Annotated Trans Feminist Bibliography

Sara Moiseff

As a trans feminism enthusiast and literature nerd, I always encourage people to read more trans feminist literature. In the interest of facilitating this, I have compiled this annotated bibliography. I have provided short annotations for the pieces that I have read. Is your favorite book, essay, or blog missing? Get in touch with me at common.sense.trans.book@gmail.com and I'll add it.

This bibliography was compiled for publication in TSF #2, but cut for reasons of space. It will be published in print (hopefully in updated form) in a future issue of TSF.

Compiling a trans feminist bibliography presents something of a unique (if largely inconsequential) problem: which trans books can be called trans feminist? I include all books that are explicitly trans and feminist, and include many other trans books that I consider useful to trans feminism. But if your favorite non-fiction trans book is not on this list, I may have left it off on purpose if I didn't consider it trans feminist. But email me anyway.

The formatting is a little screwed-up on the website. It will be more cleanly formatted in print. Indented text is the annotation to the entry above.

Books

Bey, Marquis. 2020. The Problem of the Negro as a Problem for Gender. Forerunners: Ideas First. University of Minnesota Press.

———. 2022. Black Trans Feminism. Black Outdoors: Innovations in the Poetics of Study. Duke University Press.

An examination of the interconnected nature of Black feminism and trans feminist. Although this book is certainly welcome against the overwhelming whiteness of much trans feminist writing, it is written in such a way as to largely obscure the lived experiences of actual trans women. This book is probably great if you have a Masters in gender studies, but it's written in such technical language that it's nearly incomprehensible to a layperson.

———. 2022. Cistem Failure: Essays on Blackness and Cisgender. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478023036.

———. 2026. Nonbinary Life: An Autotheory. 1st ed. Transgender Theory Series. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Bhatt, Talia. Brown/Trans/Les. Self-published, 2026.

A great follow-up to Trans/Rad/Fem.

———. Trans/Rad/Fem. Self-published, 2025.

Most noteworthy for its fiery thesis: that trans-feminism is the direct descendent of radical feminism. Unfortunately, Bhatt largely fails to actually analyze the theoretical relationships between the two schools of thought. The book is insightful (especially its most well-known essay, "The Third Sex"), but unpolished.

Bornstein, Kate. Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us. 1994. Revised and Updated edition. Vintage Books, 2016.

A historically important book for the development of non-binary and genderqueer identities, but one that hasn't aged especially well. Bornstein is all too ready to cave to transphobic narratives about trans women.

Butler, Judith. Who’s Afraid of Gender? Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2024.

A cogent analysis of the modern shape of the anti-trans movement, from feminists to religious conservatives.

Califia-Rice, Patrick. Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism. 2nd ed. Cleis Press, 2003.

The first book to examine the relationship between feminism and transgender people through a pro-trans lens.

Chu, Andrea Long. Females. 2025 edition. Verso, 2025.

A provocative piece of satire arguing that "everyone is female, and everyone hates it".

Cousens, Emily. Trans Feminist Epistemologies in the US Second Wave. 1st ed. Breaking Feminist Waves Series. Springer International Publishing AG, 2023.

Part of a growing wave of books re-examining the relationship between second wave feminism and transgender people.

Davis, E. R. Positive Transfeminism. Self-published, 2026.

Argues that trans women are a suppressed priestess class. Not a very good book.

Doyle, Jude. DILF: Did I Leave Feminism? Melville House, 2025.

An excellent personal account of a trans man's experience with feminism, including engagement with a wide variety of famous feminist thinkers.

Dworkin, Andrea. Woman Hating. First Picador paperback edition. Picador, 2025.

The first feminist book to explicitly advocate on behalf of transsexual people, albeit complicated by Dworkin's endorsement of The Transsexual Empire just five years later.

Enke, Anne, ed. Transfeminist Perspectives in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies. Temple University Press, 2012.

An interesting collection of transfeminist perspectives out of academia. My favorite essay is Dean Spade's "What's Wrong with Trans Rights?", a critique of the liberal human rights framework.

Faye, Shon. The Transgender Issue: Trans Justice Is Justice for All. 2021; London ; New York, 2022.

A terrific summary of modern trans politics, one that intentionally avoids hot-button issues like sports, and focuses instead on more important issues such as prisons and healthcare. Essential reading.

Feinberg, Leslie. Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Marsha P. Johnson and Beyond. Beacon Press, 1996.

A classic "rediscovery" of trans history. Not the most historically rigorous, but worth reading nonetheless.

Feinberg, Leslie. 2007. Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue. Nachdr. Beacon Press.

Gill-Peterson, Jules. A Short History of Trans Misogyny. 2024; Verso, 2025.

A fascinating and insightful examination of the rise of trans misogyny as a global structuring force. Gill-Peterson's attention to detail is excellent, even if she does at times exoticize trans-feminine people in the Global South.

Gleeson, Jules Joanne, Elle O’Rourke, and Jordy Rosenberg, eds. Transgender Marxism. Pluto Press, 2021.

A motley collection of essays reading Marx through trans eyes. Some but not all essays are overtly feminist.

Griffin-Gracy, Miss Major, and Toshio Meronek. Miss Major Speaks: Conversations with a Black Trans Revolutionary. Verso, 2023.

A terrific collection of interviews with Miss Major, a legendary trans activist who participated in the Stonewall uprising and continued to advocate for trans people for decades to follow.

Heaney, Emma, ed. Feminism against Cisness. Asterisk : Gender, Trans-, and All That Comes After. Duke University Press, 2024.

An academic collection of feminism with a complex philosophical orientation towards trans justice. Some essays (Heaney's, Gill-Peterson's, Gabriel's) are brilliant, others (Bey's, Lavery's), not so much.

———. The New Woman: Literary Modernism, Queer Theory, and the Trans Feminine Allegory. Flashpoints. Northwestern University Press, 2017.

A deeply insightful look at depictions of trans femininity in literary modernist writing, and an examination of structural trans-misogyny in queer theory and sexology. Heaney is closely attuned to the lived experiences of transsexual women, including those who are poor, racialized, and/or sex workers.

Lewis, Sophie. Enemy Feminisms: TERFs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses against Liberation. Haymarket Books, 2025.

An examination of many different reactionary feminisms or women's movements. One chapter centers on "TERFs".

Mackay, Finn. 2023. Female Masculinities and the Gender Wars: The Politics of Sex. Politics & International Relation. Bloomsbury Academic.

From this book's title, you may surmise that it would be a little bit trans-misogynistic. You would be correct. In this book's chapter on MichFest, Mackay speaks euphorically of their own experience attending the festival, argues clumsily and without clear evidence that the festival really did welcome trans women, and finally asserts that cissexual women have a feminist right to discriminate against trans women.

Namaste, Viviane K. Invisible Lives: The Erasure of Transsexual and Transgendered People. University of Chicago Press, 2000.

One of the best theoretical books ever written about transsexual people. Namaste takes theorists and sociologists to task for rendering transsexuals invisible, and provides a detailed account of how trans people interact with legal and medical systems.

———. Sex Change, Social Change: Reflections on Identity, Institutions and Imperialism. 2nd ed. Women’s Press, 2011.

A terrific follow-up to Invisible Lives, expanding Namaste's critiques of Anglo imperialism in mainstream trans activism. A 2005 interview with Mirha-Soleil Ross contains an early articulation of trans-misogyny.

Olufemi, Lola. Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power. Outspoken. Pluto Press, 2020.

A feminism 101 book with a chapter on trans-misogyny.

Raha, Nat, and Mijke Van der Drift. Trans Femme Futures: Abolitionist Ethics for Transfeminist Worlds. Pluto Press, 2024.

Perplexingly, this book takes for granted that souls exist, and asserts that such an assumption is "profoundly materialist."

Raymond, Janice G. The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male. 1979; Teachers College Press, 1994.

The ultimate TERF bible. Included on this list because nearly every trans-feminist book responds to it. Reading it will probably be bad for your mental well-being. Available for free at https://janiceraymond.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/The%20Transsexual%20Empire.pdf.

Rodriguez-Ulloa, Olga. Sadistic Cholas: Transfeminist Provocations in Contemporary Peru. University of Texas Press, 2026.

Schilt, Kristen. Just One of the Guys? Transgender Men and the Persistence of Gender Inequality. University of Chicago Press, 2010.

A fascinating look at some of the ways that a patriarchal world is much kinder to transgender than to transgender women.

Schuller, Kyla. The Trouble with White Women: A Counterhistory of Feminism. First edition. Bold Type Books, 2021.

A terrific history of feminist racism and anti-racism, with a chapter focusing on Janice Raymond's harassment of Sandy Stone. Schuller makes the brilliant argument that anti-trans-feminism functions on the same logic as white feminism, and although many authors have recounted the transsexual feminist witchhunts of the 1970s, this book provides one of the most in-depth accounts.

Scott-Dixon, Krista, ed. Trans/Forming Feminisms: Trans/Feminist Voices Speak Out. Women’s Issues Publishing Program. Sumach Press, 2006.

The first ever explicitly transfeminist book published. Most interesting as a time capsule of aughts Canadian (trans)feminism. Some included essays are overtly trans-misogynistic.

Serano, Julia. Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive. Seal Press, 2013.

Expands on some of the ideas from Whipping Girl. Worth reading but not essential.

———. Outspoken: A Decade of Transgender Activism & Trans Feminism. Switch Hitter Press, 2016.

A compilation of various writings by Serano. A very interesting read as a look into a more personal side of her identity, as well as work that discourses about trans issues.

———. Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity. 2007. 2nd ed. Seal Press, 2016.

A classic for a reason. Still one of the best feminist accounts of trans womanhood. However, the book's heavy reliance on personal anecdotes means that it elides race and class as structuring factors in trans-misogyny.

Smithers, Gregory D. Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal, and Sovereignty in Native America. Queer Action/Queer Ideas. Beacon Press, 2022.

An excellent history of the development of Two-Spirit identities from the pre-colonization era to the present day.

Snorton, C. Riley. Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity. University of Minnesota Press, 2017.

A complex history of Black American gender. Despite the book's subtitle, this book is much more about gender than it is about trans people.

Stanley, Eric A., and Nat Smith, eds. Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex. AK Press, 2011.

Stryker, Susan. Changing Gender. First edition. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2026.

———. Transgender History: Resources for Today’s Struggle—and Tomorrow’s. Third trade paperback edition. Seal Press, 2026.

A terrific history of transgender people in the United States, freshly updated in 2026.

———. When Monsters Speak: A Susan Stryker Reader. Edited by McKenzie Wark. Asterisk. Duke University Press, 2024.

A collection of brilliant essays, both well-known and obscure, by trans academia's rockstar.

Stryker, Susan, and Aren Z. Aizura, eds. The Transgender Studies Reader 2. Routledge, 2013.

Stryker, Susan, and Dylan McCarthy Blackston, eds. The Transgender Studies Reader Remix. Routledge, 2022.

Stryker, Susan, and Stephen Whittle, eds. The Transgender Studies Reader. Routledge, 2006.

A collection of many classic essays, and a few that really suck.

Thom, Kai Cheng. I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl’s Notes from the End of the World. Arsenal Pulp Press, 2019.

A collection of personal essays about intra-community strife and abuse in leftist activism, and identity as a Chinese trans women.

Valentine, David. Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category. Duke University Press, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822390213.

A fascinating—albeit cissexist—look at the blurry line between gender and sexuality.

Wilchins, Riki. 2025. Burn the Binary!, Vol. 2. Riverdale Avenue Books.

———. 1997a. Read My Lips: Sexual Subversion and the End of Gender. Firebrand Books.

———. 2007. Queer Theory, Gender Theory: An Instant Primer. 1. ed., [Nachdr.]. Alyson Book.

———. 2019. Gender Norms and Intersectionality: Connecting Race, Class & Gender. Rowman & Littlefield International.

———. 2026. Let’s (Not) Talk about (Transgender) Sex: The Erotic Erasure of Trans Desire & Sexuality. Transgender Theory. Bloomsbury Academic.

Wilchins, Riki, and Mariette Pathy Allen. 2017. TRANS/Gressive: How Transgender Activists Took on Gay Rights, Feminism, the Media & Congress... and Won! First edition. Riverdale Avenue Books.

Williams, Rachel Anne. Transgressive: A Trans Woman on Gender, Feminism and Politics. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2019.

Not a very good book. Included for the sake of completeness.

Journals and Zines

Bettcher, Talia Mae, and Ann Garry, eds. 2009. “Transgender Studies and Feminism: Theory, Politics, and Gender Realities.” Special issue, Hypatia 24, no. 3.

Bettcher, Talia M., and Susan Stryker, eds. Trans/Feminisms. Special issue, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 3, no. 1–2. Duke University Press, 2016.

This issue is especially valuable for its focus on trans feminism in Spain, France, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, Pakistan, Italy, Turkey, and Russia. Many of the other items on this list are US- or UK-centric. Available for purchase at https://dukeupress.edu/trans-feminisms.

Currah, Paisley, Lisa Jean Moore, and Susan Stryker, eds. 2008. “Trans-.” Special issue, WSQ 36, no. 3.

Feinberg, Leslie. 2013. Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time Has Come. Trans Oral History Project.

Gabriel, Davina Anne, ed. TransSisters: The Journal of Transsexual Feminism. Skyelad Publishing, 1993–1995. 10 issues.

Published right in the middle of the heated debate over trans women's exclusion from the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, TransSisters is (so far as I am aware) the first ever publication dedicated to trans women's feminism. The zine is simultaneously a wonderful historical snapshot of cissexual lesbian cruelty, transsexual endurance, and quirky '90s cultural feminism. It is at times funny ("21 Things You Don't Say to a Transsexual" by Riki Anne Wilchins), at times fiery and provocative ("Surgical Roulette" by Margaret Deirdre O'Hartigan). The zine's biggest flaw is its significant overrepresentation of white, middle-class women. Additionally, many of the essays are overtly trans-misogynistic. Archived at https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/catalog?f%5Bcollection_name_ssim%5D%5B%5D=TransSisters%3A+The+Journal+of+Transsexual+Feminism.

Moiseff, Sara, ed. Trans Sisters Forever. 2026. 2 issues.

The premier journal of trans feminism. Available for purchase at saramoiseff.com/store.

Moiseff, Sara. Feminism Needs Trans Women. 2026.

An argument in favor of the necessity of trans-feminism, summarizing some of the ways in which trans women are affected by misogyny. Available for purchase at saramoiseff.com/store.

Raha, Nat, ed. 2017. Radical Transfeminism. Sociopathetic Distro.

Soleil-Ross, Mirha and Xanthra Phillippa MacKay, eds. Gendertrash From Hell. 1993. 4 issues.

Provocative, insightful, resonant! Particularly excellent for its attention to the lives of poor trans people and sex workers. Archived at https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net, or available in a 2025 reprinting from Little Puss Press at https://www.littlepuss.net/shop/p/gendertrash-from-hell-paperback-hwafc.

Sondegaard, Gail. Transsexual News Telegraph. 1993–2000(?). 9 issues(?).

Archived at https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net.

Writing Badly. Writing Badly Press. 2025-2026. 2 issues.

A terrific trans feminist journal published out of Scotland. Although many of the published essays are lacking in polish (perhaps the journal lives too well up to its name), Writing Badly is undeniably one of the most radically trans-woman-centric journals currently available. Noteworthy essays include "Presentation for the Third Masonry", which reflects on trans women's consciousness-raising, and "Three Essays from Rome", a trilogy by Caris that articulates a trans-feminist and materialist approach to history. Available for purchase (if not sold out) at https://writingbadly.substack.com.

Blogs

auto_anon. https://autoanon.substack.com/. Active 2025–.

Blaque, Kat. Blaque in the City. https://blaqueinthecity.com/. Active 2022–.

Bhatt, Talia. Trans/Rad/Fem. https://taliabhattwrites.substack.com/. Active 2023–.

Most of the essays on Bhatt's blog can be found compiled in her books Trans/Rad/Fem and Brown/Trans/Les.

Caris. https://carisemry.substack.com/. Active 2025–.

Doyle, Jude Ellison S. https://judedoyle.medium.com/. Active 2015–2023.

E, Aly. https://alyesque.medium.com/. Active 2016–2021.

Koyama, Emi. eminism.org. Active 2007–2026.

Gill-Peterson, Jules. The Long Transition. https://substack.com/@sadbrowngirl/posts. Active 2021–.

harpy, sarah. Hammer or Anvil? https://substack.com/@sarahharpy. Active 2024–.

Long, Leah. https://leaholong.com/. Active 2021–.

Millbank, Lisa. A Radical TransFeminist. https://radtransfem.wordpress.com/. Active 2011–2013.

Serano, Julia. switch hitter. https://juliaserano.substack.com. Active 2023–.

Serano also maintains a blog at https://juliaserano.medium.com/ that has been active since at least 2015, and another at https://juliaserano.blogspot.com/ that has been active since 2007. Many of Serano's blog posts (pre-2016) are compiled in her book Outspoken.

Suékama, Nsámbu Za. https://medium.com/@riptide.1997. Active 2019–2025.

Many of Suékama's articles are also available at https://theanarchistlibrary.org/category/author/nsambu-za-suekama, and she currently publishes at https://substack.com/@anarqapantherist,

Troost, Hazel/Cedar. Taking Up Too Much Space. https://takesupspace.wordpress.com/. Active 2008–2010.

Essays and Articles

Awkward-Rich, Cameron. “Trans, Feminism: Or, Reading like a Depressed Transsexual: Winner of the 2017 Catharine Stimpson Prize for Outstanding Feminist Scholarship.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 42, no. 4 (2017): 819–41. https://doi.org/10.1086/690914.

Bettcher, Talia Mae. “Trans Feminism: Recent Philosophical Developments.” Philosophy Compass 12, no. 11 (2017): e12438. https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12438.

———. “Trapped in the Wrong Theory: Rethinking Trans Oppression and Resistance.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 39, no. 2 (2014): 383–406. https://doi.org/10.1086/673088.

Betts, Edxi, Nz Suékama, G, and Ren-yo Hwang. “Black Transfeminist Anarchism.” TSQ 11, no. 1 (2024): 34–65. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-11131676.

Carrera-Fernández, María Victoria, and Renée DePalma. “Feminism Will Be Trans-Inclusive or It Will Not Be: Why Do Two Cis-Hetero Woman Educators Support Transfeminism?” The Sociological Review 68, no. 4 (2020): 745–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026120934686.

Caslin, Sam. “Historicizing Gender and the ‘Gender Critical’ Movement in the UK.” Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews 54, no. 3 (2025): 193–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/00943061251330131b.

———. “Trans Feminism and the Women’s Liberation Movement in Britain, c . 1970–1980.” Gender & History 37, no. 2 (2025): 748–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0424.12767.

Chu, Andrea Long. “On Liking Women.” N+1, 2018. https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-30/essays/on-liking-women/.

Chu, Andrea Long, and Emmett Harsin Drager. “After Trans Studies.” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 6, no. 1 (2019): 103–16. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-7253524.

A wonderful critique of trans studies as a field.

Enke, Finn. 2018. “Collective Memory and the Transfeminist 1970s: Toward a Less Plausible History.” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 5 (1): 9–29. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-4291502.

Escalante, Alyson. “Gender Nihilism: An Anti-Manifesto.” The Anarchist Library, 2015. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/alyson-escalante-gender-nihilism-an-anti-manifesto.

Feinbloom, Deborah Heller, Michael Fleming, Valerie Kijewski, and Margo P. Schulter. “Lesbian/Feminist Orientation Among Male-to-Female Transsexuals.” Journal of Homosexuality 2, no. 1 (1976): 59–72. https://doi.org/10.1300/J082v02n01_06.

Gill-Peterson, Jules. “Toward a Historiography of the Lesbian Transsexual, or the TERF’s Nightmare.” Journal of Lesbian Studies 26, no. 2 (2022): 133–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/10894160.2021.1979726.

A fascinating examination of how compulsory heterosexuality shape the lives of transsexual lesbians in the mid-20th century. Gill-Peterson is always very hesitant to assign identity labels to historical figures, a hesitancy that runs counter to the instincts of some other trans-feminist writers.

Green, Kai M., and Marquis Bey. “Where Black Feminist Thought and Trans* Feminism Meet: A Conversation.” Souls 19, no. 4 (2017): 438–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/10999949.2018.1434365.

Halberstam, Jack. “Toward a Trans* Feminism.” Boston Review, January 18, 2018. https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/jack-halberstam-towards-trans-feminism/.

Koyama, Emi. “The Transfeminist Manifesto.” Eminism, June 26, 2001. https://eminism.org/readings/pdf-rdg/tfmanifesto.pdf.

The essay that popularized the term "transfeminism". Parts of this essay remain insightful and forward-thinking (the focus on life-saving action over inclusion in women's festivals, for example) while others read as fairly cissexist, even trans-misogynistic.

Koyama, Emi. “Whose Feminism Is It Anyway?: The Unspoken Racism of the Trans Inclusion Debate.” In The Transgender Studies Reader. Routledge, 2006.

Krell, Elías Cosenza. “Is Transmisogyny Killing Trans Women of Color?” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 4, no. 2 (2017): 226–42. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-3815033.

An excellent criticism of trans-feminism's structural whiteness, particularly in the work of Julia Serano.

MacKinnon, Catharine A. “A Feminist Defense of Transgender Sex Equality Rights.” Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 24, no. 2 (2023).

A surprisingly insightful analysis of trans women (and men) from a legendary radical feminist.

MacKinnon, Catharine A., Finn Mackay, Mischa Shuman, Sandra Fredman, and Ruth Chang. “Exploring Transgender Law and Politics.” Signs, November 28, 2022. https://signsjournal.org/exploring-transgender-law-and-politics/.

Malatino, Hil. “The Promise of Repair: Trans Rage and the Limits of Feminist Coalition.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 46, no. 4 (2021): 827–51. https://doi.org/10.1086/713292.

Namaste, Viviane. “Undoing Theory: The ‘Transgender Question’ and the Epistemic Violence of Anglo-American Feminist Theory.” Hypatia 24, no. 3 (2009): 11–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.2009.01043.x.

Porpentine. “Hot Allostatic Load.” The New Inquiry, May 11, 2015. https://thenewinquiry.com/hot-allostatic-load/.

A classic essay about the routine ostracization and abuse of transfeminine people.

Preciado, Paul. “Trans-Fem.i.Nism.” Purple MAGAZINE, 2015. https://purple.fr/magazine/fw-2015-issue-24/trans-fem-i-nism/.

Preston, Ashlee Marie. 2020. “The Anatomy of Transmisogynoir.” Bazaar, November 9. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a33614214/ashlee-marie-preston-transmisogynoir-essay/.

Provitola, Blase A. “TERF or Transfeminist Avant La Lettre?” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 9, no. 3 (2022): 387–406. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-9836050.

Puente, Sonia Núñez. “Activism Trouble: Transfeminism and Institutional Feminism in Spain.” Feminist Formations 28, no. 2 (2016): 73–93. https://doi.org/10.1353/ff.2016.0026.

Raha, Nat. “Transfeminine Brokenness, Radical Transfeminism.” South Atlantic Quarterly 116, no. 3 (2017): 632–46. https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-3961754.

Riddell, Carol. “Divided Sisterhood: A Critical Review of Janice Raymond’s The Transsexual Empire.” In The Transgender Studies Reader. Routledge, 2006.

Schulter, Margo. “Notes of a Radical Transexual.” Gay Liberator, no 41: 8. 1974

——. “The Lesbian / Transsexual Misunderstanding.” GCN, February 22, 1975. https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/r207tp58j.

An excellent look at a trans woman's perspective amid the height of 1970s lesbian trans-misogyny. Part I of II.

——. “Transsexual Birds and Birds.” Gay Community News 3, no. 2 (July 5): 15. 1975.

——. “The Transsexual / Lesbian Misunderstanding.” GCN, March 15, 1975. https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/db78tc24x.

Part II of Margo's commentary.

Scott-Dixon, Krista. “Public Health, Private Parts: A Feminist Public-Health Approach to Trans Issues.” Hypatia 24, no. 3 (2009): 33–55. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.2009.01044.x.

Stone, Sandy. “The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto.” In The Transgender Studies Reader. 1987, 2006.

The essay largely responsible for establishing the academic field of transgender studies. An insightful theorization of the function of transsexual autobiographies, and an argument for honesty in the face of repression.

“Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries Manifesto.” 1970. The New York Public Library Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/a9fb7360-6c9b-0134-56e0-00505686a51c.

The manifesto of STAR, the first radical trans activist group, headed by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson.

Stryker, Susan. “My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage.” In The Transgender Studies Reader. 1994; Routledge, 2006.

A brilliant essay that wrestles with the notion of transsexuals as monsters, and theorizes about the nonconsensual nature of gender.

Stryker, Susan. “Transgender Feminism: Queering the Woman Question.” In When Monsters Speak. 2007; Duke University Press, 2024.

W, Eden. “The Other Side of the Coin.” 1973. Siren Newsletter, no. 10.

I do not have a copy of this essay, and I'd like one (digital is fine!). If you have one, get in touch at common.sense.trans.book@gmail.com

Non-English Books

This section is unfortunately likely to be the most incomplete, as I do not have the ability to read any of the following books.

Clochec, Pauline, and Noémie Grunenwald. 2021. Matérialismes trans: actes de la journée d’étude Matérialismes trans qui a eu lieu à l’ENS de Lyon, le 30 mars 2019. Hystériques & associéEs.

Ewert, Felicia. 2021. Trans. Frau. Sein: Aspekte geschlechtlicher Marginalisierung. 3. überarbeitete Auflage. Edition assemblage.

Solá, Miriam, and Elena Urko. 2013. Transfeminismos: Epistemes, Fricciones y Flujos. Txalaparta.

Tanaka, Ray. 2006. Toransujendā Feminizumu. Impact.

Other Feminist Essentials

These books do not specifically focus on transgender people, but are nonetheless crucial reading for feminists.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. 2nd ed. Routledge Classics. Routledge, 2007.

The book that introduced the idea of "performativity". A difficult read, but important for its argument that sex is a socially constructed category and a form of gender.

Crenshaw, Kimberle. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.” Sec. 8. University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989, no. 1 (1989). http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8?utm_source=chicagounbound.uchicago.edu%2Fuclf%2Fvol1989%2Fiss1%2F8&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages.

The essay that introduced the term "intersectionality". Absolutely essential reading for all modern feminists.

Davis, Angela Y. Are Prisons Obsolete? Open Media Book. Seven Stories Press, 2003.

A classic book outlining a basic argument for prison abolition.

Gay, Roxane, ed. The Portable Feminist Reader. Penguin Classics. Penguin Books, 2025.

A wide-reaching collection of feminists texts, including a specific focus on the feminists who get left out of most collections (Black women, Muslim women, disabled women). A great starting place for someone who has not read much feminist literature.

Smith, Molly, and Juno Mac. Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights. Verso, 2018.

A terrifically-argued case for the decriminalization of sex work.

“The Combahee River Collective Statement.” In The Portable Feminist Reader. 1979; Penguin, 2025.

The mission statement of a historically important Black feminist organization. The principles of Black feminism laid out in this essay remain incredibly important and insightful to this day.

Zakaria, Rafia. Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption. First edition. W.W. Norton & Company, 2021.

An excellent argument for a more radical and antiracist form of feminism.