author, performer, speaker, activist Julia Serano

Julia’s transgender activism clearinghouse

Since the turn of the millennium, I have been involved in transgender activism, primarily as a writer and performer. This page compiles all of my past and ongoing trans activist projects.

I have written extensively about transgender issues, experiences, perspectives, history, and theory. Most of these writings are compiled in my books Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity and Outspoken: A Decade of Transgender Activism and Trans Feminism, and to a lesser extent (because of its broader focus) Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive.

In recent years, I have become especially interested in the evolution of, and debates about, trans activism and trans-related language. These matters are chronicled extensively in Activism, Language, and Differences of Opinion (a compilation of essays) and There Is No Perfect Word: A Transgender Glossary of Sorts.

On a related topic, I have probably written more about cis terminology than any person on the planet - these pieces are compiled in Julia Serano’s compendium on cisgender, cissexual, cissexism, cisgenderism, cis privilege, and the cis/trans distinction..

An ongoing area of my interest and concern has been depictions, diagnoses, and theories of transgender people that have been forwarded in the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and sexology. My various writings on this subject are compiled on my trans psychology page.

The topic that initially evangelized me as an activist (during my involvement in Camp Trans from 2003-04) is trans woman-exclusion in lesbian and women-only spaces. I discuss these matters to varying degrees in all three of the aforementioned books; other notable manifestations of my activism on this issue include:

On the Outside Looking In: a trans woman’s perspective on feminism and the exclusion of trans women from lesbian and women-only spaces - a four-essay chapbook I wrote in 2004-05 about this matter.
Frustration chronicles intra-trans-community debates (circa 2006-07) about the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival’s longstanding trans woman-exclusion policy.
An often-cited justification for trans woman-exclusion is our presumed genital status. To “trouble” these and other similar claims, in 2007, I curated a spoken word event called The “Penis” Issue: Trans and Intersex Women Speak Their Minds.
From 2009-13, I was a co-curator of Girl Talk, an annual spoken word/performance show intended to highlight relationships (of all sorts) between queer cis and trans women.

My initial forays into challenging trans woman-exclusion policies ultimately led me to articulate the concept of trans-misogyny and advocate for trans feminism. An early expression of this work (circa 2005) is my web-based project Hot Tranny Action.

In the years just prior to the aforementioned projects, I curated a transgender/intersex/genderqueer-focused performance series called GenderEnders (2003-06).

During my transition in 2001, I created a coming out website called Switch Hitter where friends and acquaintances could find out more about my transgender identity and history without me having to explain it over and over again. While substantially out of date, I have kept it alive all these years in the event that some people may find it helpful and/or an interesting historical relic.

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