The most recommended books about gender identity

Who picked these books? Meet our 75 experts.

75 authors created a book list connected to gender identity, and here are their favorite gender identity books.
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Book cover of You Know, Sex: Bodies, Gender, Puberty, and Other Things

Rachel Ginocchio Author Of Roads to Family: All the Ways We Come to Be

From my list on anatomy, modern human reproduction, and family.

Why am I passionate about this?

For as long as I can remember, my parents answered any/all of my questions about the body, puberty, and sex; often giving me more information than I actually wanted! So when friends asked me questions, I was always eager to pass on my knowledge. Who knew that years later, it would land me a master’s degree in public health (MPH), jobs in sexuality health education, and a passion for writing about human reproduction and family formation? Plus, I have personal experience on the topic: I come from a three-generation family created through adoption and foster care; and overcame the trials and tribulations of infertility with the use of assisted reproduction. 

Rachel's book list on anatomy, modern human reproduction, and family

Rachel Ginocchio Why did Rachel love this book?

I’ve heard Cory Silverberg speak at various educator workshops, and I agree with his views that home is largely where sex education should take place.

Yes, of course most parents want it to happen in school as well, but home should be a place where kids can get honest answers to their tough questions. All of Silverberg’s sexual health books (they’re all worth checking out) are written to support these conversations, and You Know, Sex is no exception.

It covers all of sexual health: anatomy, puberty, consent, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc.; plus it boldly dives into controversial topics like pleasure, masturbation, and pornography.

I’m especially stoked about this book because the chapter on reproduction covers insemination, IVF, donor conception, and surrogacy. The explanations are straightforward, with informative, colorful illustrations. 

By Cory Silverberg, Fiona Smyth (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked You Know, Sex as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

2023 ALA RAINBOW BOOK LIST

A completely new approach to learning about puberty, sex, and gender for kids 10+. Here is the much-anticipated third book in the trilogy that started with the award-winning What Makes a Baby and Sex Is a Funny Word

"Silverberg's writing is fearless . . . Here is that rare voice that can talk about the hardest things kids go through in ways that are thoughtful, lighthearted and always respectful of their intelligence."   
—Rachel Brian, The New York Times Book Review

In a bright graphic format featuring four dynamic middle schoolers, You Know, Sex grounds sex…


Book cover of The Unbalancing: A Birdverse Novel

Eleanor Glewwe Author Of Sparkers

From Eleanor's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Linguist Musician Folk dancer Professor Speculative fiction reader

Eleanor's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Eleanor Glewwe Why did Eleanor love this book?

Set in Lemberg’s intricate and expansive Birdverse world, this fantasy novel is about characters confronting the end of the world, that is, the impending destruction of their island nation.

It is also about the tender and complex relationship that grows between Erígra, a poet, and Ranra, a leader desperately trying to save the island.

This book is filled with richly nuanced depictions of different gender identities, sexualities, and neurodivergent experiences; Erígra and Ranra’s society embraces queerness in many ways, but that doesn’t mean everyone finds it easy to figure out, explain, or be seen for who they are.

Meanwhile, the story poses questions about duty and choice and about what we make time for even when the world might be ending. This is a lovely and compelling book.

By R. B. Lemberg,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Unbalancing as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this first full-length novel from the acclaimed Birdverse, new love blossoms between an impatient starkeeper and a reclusive poet as they try together to save their island home. Nebula, Locus, and Ignyte finalist R. B. Lemberg (The Four Profound Weaves) has crafted a gorgeous tale of the inevitable transformations of communities and their worlds. The Unbalancing is rooted in the mystical cosmology, neurodiversity, and queerness that infuses Lemberg’s lyrical prose, which has invited glowing comparisons to N. K. Jemisin, Patricia A. McKillip, and Ursula K. Le Guin.

[STARRED REVIEW] “Lovingly crafted with a deep and rewarding world full of…


Book cover of 47,000 Beads

Joy Ellison Author Of Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution!: The Story of the Trans Women of Color Who Made LGBTQ+ History

From my list on to celebrate transgender pride.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I was a kid, I knew that my gender was different. I didn’t feel like a boy or a girl, but I didn’t know the word “nonbinary.” There were no kid’s books about people like me. I grew up with a lot of questions, which drove me to become a doctor of Women’s and Gender Studies and an expert on transgender history. Now I’m passionate about writing the kind of picture books that I needed as a child. If you want the kids in your life to understand transgender identity and feel loved whatever their gender may be, you’ll enjoy the books on my list. 

Joy's book list on to celebrate transgender pride

Joy Ellison Why did Joy love this book?

When we talk about transgender pride, the voices of Native people are often nowhere to be heard. 47,000 Beads is an exception. This beautiful book tells the story of Peyton, a pow-wow dancer who has stopped feeling comfortable wearing a dress. This book helped me understand more about Indigenous children who are Two-Spirit – a pan-Native term for people whose genders are sacred in their tribal nation, but unintelligible to the white people who colonized the United States. I’m so glad I was able to read it and I hope you will be too. 

By Koja Adeyoha, Angel Adeyoha, Holly McGillis (illustrator)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked 47,000 Beads as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

Peyton loves to dance, and especially at Pow Wow, but her Auntie notices that she’s been dancing less and less. When Peyton shares that she isn't comfortable wearing a dress anymore, Auntie Eyota asks some friends for help to get Peyton what she needs.


Book cover of Bareback Porn, Porous Masculinities, Queer Futures: The Ethics of Becoming-Pig

Marcus McCann Author Of Park Cruising: What Happens When We Wander Off the Path

From my list on new writing on sex and sexual politics.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a journalist, lawyer, and writer, I've been thinking and writing about state regulation of sexuality for 20 years. Political writing about sex can easily fall into orthodoxy; whether conservative or liberal, each side has its expected talking points. When I began investigating ways of thinking about public displays of sexuality in Park Cruising, I returned to the cache of sex-positive writing of the 1980s and 1990s. Some of it was invigorating, and some stale. So I sought out new writing about sex and sexuality, and I was richly rewarded. These books are just the tip of the iceberg; there's a feast of contemporary writing and thinking. So much to think through and explore!

Marcus' book list on new writing on sex and sexual politics

Marcus McCann Why did Marcus love this book?

For me, this book begins with a pleasing reversal: that the tough-looking guys engaged in casual, rough, or extreme types of sexual expression are in fact displaying tenderness.

The book made me reexamine what I thought I knew about the emotions and relationships at work in gay “pig” subcultures. I found myself underlining passage after passage. In the last third of the book, Florêncio becomes a character in the scene he is describing, a risky move that pays off.

By Joao Florencio,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bareback Porn, Porous Masculinities, Queer Futures as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This book analyses contemporary gay "pig" masculinities, which have emerged alongside antiretroviral therapies, online porn, and new sexualised patterns of recreational drug use, examining how they trouble modern European understandings of the male body, their ethics, and their political underpinnings.

This is the first book to reflect on an increasingly visible new form of sexualised gay masculinity, and the first monograph to move debates on condomless sex amongst gay men beyond discourses of HIV and/or AIDS. It contributes to existing critical histories of sexuality, pornography and other sex media at a crucial juncture in the history of gay male sex…


Book cover of Life Isn't Binary: On Being Both, Beyond, and In-Between

Redfern Jon Barrett Author Of Proud Pink Sky

From Redfern's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Novelist Nonbinary Queer Historian Futurist

Redfern's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Redfern Jon Barrett Why did Redfern love this book?

Surprise, it’s a nonfiction book! Almost all my recommendations have been for novels, but they’re actually not all I read (I promise!). Now, it’s so secret that I’m a big old nonbinary person, but there’s so much more to nonbinary thinking than sexuality and gender identity.

This book details all the ways in which we limit ourselves by thinking of the world in simplistic binary terms, and it does so in a friendly and informative style.

Challenging binary thought patterns has a much wider scope that I can truly cover here, and it’s hard to convey just how much of our culture is based on an either/or mentality. This is a book that can help expand anyone’s perspective, whatever their identity happens to be.

By Meg-John Barker, Alex Iantaffi,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Life Isn't Binary as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'The book we all need for this moment in time.' CN LESTER
'An absolute must read' FOX FISHER
'A genius book' LIBRARY JOURNAL REVIEW

Much of society's thinking operates in a highly rigid and binary manner; something is good or bad, right or wrong, a success or a failure, and so on. Challenging this limited way of thinking, this ground-breaking book looks at how non-binary methods of thought can be applied to all aspects of life, and offer new and greater ways of understanding ourselves and how we relate to others.

Using bisexual and non-binary gender experiences as a starting…


Book cover of Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us

Wendy-O Matik Author Of Redefining Our Relationships: Guidelines for Responsible Open Relationships

From my list on to ignite the revolution and smash patriarchy.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a rebellious woman who is passionate about words and the revolutionary force of books, I know the power of stories. Stories are the seeds that give life to your purpose. Stories give you a reason to fight the good fight, care about something bigger than yourself, and want to be a part of social justice and positive change. The daily grind can kick you down, but a good story can remind you that there's still time to rise up, speak truth to power, help others less fortunate, and commit to what you value most. The books that I’m recommending are meant to be your personal guide to what really matters most in life to you.

Wendy-O's book list on to ignite the revolution and smash patriarchy

Wendy-O Matik Why did Wendy-O love this book?

Growing up as a hardcore tomboy, the gender binary issue has always been a challenge for me. Why do I have to choose between male or female? I resent being given only one gender with no option to explore a spectrum of gender possibilities. The gender battle is raging at the forefront of American politics. If you don’t understand the debate, this is a great book to start with to learn more about gender and identity. The writing is bold, courageous, and hilarious, and does a great job of smashing gender conformity.

By Kate Bornstein,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Gender Outlaw as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Gender Outlaw is the work of a woman who has been through some changes--a former heterosexual male, a one-time Scientologist and IBM salesperson, now a lesbian woman writer and actress who makes regular rounds on the TV (so to speak) talk shows. In her book, Bornstein covers the "mechanics" of her surgery, everything you've always wanted to know about gender (but were too confused to ask) addresses the place and politics of the transgendered and intterogates the questions of those who give the subject little thought, creating questions of her own.


Book cover of Transgender History

Simon Joyce Author Of LGBT Victorians: Sexuality and Gender in the Nineteenth-Century Archives

From my list on showing that trans people have always existed.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an academic researcher interested in this topic but also one of the people who gets demonized in conservative media: the parent of a transgender child. I want my daughter to know that similar people have existed in history and that lawmakers are wrong to claim that we’re in a scary new world when we advocate for respect and the rights of trans people. While doing that advocacy work, I’m alarmed by positions within the LGBTQI+ movement echoing right-wing ones, including what’s known as “gender critical feminism.” My book argues a positive case for coalition in the face of pressures to fracture along distinct lines of sexuality and gender identity. 

Simon's book list on showing that trans people have always existed

Simon Joyce Why did Simon love this book?

Nobody has done more than Stryker to document the modern history of trans people or to fashion trans studies into an academic field. Transgender History is a work of substantial scholarship and also an accessible introduction to the field and the issues on which it’s centered. Each chapter of this short-ish book is really valuable, whether it’s the opening that explains important terms and concepts or the final one assessing what Time declared the “transgender tipping point” in 2014. Stryker is a historian of twentieth-century America, so that’s the focus of her central chapter documenting a century of trans history. Understanding that early history is crucial for the liberatory gains and backlashes that follow, and Transgender History concludes with resources that can help turn its readers into informed and committed activists.

By Susan Stryker,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Transgender History as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Covering American transgender history from the mid-twentieth century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events. Chapters cover the transsexual and transvestite communities in the years following World War II; trans radicalism and social change, which spanned from 1966 with the publication of The Transsexual Phenomenon, and lasted through the early 1970s; the mid-'70s to 1990-the era of identity politics and the changes witnessed in trans circles through these years; and the gender issues witnessed through the '90s and '00s.

Transgender History includes informative sidebars…


Book cover of Open Throat

David P. Barash Author Of OOPS! The Worst Blunders of All Time

From David's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Trouble-maker Puckish Accessible Informed Engaged and Engaging

David's 3 favorite reads in 2023

David P. Barash Why did David love this book?

There’s something compelling about a novel written from the perspective of an animal, yet it’s terribly difficult to pull it off without making it a book—however wonderful—more suitable for children than for adults (Watership Down was an exception).

This book threads this needle. Its prose verges on poetry as it opens the reader to the world of a lonely, thoughtful cougar living outside Los Angeles. Especially terrific and unique in my reading experience is how we get a new view of our own species through the eyes of this struggling, sometimes perplexed, but always compelling great cat.

By Henry Hoke,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Open Throat as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize. “Open Throat is what fiction should be.” ―The New York Times Book Review

One of Elle’s Best Summer Books of 2023, and one of i-D’s Fiction to be Excited for in 2023. Named a Most Anticipated Book by The New York Times, Vanity Fair, BuzzFeed, The Boston Globe, Nylon, Alta, Shondaland, Chicago Review of Books, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Literary Hub.

A lonely, lovable, queer mountain lion narrates this star-making fever dream of a novel.

A queer and dangerously hungry mountain lion lives in the drought-devastated land under the Hollywood sign. Lonely…


Book cover of Fine: A Comic About Gender

Erika Erickson Malinoski Author Of Pledging Season

From Erika's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Sci-fi nerd Fluffy dress aficionado Mom Activist Worldbuilder

Erika's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Plus, Erika's 6-year-old's favorite books.

Erika Erickson Malinoski Why did Erika love this book?

Rhea Ewing’s Fine is a must read for anyone interested in gender.

It’s a compassionate and nuanced compilation of interviews with people across the gender spectrum about their experience with gender and how they make sense of it. There’s no agenda, and there’s no simple takeaway, just a glimpse into real people’s lived experiences.

The comic/graphic novel format adds brilliantly to the reader’s exploration of what gender is and how it works.

By Rhea Ewing,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Fine as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For fans of Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and Meg-John Barker's Queer, Fine is an essential graphic memoir about the intricacies of gender identity and expression. As Rhea Ewing neared university graduation in 2012, they became consumed by the question: What is gender?

This obsession sparked a quest in their quiet Midwest town, where they anxiously approached both friends and strangers for interviews to turn into comics. A decade later, their project has exploded into a fantastical and informative portrait of a surprisingly vast community spread across the America. Questions such as How do you identify? invited deep and honest accounts…


Book cover of Apartheid of Sex: A Manifesto on the Freedom of Gender

Peg Tittle Author Of Gender Fraud: a fiction

From my list on to make you think about gender and sex.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am the author of several novels—in addition to the one featured here, Impact, It Wasn't Enough (Finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award), Exile, and What Happened to Tom (on Goodreads' "Fiction Books That Opened Your Eyes To A Social Or Political Issue" list).  I was a columnist for The Philosopher Magazine for eight years, Philosophy Now for two years, and the Ethics and Emerging Technologies website for a year ("TransGendered Courage" received 35,000 hits, making it #3 of the year, and "Ethics without Philosophers" received 34,000 hits, making it #5 of the year), and I've published a collection of think pieces titled Sexist Shit that Pisses Me Off. 

Peg's book list on to make you think about gender and sex

Peg Tittle Why did Peg love this book?

Although I endorse Rothblatt's ideal of a sex-irrelevant society, I think he fails to fully comprehend the subordination by sex that females currently experience. And if he hadn't been so rich (like Jenner), he might not have voluntarily become a member of that sexed underclass. (I suspect his money has largely insulated him from the negative effects of being perceived as a woman.) That said, this 1995 book is a pioneering classic. (Though I think the subtitle should have been "A Manifesto on the Freedom from Gender" — not " A Manifesto on the Freedom of Gender".)

By Martine Rothblatt,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Apartheid of Sex as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Rothblatt makes a case for the adoption of a new sexual model that accommodates every shade of gender identity. She reveals that traditional male and female roles are dictated neither by genetics, genitals, nor reproductive biology, but rather by social attitudes that originated in early patriarchal cultures and that have been institutionalized in modern law, and she calls a new acceptance of human sexuality in all its prismatic variety. 10 charts.


Book cover of You Know, Sex: Bodies, Gender, Puberty, and Other Things
Book cover of The Unbalancing: A Birdverse Novel
Book cover of 47,000 Beads

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