The Transgender Encyclopedia

In this volume, Pickett (political science, Univ. of Wyoming; Historical Dictionary of Homosexuality) broadly defines being transgender as seeing oneself differently from one’s assigned sex or prescribed social gender. This encyclopedia includes 233 succinctly written, unsigned, alphabetically arranged entries that encompass terms (nonbinary, gender-fluid); related topics (adoption, pronouns, bathrooms, the Equality Act); mythology (Hermaphroditus and others); people (Charles de Beaumont, chevalier d’Éon, Thomas Aquinas); and history, countries, continents, organizations, and religious beliefs. Cross-references appear within individual entries. The book’s comprehensive and engaging chronology section—spanning from third-century Rome up to the year 2023 when Germany created new rights for transgender people by passing a “self-determination” law—spotlights the history, depth, and scope of nongender conformity. This resource also covers Spain’s conversion-therapy ban and addresses Japan’s law that says all its citizens, regardless of their gender identity and sexual orientation are to be “respected” but doesn’t ban discrimination. There are occasional color illustrations throughout the book and a cumulative bibliography (reference materials, archives, journals, local/regional publications, websites, history, philosophy, politics, regional/cultural studies, literature), rather than individual bibliographies.