Trans-forming history

A global trans history stands as testimony to the gender nonconformity of our past

In response to the West-prophesised understanding of gender, in conferences, on the streets, and in the pride parades, queer people can be found yelling that the “future is nonbinary”. No matter how true, this expression assumes that queer futures never borrowed from histories, as if the past was strictly binary.

Queer trans writer, academic, trainer, and heritage practitioner, Kit Heyam’s latest book Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender enlightens us with a global trans history that stands as testimony to the gender nonconformity of our past instead of the binary rigidity that the world has come to increasingly