The Invention of Gender

Trans History You Never Learned in School

The story of trans people is as old as time — so why have we been written out of history books?

When TIME magazine put Laverne Cox on their cover in 2014, (somewhat infamously) declaring that year “the transgender tipping point,” the notion that visibility itself leads to social change sparked a debate that’s, frankly, never stopped.

And for good reason: According to the HRC, 2020 was the deadliest year on record for violent deaths of trans people, with Black trans women disproportionately targeted. Meanwhile, anti-trans rhetoric has been increasingly normalized in “debates” in the US and the UK about the legal right of trans people to exist in public space and life, whether it’s a public bathroom or a playing field. This year a nationwide campaign of state bills with identical anti-trans language has been seen by many advocates as, in fact, a “coordinated attack” by conservative groups on the trans community.

All of this activity around a population that, according to GLAAD, makes up less than 3% of the US across age groups…