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Others of My Kind: Transatlantic Transgender Histories by Michael Thomas Taylor, Alex Bakker, Rainer Herrn
3.0
informative inspiring reflective slow-paced
Others of My Kind is a valuable resource, but something has to be said about the fact that most of its authors are cis. They may be well-read and well-intentioned but that doesn’t change the fact that this research comes from a disconnected perspective of outsiders looking in, with all information passing through a Cis Filter™ before it reaches the page. It’s a little hypocritical of them to declare the need to engage with trans people themselves not only the cis academics who study transness, seemingly without recognising that they are the cis academics who study transness.
I think the best way to exemplify the cisness of this book is this: it talks a lot about trans people taking the time to educate cis people, including their doctors, and they frame this as a wonderful kindness that we ("we") ought to be grateful for, rather than actually reckoning with the fact that trans people are expected to be well-spoken experts and ambassadors who will perform emotional labour at the drop of a hat, else we be denied basic rights like access to healthcare.

The sources are scant. That’s something that can’t be helped, but it does result in an unavoidably patchy history. Some of the figures in this book are known only from photographs; for others, no photographs are known to exist. The authors have made a commendable effort to collect as much information as possible on their subjects, but there will always be gaps. And I’d be lying if I said that’s not frustrating.

As for the writing, it’s... fine? It’s fine. It’s pretty repetitive, chapters are interrupted (often mid-sentence) by biographical inserts, and there’s some awkward phrasing here and there. All of these issues could have been lessened with tighter editing. I think the final chapter (“Historicizing Transgender Terminology”) probably should have been the first – to me it makes more sense to open with your statement of intent and your clarifications and disclaimers than it does to end on that note. The book also could have benefited from a more chronological structure. Jumping back and forth across the Atlantic is one thing, but jumping back and forth temporally as well makes the whole thing rather disorienting.

Despite its flaws, however, I am glad this book exists. I did learn a thing or two about early 20th century trans culture, and about pioneering trans individuals of the era. And for that, I think Others of My Kind was worthwhile. 
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