Kit Heyam is a university lecturer, a queer history activist, and a trans awareness trainer who has worked with organisations across the UK. They have been committed to queer history since their teens, when they found the sense of community they were lacking by identifying with queer figures from the past, and their first book, The Reputation of Edward II, 1305-1697: A Literary Transformation of History, was the first account of how fourteenth-century English king Edward II acquired his queer reputation. They live in Leeds with their partner Alex.
This book, beautifully researched and astutely written, feels so
prescient in this time in which our trans identities are being
aggressively challenged as if we are a contemporary aberration.
Iterations of transness have been here for as long as we have been
walking, breathing, and loving, we have constantly explored the
spaces of gender. I felt exquisitely anchored reading this
wonderful book
*Juno Roche*
Before We Were Trans is a thoughtful, fun, and refreshingly
readable romp through the history of gender variance before the
invention of contemporary 'transgender' categories and concepts
*Susan Stryker, author of 'Transgender History'*
This is such a searing, reflexive read - in conversation with the
likes of Shon Faye, Akwaeke Emezi and Leslie Feinberg - that needs
to be in everyone's hands expeditiously
*Paula Akpan, journalist and author of 'When We Ruled'*
A beautiful, brilliant, lively book that weaves together
fascinating and moving examples with thoughtful analysis. Both
heartfelt and rigorous, entertaining and scholarly, Before We Were
Trans invites us to expand our sense of communities - past and
present - in welcoming ways, rather than contracting them and
policing their borders
*Meg-John Barker, author of 'Gender: A Graphic Guide'*
Heyam has cultivated an environment that celebrates trans history,
whilst acknowledging the reality of what it means to live within
our community with joy and kindness. In-depth research and personal
stories tie Before We Were Trans up into true treat for the
mind
*Jamie Windust, author of 'In Their Shoes'*
In this compelling, scholarly, and deeply humane book, Heyam
invites us to see the history of gender as fluid, ambiguous and
historically contingent. Before We Were Trans invites us to
practise a more inclusive history, looking harder for those who
stood outside the binary, and allowing their histories to speak for
themselves - and to the present - in multiple and creative ways
*Dr Caroline Dodds Pennock, Senior Lecturer in International
History, University of Sheffield*
Before We Were Trans enlarges our understanding of trans histories
and highlights the beauty, complexity, and contradictions of doing
historical work - all in a voice that invites the reader in, and
not only teaches us what to think about trans lives in the past,
but how to think about them
*Hugh Ryan, author of 'The Women’s House of Detention'*
Before We Were Trans is a genuine breath of fresh air - a radical
and necessary invitation to rethink who we are, have been, and can
become
*CN Lester*
Before We Were Trans provides much needed context, nuance, and
breadth to our understanding of human gender diversity throughout
history and in different cultures. While people who we might now
call transgender or LGBTQIA+ have always existed, Kit Heyam shows
how both individuals' and societies' understanding of sex, gender,
and sexuality are situational, multifaceted, and constantly
evolving
*Julia Serano, author of 'Whipping Girl' and 'Sexed Up'*
[An] astute, self-aware and riveting study . . . Before We Were
Trans is a book that moves far beyond mere representation by
managing to be both intellectually rigorous and exciting to read.
It makes for a vital contribution to our understanding of gender
variance and its place in social and political history, all around
the world
*New York Times Book Review*
For historical perspective on the culture wars, Kit Heyam's Before
We Were Trans: A New History of Gender (Hachette) is an
intervention into the debate about how to write past lives without
imposing modern understandings
*History Today, Books of the Year 2022*
Incredibly useful in helping us understanding the history of this
really important subject.
*Monocle Reads*
It tackles some of the issues with viewing historical identities
through a modern lens, but never loses sight of the human stories
at their heart.
*BBC History Magazine*
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