Trans-feminist bibliography

This reading list is for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of trans-feminism. Too much online trans-feminism is disconnected from the existing body of trans-feminist literature. Furthermore, trans-feminism must not just advocate for trans women, but must situate trans women within a feminist context. Thus, feminist literature that is not specific to transgender people is also essential for understanding trans-feminism.

This bibliography is divided into three sections. Everyone who wants to participate in trans-feminist discussion or advocacy should read "the essentials". These three essays and one book are available for free online.

Those interested in further reading should read the books in the "intermediate" and "deep dive" sections. I have read most but not all of these books. A handful of these books include transphobic or otherwise questionable content. For those books that do, I have included them because they have something valuable to say.

Questions or recommendations? Contact me at common.sense.trans.book@gmail.com.

The essentials

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).

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

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

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

Intermediate

Trans feminism / trans advocacy

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

Bhatt, Talia. Trans/Rad/Fem. Self-published, 2025.

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

Moiseff, Sara. Against Tranny Hate: A Radical Transfeminist Manifesto. Self-published, 2026.

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

Trans history

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

Gill-Peterson, Julian. Histories of the Transgender Child. University of Minnesota Press, 2018.

Heyam, Kit. Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender. Seal Press, 2022.

Feminism

Davis, Angela Y. Women, Race & Class. 1st Vintage Books ed. Vintage Books, 1983.

Dworkin, Andrea. Right-Wing Women. First Picador paperback edition. Picador, 2025.

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

hooks, bell. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. South End Press, 1984. Reprint, Routledge, 2015.

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

Decriminalization / prison abolition

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

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

Deep dive

Trans feminism / trans advocacy

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

Devor, Aaron H. FTM: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society. Indiana University Press, 2016.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Serano, Julia. Sexed up: How Society Sexualizes Us, and How We Can Fight Back. First edition. Seal Press, 2022.

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

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

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

Trans history

Snorton, C. Riley, and Darius Bost. A Black Queer History of the United States. Revisioning History. Beacon Press, 2026.

Stryker, Susan. Transgender History: The Roots of Today’s Revolution. Second edition. Seal Press, 2017.

Trans memoir

Baer, Hannah. Trans Girl Suicide Museum. Hesse Press, 2025.

Green, Jamison. Becoming a Visible Man. Second edition. Vanderbilt University Press, 2020.

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

Mock, Janet. Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & so Much More. First Atria paperback edition. Atria paperback, 2014.

Feminism

Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. Translated by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. France, 1949. Reprint, Vintage Books, 2011.

Bracewell, Lorna N. Why We Lost the Sex Wars: Sexual Freedom in the #MeToo Era. With JSTOR (Organization). University of Minnesota Press, 2021.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge, 1990.

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

Dworkin, Andrea. Intercourse. 1st Basic Books ed. BasicBooks, 2007.

Dworkin, Andrea. Life and Death: Unapologetic Writings on the Continuing War against Women. Free Press, 2002.

Dworkin, Andrea. Pornography: Men Possessing Women. First Picador paperback edition. Picador, 2025.

Dworkin, Andrea. Woman Hating. Plume, 1974.

Fausto-Sterling, Anne. Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. 1st ed. Basic Books, 2000.

Firestone, Shulamith. The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. Morrow, 1970. Bantam revised edition. Bantam Books, 1972.

Hill Collins, Patricia, and Sirma Bilge. Intersectionality. 2nd edition. Key Concepts. Polity Press, 2020.

Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider. With Mahogany L. Browne. Penguin Books, 2020.

Rich, Adrienne Cecile. “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.” Journal of Women’s History 15, no. 3 (2003): 11–48. https://doi.org/10.1353/jowh.2003.0079.

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

Smith, Barbara. The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender, and Freedom. First paperback edition. Rutgers University Press, 2000.

Stoltenberg, John, ed. Refusing to Be a Man: Essays on Sex and Justice. Rev. ed. UCL Press, 2000.

Decriminalization / prison abolition

Davis, Angela Y. Abolition: Politics, Practices, Promises. Vol. 1. Haymarket books, 2024.

Grant, Melissa Gira. Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work. Jacobin Series. Verso, 2014.

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

Antiracism

Wilderson, Frank B. Afropessimism. First edition. Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton and Company, 2020.

X, Malcolm. Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements. Paperback edition. Edited by George Breitman. With Ibram X. Kendi. Grove Press, 2024.

Anarchism

Anderson, William C. The Nation on No Map: Black Anarchism and Abolition. AK Press, 2021.

Ervin, Lorenzo Kom’boa. Anarchism and the Black Revolution: The Definitive Edition. Black Critique. Pluto Press, 2021.