Transgender Publishing in B.C.

November 2020 – I once wrote an article about trans publishers that started like this: “Trans people have always been pamphleteers. We have a tradition of cheaply produced fiction and informational publications. When we were ignored by the mainstream, or treated with condescension by professional publishing houses, a few brave trans people were communicating to us through – it must be admitted – largely unsophisticated books, booklets and journals.” The miracle of trans publishing, I wrote, is that the importance of our stories far outweighed the books’ somewhat amateurish presentation. (My biggest complaint was the almost universal lack of a proper title page.)

Now that professional publishers have discovered and even solicit books from trans authors, and there is no end to trans folks telling their stories on the internet, I assumed trans publishers would have died out. Imagine my delight at discovering several alive and well in British Columbia and aligned under the website Transgender Publishing. The books have all the hallmarks of the old trans publishing I knew and loved, which is to say the content overrides the presentation.

I ordered Dancing the Dialectic: True Tales of a Transgender Trailblazer, by Rupert Raj. As one of Canada’s earliest trans activists, Raj’s story would surely be of interest to major publishers. How great that he chose to go with a transgender publishing house! Their books are available through Amazon, but I ordered my copy through their website. It will take longer, but I’d rather send a few extra dollars to my trans brothers and sisters than Jeff Bezos.