New Books in LGBTQ+ Studies · New Books Network

Carolyn Wolf-Gould et al., "A History of Transgender Medicine in the United States" (SUNY Press, 2025)

·1 hr 3 min·5 clips

Trans people forced reluctant doctors to provide care, shaping transgender medicine through sheer persistence.

This episode features an interview with the four editors of "A History of Transgender Medicine in the United States": Carolyn Wolf-Gould, Dallas Denny, Jameson Green, and Kai. The editors are scholars and longtime activists within the transgender community. Their book, eight years in the making, is a comprehensive, multi-contributor volume released in 2025. The conversation begins by tracing the international, pre-colonial roots of transgender existence, citing cultures like the Katui of Thailand and the Hijra of India. It then examines early Western sexology, naming figures like Karl Ulrichs, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, and Magnus Hirschfeld, whose Berlin institute hosted early gender-affirming surgeries. The narrative shifts to the United States, highlighting the pivotal roles of Christine Jorgensen's public transition and endocrinologist Harry Benjamin, who framed early care as palliative. The editors describe how transgender individuals themselves persistently drove the field by educating and requesting help from doctors. They discuss the mid-20th century clinic model, where patients were often expected to conform to a binary, normative ideal and hide their pasts. A key insight is the persistent tension between the benefits of medical access and the costs of medicalization, such as reliance on systems and reinforcement of strict binaries. The editors note that current political backlash, including rhetoric about "mutilation," echoes historical arguments like the archaic "mayhem statutes." Personal stories from Dallas Denny and Jameson Green illustrate the immense difficulty of finding information and ethical care in the 1970s and 80s, leading them to activism. They emphasize that the core problem has always been societal stigma, not the individual. The tone is deeply informed, conversational, and combines historical analysis with personal narrative. The style is educational but grounded in the lived experiences and advocacy of the editors. Listeners interested in LGBTQ+ history, medical sociology, or understanding the current political debate around transgender rights will find this episode invaluable. Those seeking a light or purely contemporary political commentary might find the detailed historical focus less engaging.

As heard by us

A history of how trans patients and doctors shaped one another.

The discussion presents the book as a history of transgender medicine in the United States, shaped as much by patient insistence as by clinician hesitation and careful explanation.

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Why you'd press play

You want a serious history of transgender medicine shaped by trans people, the doctors who listened, and the long push for care.

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