Here are 100 books that Intersexion fans have personally recommended if you like
Intersexion.
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As a young Christian woman passionate about understanding how to serve God and others, I received mixed messages about what I could do in the world because I am female. One of my college professors encouraged me to get my PhD and return as the first female faculty member in their Department of Bible and Theology. Another professor said if I taught theology at the college level, I would be sinning, violating I Timothy 2:12, where the Apostle Paul commands women not to teach men but to learn in silence. Continuing my study in seminary, I was dissatisfied by both liberal and conservative theologians writing on sex and gender differences.
I met Lianne while writing my dissertation on intersex people and Christian theology. Knowing her, her story, and her faith changed my life forever. We went on to collaborate in educating others about people born outside the male/female binary and eventually created a documentary to share her story and the stories of other intersex people of faith.
Sadly, Lianne passed away in 2021 during Covid. In Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite, Lianne offers her semi-autobiographical story of growing up intersex and Christian. Since her life story changed my life, I think it will change yours, too!
From the heart of an intersex teen, one who must ultimately choose male or female--family or true love--comes the story of a deeply emotional and perilous journey home. This is a young adult novel unlike any other--an authentic portrayal of the issues faced by a child growing up with a sexually ambiguous body.
Jameson can be like other boys after minor surgery and a few years on testosterone Well, at least that's what his parents always say. But Jamie sees an elfin princess in the mirror, and male hormones would only ruin her pretty face. For him to become the…
The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.
The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.
Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…
As a young Christian woman passionate about understanding how to serve God and others, I received mixed messages about what I could do in the world because I am female. One of my college professors encouraged me to get my PhD and return as the first female faculty member in their Department of Bible and Theology. Another professor said if I taught theology at the college level, I would be sinning, violating I Timothy 2:12, where the Apostle Paul commands women not to teach men but to learn in silence. Continuing my study in seminary, I was dissatisfied by both liberal and conservative theologians writing on sex and gender differences.
My first three book recommendations are by intersex people themselves because their voices have been silenced and unheard for too long. Allies like myself have a place in the conversation, but our platforms should always center the voices of intersex people themselves.
While this book is not written for a specifically Christian audience, the author did grow up Christian and is a strong contemporary advocate for protecting intersex infants and children from non-consensual surgeries on their genitals to make them “appear” more typically male or female.
By sharing her own experience, Pidgeon documents just how wrong these “well-intentioned” interventions can go and why doctor’s attempts to “fix” intersex traits should be outlawed.
From intersex activist Pidgeon Pagonis comes a candid and life-affirming true story of identity, lies, family secrets, and the healing power of truth.
Pidgeon Pagonis always felt like their life was a constant attempt to fit in with other girls-a feeling that was only exacerbated when puberty failed to hit. They never understood why...until they uncovered the secret that had haunted their childhood.
Bouncing between their Chicago home and the city's children's hospital, Pidgeon weathered a series of traumatic surgeries, fabrications, and misdirections. It wasn't until college that Pidgeon pieced together the puzzle of their identity: they'd been born intersex…
I’ve always been a thinker, asking big questions and playing around with crazy ideas. That’s why I’ve been fascinated by the Bible since I was fourteen, reading it cover-to-cover multiple times and studying it academically for—approaching four decades now. It’s a classic for a reason! At first, I read it because I became a Christian, and it’s part of the package, but within a short time, I was hooked. I was especially interested in the tough parts, the bits I didn’t like or couldn’t make sense of. They were invitations to explore, think, and learn. It never ceases to surprise me with new ideas and inspirational insights.
It turns out that the “God hates fags” folk are wrong (and not simply unkind). So often, modern debates in churches on homosexuality assume that one either (I) believes the Bible and rejects same-sex relationships as sinful or (II) rejects the Bible to embrace the rainbow.
What I love about this carefully argued book from a NT scholar is that he throws a spanner in the works and makes us think again. (And, dude, a wee bit of thought could go a long way in these poisonous waters.) Brownson argues that the teachings of the Bible do not, contrary to popular opinion, exclude same-sex relationships.
I found his clear and careful examination of all the “troublesome texts” and how we’ve misunderstood them to be enlightening and helpful.
Grapples conscientiously with biblical texts at the heart of the church's debate over same-sex relationships
This thought-provoking book by James Brownson develops a broad, cross-cultural sexual ethic from Scripture, locates current debates over homosexuality in that wider context, and explores why the Bible speaks the way it does about same-sex relationships.
Fairly presenting both sides in this polarized debate — "traditional" and "revisionist" — Brownson conscientiously analyzes all of the pertinent biblical texts and helpfully identifies "stuck points" in the ongoing debate. In the process, he explores key concepts that inform our understanding of the biblical texts, including patriarchy, complementarity,…
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
As a young Christian woman passionate about understanding how to serve God and others, I received mixed messages about what I could do in the world because I am female. One of my college professors encouraged me to get my PhD and return as the first female faculty member in their Department of Bible and Theology. Another professor said if I taught theology at the college level, I would be sinning, violating I Timothy 2:12, where the Apostle Paul commands women not to teach men but to learn in silence. Continuing my study in seminary, I was dissatisfied by both liberal and conservative theologians writing on sex and gender differences.
Susannah Cornwall is a leading scholar of intersex and Christian theology. She writes in the Anglican tradition.
This is one of her earlier books, which brings intersex experiences into conversation with the Bible, disability theologies, and LGBTQ theological perspectives. Cornwall's writings are essential for those willing to read beyond conservative Christian authors.
Mainstream Christian theology has valued the integrity of the body and the goodness of God reflected in creation. However, it has also asserted the complementarity of "normal" male and female physiology. Sex and Uncertainty in the Body of Christ offers the first systematic theology of the intersexed body.
The book analyzes the theological implications of physical intersex conditions and their medical treatment. The medical assumption of what constitutes male and female bodies is shown to raise essential questions about the meaning of incarnation and bodiliness. The book argues for a theology that speaks to stigmatized and marginal bodies, examining the…
I’m a novelist and a professor of black queer and feminist literature at Georgetown University. But the truth is, my connection to these books goes deeper than that. These books give me life. When I was a little girl, I spent more days than I can count scouring my mother’s small black feminist library in the basement of our home in Harlem, poring over the stories of girls like me: fat, black, queer girls who longed to see themselves written in literature and history. Now I get to create stories like these myself, and share them with others. It’s a dream job, and a powerful one. It thrills me every time.
It features the voices of over forty contemporary lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex African writers who reflect on queer life and experience. With work from renowned photographer Zanele Muholi and acclaimed writers like Olumide Popoola, Audrey Mbugua, and Pamella Dlungwana, Queer African Reader explores how queerness, trans identity, disability, feminism, and colonialism intersect on both personal and political levels.
It’s full of stories, poems, and essays that move us beyond a US-centered view of sexuality, rooting us in the complexities of queer life and the possibilities of queer freedom in Africa and beyond.
As homophobia and transphobia threaten to silence the voices of African lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people, this account is a testament to the resistance and unrelenting power of these communities across Africa and its diaspora. It brings together academic writings, political analysis, life testimonies, conversations, and artistic works by Africans that engage with the struggle for LGBTI liberation. The book aims to engage the audience from the perspective that various traits of identity—such as gender, race, and class—interact to contribute to social inequality. Including experiences from diverse African contexts, this work breaks away from the homogenization of…
I’ve been studying language and gender since I started graduate school in 1990. I’m an odd gender scholar in some ways in that I am a white cisgendered heterosexual masculine person. I think I’m interested in the topic because conversation and ‘being a man’ has always seemed hard and like a lot of work to me. So, I started studying these things in the 1990s with a project on language use in a college fraternity in the US. Since then I've published many articles on language and masculinities, including a 2004 article on the word dude, which is still popular in introductory linguistics courses today.
A scientist shows that the science of sex is not as biologically binary as everyone thinks. Before reading this book, even though I had understood gender to be socially constructed, I thought gender was ‘built’ on a clear biological sex difference.
Fausto-Sterling explains, in language that my high-school biology could understand, how the biology of sex is much more complicated and socially constructed than I had realized. The rug was pulled out from under me.
Sex/Gender presents a relatively new way to think about how biological difference can be produced over time in response to different environmental and social experiences.
This book gives a clearly written explanation of the biological and cultural underpinnings of gender. Anne Fausto-Sterling provides an introduction to the biochemistry, neurobiology, and social construction of gender with expertise and humor in a style accessible to a wide variety of readers. In addition to the basics, Sex/Gender ponders the moral, ethical, social and political side to this inescapable subject.
An interview with the author! WOMR - The Lowdown with Ira Wood - Sex…
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
I’m a debut novelist who loves a good family drama. I’m a fiction professor at the University of Memphis, where I teach a course on the dysfunctional family novel featuring books on this list. I’m also an atheist, a bisexual, and a father to a one-year-old—all of which influenced my book. In addition to the novel, I’ve written a story collection called Quantum Convention. My stories have aired on Public Radio International’s Selected Shorts and appeared in American Short Fiction, Gulf Coast, and Electric Literature, among other journals. I also have a new essay up at Lit Hub about channeling my bisexuality through queer characters.
When it comes to family sagas turned myth, it’s hard to top Calliope Stephanides tracing the passage of the hermaphroditic gene—transforming Callie into Cal—through three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family.
An epic origin story that moves from Asia Minor to Detroit, Michigan, complete with incest and a nuanced exploration of gender identity. It also has one of my all-time favorite novel openings ever. “Sing now, O Muse, of the recessive mutation on my fifth chromosome!”
'I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974.'
So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and her truly unique family secret, born on the slopes of Mount Olympus and passed on through three generations.
Growing up in 70s Michigan, Calliope's special inheritance will turn her into Cal, the narrator of this intersex, inter-generational epic of immigrant life in 20th century America.
Middlesex won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
I'm an anarcho-feminist who has a special interest in magic; I consider it my guilty pleasure. I write dark and gritty stories that delve into gender, trauma, and mental illness, yet discover hope and freedom in the pit of darkness. I'm best known as a horror writer, but it’s more accurate to say that I create dark-fantasy and speculative fiction. My themes reflect the darkness which feels ubiquitous in the world, especially now in this age of extremes and pandemics, but I always search for the glimmer of light, the flame of hope that we can make a better future. I've always been fascinated by the Goth aesthetic and enchanted by post-punk threnodies.
It is set in the late 19th early 20th century in Manchester, England. A time of suffragists and a blossoming underground queer culture, both of which were violently opposed by state and police. Set in this time, place and atmosphere is the story of Edie and Gnome. The first chapter shows them in perfect, natural harmony with each other. As Edie grows up, her intersex nature (given a gloriously magical bent by Garland) is repressed and made a cause of shame via their mother’s abuse. Without full expression and acceptance, Edie/Gnome's relationship becomes destructive and toxic. The Night Brother is a journey of acceptance and balance woven into a wider narrative about feminine roles in society and the struggle to transcend them.
It is a delight to follow Garland’s beautiful prose both as it delves into the violent and gritty aspects of Victorian Manchester and when it soars into fantastical…
'Echoes of Angela Carter's more fantastical fiction reverberate through this exuberant tale of a hermaphrodite Jekyll and Hyde figure...enjoyably energetic' SUNDAY TIMES
Late nineteenth-century Manchester is a city of charms and dangers - the perfect playground for young siblings, Edie and Gnome. But as they grow up, they grow apart, and while Gnome revels in the night-time, Edie wakes each morning, exhausted and uneasy, with only a dim memory of the dark hours.
Convinced she deserves more than this half-life, she tries to break free from Gnome and forge her own future. But Gnome is always right behind, somehow seeming…
I was first drawn to the Olympics when, at age nine, I watched US speedskater Eric Heiden win five gold medals at the 1980 Lake Placid Games. Heiden hailed from my hometown of Madison, and to celebrate his victories my mom knit me a replica of Heiden’s signature rainbow cap. A few years later, at the age of nineteen, I was representing the US U-23 men’s National Team in soccer, playing international matches against countries like Brazil and the Soviet Union. I have lived in numerous Olympic cities and written six books about the politics of the Games. I hope you find these books as engaging as I have!
With both fascism and attacks on transgender people on the rise in the United States and globally, it’s easy to become paralyzed with dread.
This book is a crucial antidote to freezing from fascism-induced fear. In this book, Michael Waters deftly traces the experiences of courageous trans and intersex athletes from the 1930s who embraced their true selves despite public pushback. And Waters delivers these stories with silky prose; this a nonfiction book that slides down the brain hatch like a novel.
Named a Most Anticipated Book by Esquire, Town & Country, and Electric Literature
"Michael Waters performs an Olympian act of storytelling, using the stories of these extraordinary athletes to explore in brilliant detail the struggle for understanding and equality." ―Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
The story of the early trans athletes and Olympic bureaucrats who lit the flame for today’s culture wars.
In December 1935, Zdeněk Koubek, one of the most famous sprinters in European women’s sports, declared he was now living as a man. Around the same time, the celebrated British field…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
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.
As a parent (and a researcher), I’m so happy this book exists! It’s the best response to the argument that trans kids are new and, therefore, how we raise them is dangerously experimental. Where Gill-Peterson finds such kids historically is mainly in medical archives, where treatments were directed mostly at intersex children, many of whom we’d see as trans. She shows a fascination with the “plasticity” of the body in the early twentieth century, although predictably, possibilities for transforming bodies were viewed differently across racial lines. The best counter to conservative attacks, though, is his research into Val, a 1920s teen in rural Wisconsin who went to school as the gender she affirmed and had negotiated agreements about things like which bathroom she could use, over which we’re fighting a century later!
A groundbreaking twentieth-century history of transgender children
With transgender rights front and center in American politics, media, and culture, the pervasive myth still exists that today's transgender children are a brand new generation-pioneers in a field of new obstacles and hurdles. Histories of the Transgender Child shatters this myth, uncovering a previously unknown twentieth-century history when transgender children not only existed but preexisted the term transgender and its predecessors, playing a central role in the medicalization of trans people, and all sex and gender.
Beginning with the early 1900s when children with "ambiguous" sex first sought medical attention, to the…
