Two evocative tales that celebrate imagination and creative urges that transcend poverty and isolation.

Written by a biopsychologist, this book describes and explains transsexualism and transgenderism (TSTG) from a scientific vantage point. Why does a male violate cultural gender rules and dress and act as a woman? Why does a female violate cultural rules to dress and act as a man? Why do some males and females undergo radical medical procedures in order to permanently change their bodies so that they are closer, respectively, to female and male bodies? In this book, a Princeton University-trained physiological psychologist explores dozens of theories about what may spur transsexual and transgender (TSTG) thinking, exposes the myths of fetishism, homosexuality, prenatal hormones, or child rearing as causes, and explains the two causes that are supported by current science. Covering a breadth of topics that include neuroanatomy, choice, psychodynamics, and transsexual transition, author Thomas E. Bevan, PhD, synthesizes the pertinent research regarding transsexualism and transgenderism across 22 scientific disciplines. The book covers various gender systems from antiquity to historical and contemporary cultures that support the biological basis of transsexualism and transgenderism, addresses human development from the time prior to conception through adulthood and potential transsexual transition, and corrects common myths and assumptions about TSTG individuals, such as that crossdressing is basically motivated by a desire for sexual arousal. The book also includes sections that cite definitions of key terms and identify related reading, organizations for support, and current TSTG events worldwide.

More than twenty years after the ground-breaking anthology This Bridge Called My Back called upon feminists to envision new forms of communities and practices, Gloria E. Anzaldúa and AnaLouise Keating have painstakingly assembled a new collection of over eighty original writings that offers a bold new vision of women-of-color consciousness for the twenty-first century. Written by women and men--both "of color" and "white"--this bridge we call home will challenge readers to rethink existing categories and invent new individual and collective identities.

Includes the proceedings of the annual meeting of the Society.

Because homoerotic relations can be found in so many cultures, Gilbert Herdt argues that we should think of these relations as part of the human condition. This new cross-cultural study of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals around the world, Same Sex, Different Cultures provides a unique perspective on maturing and living within societies, both historical and contemporary, that not only acknowledge but also incorporate same-gender desires and relations.Examining what it means to organize ?sex? in a society that lacks a category for ?sex,? or to love someone of the same gender when society does not have a ?homosexual? or ?gay/lesbian? role, Herdt provides provocative new insights in our understanding of gay and lesbians lives. Accurate in both its scientific conceptions and wealth of cultural and historical material, examples range from the ancient Greeks and feudal China and Japan to the developing countries of Africa, India, Mexico, Brazil, and Thailand, from a New Guinea society to contemporary U.S. culture, including Native Americans. For all of these peoples, homoerotic relations emerge as part of culture?and not separate from history or society.In many of these groups, loving or engaging in sexual relations is found to be the very basis of the local cultural theory of ?human nature? and the mythological basis for the cosmos and the creation of society. The mistake of modern Western culture, Gilbert contends, is to continue the legalization of prejudice against lesbians and gays.In this light, the book addresses the issue of ?universal? versus particular practices and reveals positive role models that embrace all aspects of human sexuality. Finally, it offers knowledge of the existence of persons who have loved and have been intimate sexually and romantically with the same gender in other lands through divergent cultural practices and social roles.The most important lesson to learn from this cross-cultural and historical study of homosexuality is that there is room for many at the table of humankind.