Finding trans histories and supporting trans people on Trans Day of Visibility and beyond
This Sunday 31 March is Trans Day of Visibility. It’s important to challenge the growing misinformation and disinformation being spread about trans people in society today, and one way of doing that is to read and share trans history and stories.
We acknowledge trans visibility often comes at the cost of safety, and that not every trans person is safe to be visible all the time. We see you and hope these resources will help you see yourself represented in our collections.
One of our key priorities in Deakin Library is advancing human-centred and inclusive knowledge systems and spaces. This includes promoting diverse voices in our collection, working to make our spaces safe and welcoming for everyone, and hosting events and activities that allow people to engage with a range of perspectives.
How can you get involved in celebrating Trans Day of Visibility? Read on.
Act
Some things you can do to find support as a trans person and/or to support the trans people in your lives:
- Add your pronouns to your email signature – find out why this is important.
- Add your pronouns to Zoom.
- Add your pronouns to Microsoft Teams.
- Change your Zoom background: Challenging homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia.
- Check out Deakin’s LGBTIQ+ Inclusive Language Guide.
- Play this game to practice using they/them and more pronouns.
- Look for trans, nonbinary and gender diverse support and services for students via this LGBTIQ+ Services for Students page.
- Know who your Harassment and Discrimination Contact Officers (HDCOs) are.
- Include trans perspectives in your studies and research.
- Share this blog post with your friends, family and/or colleagues to help challenge misinformation and disinformation.
Watch
Selected documentaries available via the library:
- Casa Susanna
- Queens at heart: trans women in the 60’s
- Screaming queens: the riot at Compton’s Cafeteria
- Trans Kashmir
- Kelet: a Susani Mahadura film
- Transgender Tuesdays: a clinic in the Tenderloin
Read
Selected books available via the library:
- Trap door: trans cultural production and the politics of visibility edited by Tourmaline, Eric A. Stanley, and Johanna Burton
- Gender: a graphic guide by Meg-John Barker, Jules Scheele
- A short history of trans misogyny by Jules Gill-Peterson
- Who’s afraid of gender? by Judith Butler
- Histories of the transgender child by Julian Gill-Peterson
- The two revolutions: a history of the transgender internet by Avery Dame-Griff
- Transgender Australia: a history since 1910 by Noah Riseman
- Transgender warriors: making history from Joan of Arc to RuPaul by Leslie Feinberg
- Before we were trans: a new history of gender by Kit Heyam
- Transgender history: the roots of today’s revolution by Susan Stryker
- Black on both sides: a racial history of trans identity by C. Riley Snorton
- Personal score by Ellen van Neerven
- Colouring the rainbow: blak queer and trans perspectives: life stories and essays by First Nations people of Australia edited by Dino Hodge
- Trans dilemmas: living in Australia’s remote areas and in Aboriginal communities by Stephen Kerry
- Pleasure and efficacy: of pen names, cover versions, and other trans techniques by Grace E. Lavery
- The emergence of trans: cultures, politics and everyday lives edited by Ruth Pearce, Igi Moon, Kat Gupta and Deborah Lynn Steinberg
Search
Keywords
The language used by trans (and broader LGBTIQA+) communities to describe themselves and their experiences is constantly evolving. There have also been significant historical changes in the language and the expression of ideas relating to LGBTIQA+ people and their experiences.
These changes in language will be reflected in the research literature, which means that some historical terms and ideas about LGBTIQA+ people and issues you come across in older sources by and about LGBTIQA+ people may seem outdated and/or inappropriate.
The following resources will help you identify and understand keywords that you can use to find LGBTIQA+ research and more resources:
- Defying description: searching for queer history in institutional archives
- Reviled, reclaimed and respected: the history of the word ‘queer’ (theconversation.com)
- Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) glossary of common terms
- Stonewall’s glossary of terms
- Victorian Government’s Inclusive Language Guide
- LGBTQIA Resource Center Glossary
- Genders of the world
- Global terms – Digital Transgender Archive
Search symbols
Phrase searching (“…”) – put quotation marks around a particular phrase or title to search for those words in the order they appear in quotation marks – e.g. “gender identity”.
Truncation (*) – for alternative endings – e.g. LGBT*= LGBT, LGBTI, LGBTIQ, etc.
Note: Trans* will get trans, transgender and transsexual but also transport, translation, transnational.
Wildcards (?) – for alternative spellings – e.g. coloni?ation will retrieve results for colonisation and colonization, colo?r will retrieve results for colour and color.
Proximity searching (/ or NEAR) allows you to search based on how closely two or more search terms appear in the search results – e.g., LGBT* /5 inclusion, LGBT* NEAR inclusion.
Boolean operators
Use OR to combine synonyms and related terms – e.g. (transgender OR “gender identity” OR nonbinary OR genderqueer).
Use AND to combine different keywords and concepts – e.g. “gender identity” AND discriminat*.
Combine and refine
The search process is iterative and there will never be one perfect combination of keywords and phrases for your topic. There are likely to be different strategies for different aspects of your topic. Keep adapting and exploring new combinations as you learn more about your topic from different sources:
- (transgender OR “gender identity” OR nonbinary OR genderqueer) AND (discriminat* OR exclusion OR transphobi* OR cissexis*) AND liberation
Search our Gender and Sexuality Studies Library Resource Guide or these specialist databases to find archival material:
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