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choirqueer's review against another edition
1.0
I realize this book is way out of date, but there were other trans people writing much better content even before this was first published, and we know that the author had access to that content because he cites it. The "examining an anthropological specimen" tone he takes when writing about BIPOC folks was so gross I almost ditched the book just on that basis, but I wanted to make it all the way through to try to figure out why this book is so canonical. I never figured it out. I didn't make a list of all the issues with this book because it wasn't worth interrogating it that deeply just to stick it in a Goodreads review. There are plenty of great trans historical texts in the world. Read those instead. You can even use this book for its bibliography to find them.
diesel's review
3.0
Although informative, the author did not speak with a non biased view point and let his opinions blur the facts. Otherwise, this is an informative book, and includes quite a list of books, mostly autobiographies, but some novels too, that are mentioned for further reading, since I do not believe this should be your only source for LGBT history.
pussreboots's review
4.0
While I enjoyed the book thoroughly and learned a great deal I felt at times that the author's personal agenda clouded some of her discussions, especially those involving women (whether straight, lesbian, transgendered or otherwise). While I agree that women have been and in some places still are dominated and or repressed by men, I cannot agree that the experiences are as uniform and unilateral as she insists they are. Chapter three is the worst offender and quickly goes from being an academic essay to being a long winded rant.
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