a university lecturer, a queer history activist, and a trans awareness trainer who has worked with organizations across the United Kingdom. They live in Leeds, UK, with their partner Alex.