About the Book

The book’s editor, Laura Erickson-Schroth, MD, MA is a recent graduate of Dartmouth Medical School. Growing up in Brooklyn, NY, a child of feminist and environmental lawyers, she was guided by their love of activism and service. Laura attended Hunter College High School in Manhattan and then Middlebury College in Vermont, where she became involved in feminist and LGBT student groups. During medical school, she returned home to New York City for a year to earn a master’s in Women and Gender Studies at The Graduate Center at the City University of New York. During her last year in medical school, Laura chose electives in transgender medicine, transgender surgery and gender variant pediatrics. These clinical rotations complemented the relationships she had with friends who are transgender. They made her acutely aware of the lack of comprehensive resources that exist for gender-variant people as they make important decisions in their lives and compelled her to begin working on a book that would attempt to provide these resources. Laura has finished a one year fellowship as the Director of Student Programming for the American Medical Student Association, and is starting a residency in Psychiatry.

Jennifer Finney Boylan (Introduction) is a professor at Colby College and the author of eleven books. Her memoir, She’s Not There, was published in 2003 and is currently in its eighth printing. She’s Not There won an award from the Lambda Literary Foundation in 2004 and has been published in many foreign additions. Boylan has been a frequent guest on a number of national television and radio programs, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King, The Today Show, Barbara Walters Special, NPR’s Marketplace, and the Diane Rehm Show. She has given plenary and keynote speeches at colleges and universities across the country, including Amherst, Yale, Wesleyan, Harvard, Dartmouth, Columbia, Vanderbilt, Duke, Bucknell, Johns Hopkins, Dickinson, Bates, Skidmore, Bowdoin,  Ohio State, Middlebury, Gettysburg, the University of Maine, Georgia State, the University of Puget Sound, and Westminster College in Salt Lake City. Boylan’s nonfiction has appeared on the op/ed pages of the New York Times, in GQ magazine, Allure, and Glamour.

Jamison Green (Popular Culture & Media) is an educator and policy advisor on transgender issues. Green is the author of Becoming a Visible Man, a memoir and instructional guide for female to male transgender people (FTMs). In the early 1990s, Green worked for the passage of San Francisco's Transgender Protection Ordinance and has since consulted with numerous corporations, governments, educational institutions, professional groups (physicians, attorneys, legislators, psychologists, and clergy) and policymakers to ensure civil equality for gender-variant people. Green is currently working a book that tackles the sexual and romantic lives of FTMs. He is also serving on the board of the new UCSF Center for Excellence in Transgender Health.

Patrick Califia (Sexuality) is a writer, sex educator, activist, and therapist. For decades, Califia has been one of the most prolific and outspoken voices in favor of freedom of sexual expression between consenting adults. He is one of the most widely known writers of lesbian and S/M erotica, including erotic classics such as Macho Sluts, Doing It For Daddy, and Doc and Fluff. He is a transgender activist and the author of Sex Changes: The Politics of Transgenderism. Califia has written more than twenty books and has a private therapy practice in San Francisco.

Genny Beemyn (History) has published and spoken extensively on the experiences and needs of transgender people, particularly the lives of gender nonconforming students.  Ze has written or edited six books/journal issues, including a special issue of the Journal of LGBT Youth on Trans Youth.   Genny’s most recent work, written with Sue Rankin, is The Lives of Transgender People, forthcoming from Columbia University Press.  The director of the Stonewall Center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, ze is also a board member of the Transgender Law and Policy Institute and an editorial board member of the Journal of Bisexuality and the Journal of Homosexuality.  Genny has a Ph.D. in African American Studies and Master's degrees in African American Studies, American Studies, and Higher Education Administration.

Reid Vanderburgh (Coming Out), MA, LMFT is a therapist with a private practice in Portland, Oregon. Reid’s specialization is helping people cope with major life transformative events. Approximately 95% of his clientele is transgender in one way or another. In addition to his work as a therapist, Reid has extensive experience providing  workshops, classes and presentations on transgender issues, within a variety of settings.  He is the author of “Transition and Beyond: Observations on Gender Identity,” about to be released in its second edition. Reid received his MA in Counseling Psychology from John F. Kennedy University’s Graduate School for Holistic Studies in 2001. He is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Reid is a member of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH, formerly HBIGDA, Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association) and the International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) Reid is also a member of the professional advisory board of TYFA (Trans Youth Family Allies).

Lance Hicks (Children and Adolescents) is a bi-racial transgender activist and community organizer, from Detroit, Michigan. Since 2005, at age fifteen, Lance has been involved in activist work within the trans youth movement. Since that time, he has delivered numerous workshops and lectures to teachers, parents, service providers, and cisgender / cissexual youth, about cis privilege, trans identity, and best practices for allies. He is dedicated to providing local resources and building local networks for trans people in Detroit, and believes passionately in the power and necessity of grassroots community organizing as a strategy to combat trasphobia, cisgenderism, cissexism, and the oppressions that intersect with those. Currently, his work focuses on creating resources for trans and queer youth to not only survive, but to thrive, in Detroit. He is a strong proponent of the harm reduction and risk reduction models, and believes that trans youth are the best experts on their own experiences, and the most vital organizers of their movements.

Dallas Denny (Media) is a writer and activist who lives in tiny Pine Lake, Georgia, just nine miles from downtown Atlanta. She founded and was for many years the executive director of American Educational Gender Information Service (Now Gender Education & Advocacy) and editor of the journal Chrysalis. She was editor of Transgender Tapestry from 1998-2006. Dallas was Director of Fantasia Fair from 2001-2007. She is the author of three books and many book chapters and magazine and journal articles/ She is the recipient of the IFGE Trinity and Virginia Prince Lifetime Achievement Awards and Real Life Experience’s Transgender Pioneer Award. Dallas worked for many years as an applied behavior analyst.