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Just Add Hormones:
An Insider's Guide to the Transsexual Experience
by Matt Kailey
Matt Kailey lived as a straight woman for the first forty-two years
of his life, and then he changed. With the help of a good therapist,
chest surgery, and some strong doses of testosterone, Kailey began
living life as the man he'd always wanted to be. Now, in Just Add
Hormones, Kailey uses humor and humility to explain his journey
toward accepting himself as neither a woman nor someone born male. |
Hiding My Candy
by Lady Chablis
Chablis is a full-time transvestite. In clinical terms, she is a
preoperative transsexual," John Berendt explains in his
introduction. Chablis takes it from there, presenting a sassy,
tongue-in-cheek version of her life story, which she began as
Benjamin Edward Knox in 1957. She recounts growing up in Florida as
a self-confessed "sissy-child"; recalls being abandoned by both her
mother and father and being raised by her classy grandmother; and
notes the problems she and her family had coming to terms with her
sexuality. She tells of her imprisonment for shoplifting; her debut
on stage as a female impersonator in Atlanta in the mid-1970s;
taking hormones to grow breasts; and the high cost of electrolysis.
After winning the Miss Gay World Pageant, Chablis moved on to
Savannah, where she changed her act to include stand-up comedy
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She's Not There
by Jennifer Finney Boylan
Boylan, English professor and author of the critically acclaimed
novels The Constellations (1994), The Planets (1991), and Getting In
(1998), began life as a male named James Boylan. In this
autobiography, she details her lifelong struggle with her burgeoning
femaleness and the path she followed to become a female, both
physically and mentally. For 40 years, the author lived as a man,
seemingly happy and even marrying a woman and fathering two
children. At a certain point, though, she realized that she couldn't
suppress her desire to live as a female and so eventually went
through all the steps to become female, including sexual
reassignment surgery. There is something troubling about Boylan's
lighthearted tone, and while she hints at it, there is no really
clear depiction of the havoc this transition must have wreaked on
her married life (Boylan's wife was clearly devastated) and on her
children (who at times refer to her as boygirl or maddy). But
Boylan's well-written and informative book is a worthy contribution
to the body of work on this subject.
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From Man to Woman
The Virginia Price Story
by Richard F. Doctor
This book tells the life story of a transgender pioneer, Virginia
Prince, who was the founder/editor of Transvestia Magazine and who
helped to organize support groups for cross dressers throughout the
world. Her own sexual and gender develop is examined. Virginia
Prince invented the term "transgender" and has lived full-time as a
woman since the age of 55, without transsexual surgery which she
strongly opposes. |
