Warren Hunting Smith Library: Gender Diversity: Resources: Topic Guide

TOPIC | GENDER DIVERSITY: RESOURCES

The Language of Gender

Rather than trying to define gender, many modern texts are celebrating the indefinable nature of gender and the need for an ever-evolving open-ended lexicon to express gender. The language, terminology, acronyms, coding, and naming conventions associated with gender is a field that has busted right open. With this in mind, libraries have their own language, and, while it is imperfect, here are some subject headings to try that might help when you are searching in the collection for books and other materials:

Gender identity

Gender expression

Gender nonconformity

Transgender people -- Identity

Sex role -- History

Sex differences

Human biology

Select Library Databases

Everyday Life and Women in America This link opens in a new window
Covering c.1800-1920, primary sources addressing issues including political, social, gender, religion, race, education, marriage, sexuality, and health.
Gender: Identity and Social Change This link opens in a new window
Primary source material for the exploration of gender history.
LGBTQ+ Source This link opens in a new window
Articles about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender issues and culture.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
Full text articles in interdisciplinary subjects such as literature, history, visual and performing arts, cultural studies, political science, and gender studies.

Data & Statistics

Family Acceptance Project
The Family Acceptance Project® is a research, intervention, education and policy initiative to prevent health and mental health risks and to promote well-being for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer-identified (LGBTQ) children and youth, including suicide, homelessness, drug use and HIV — in the context of their families, cultures and faith communities.
GLSEN School Climate Survey Data
The GLSEN National School Climate Survey is a report on the school experiences of LGBTQ youth in schools, including the extent of the challenges that they face at school and the school-based resources that support LGBTQ students’ well-being.
U.S. Transgender Survey
With almost 28,000 respondents, the USTS is the largest survey ever devoted to the lives and experiences of trans people. Read the report at http://ustranssurvey.org.
Williams Institute: Transgender People
An estimated 1.6 million people ages 13 and older in the U.S. identify as transgender. The Williams Institute studies discrimination and bias against transgender people and other gender minorities and examines how these experiences affect their health and socioeconomic well-being.

Select Memoirs, Biographies & Autobiographies

As Nature Made Him by John Colapinto
ISBN: 0060192119
Publication Date: 2000-02-02
As Nature Made Him tells the extraordinary story of David Reimer, who, when finally informed of his medical history, made the decision to live as a male. Writing with uncommon intelligence, insight, and compassion, John Colapinto sets the historical and medical context for the case, exposing the thirty-year-long scientific feud between Dr. John Money and his fellow sex researcher, Dr. Milton Diamond--a rivalry over the nature/nurture debate whose very bitterness finally brought the truth to light. A macabre tale of medical arrogance, it is first and foremost a human drama of one man's--and one family's--amazing survival in the face of terrible odds.
Being Jazz by Jazz Jennings
ISBN: 9780399554650
Publication Date: 2016-06-07
Jazz Jennings is one of the youngest and most prominent voices in the national discussion about gender identity. At the age of five, Jazz transitioned to life as a girl, with the support of her parents. A year later, her parents allowed her to share her incredible journey in her first Barbara Walters interview, aired at a time when the public was much less knowledgeable or accepting of the transgender community.
Gender Queer: a Memoir by Maia Kobabe
ISBN: 9781549304002
Publication Date: 2019-05-28
Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity--what it means and how to think about it--for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere. "It's also a great resource for those who identify as nonbinary or asexual as well as for those who know someone who identifies that way and wish to better understand." -- SLJ (starred review)
Nonbinary by Micah Rajunov (Editor); A. Scott Duane (Editor)
ISBN: 9780231546102
Publication Date: 2019-04-15
In this groundbreaking book, thirty authors highlight how our experiences are shaped by a deeply entrenched gender binary. Nuanced storytellers break away from mainstream portrayals of gender diversity, cutting across lines of age, race, ethnicity, ability, class, religion, family, and relationships.

Select Films & Documentaries

Creating Gender Inclusive Schools
What happens when you bring gender training to a public elementary school? In CREATING GENDER INCLUSIVE SCHOOLS the Peralta Elementary School in Oakland CA demonstrates the power of an open and honest conversation about gender.
Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting Identities
An illuminating and compassionate look at the world of transgender identity, as seen through portraits of some of San Francisco's leading gender mixers. Whether by birth or by choice, sometimes with the assistance of hormones or surgical prostheses, we meet those who blur the lines of male and female.
In Full Bloom: Transcending Gender
"IN FULL BLOOM: TRANSCENDING GENDER" follows the courageous journey of thirteen transgender and two gay actors as they transform their lives through the use of monologue, dialogue and performance art while preparing for the world premiere of the original stage play, Lovely Bouquet of Flowers: An Exploration of Non-Traditional Gender Voices, written by Jazzmun Nichcala Crayton and David Hays Gaddas.
Shinjuku Boys: Tales of Transgender Men in Japan
This film introduces three onnabes who work as hosts at the New Marilyn Club in Tokyo. Onnabes are women who live as men and have girlfriends, although they don't usually identify as lesbians.

Gender Diversity: Resources