Centring the voices and experiences of trans identified people as experts on their own lives and agents of change, Trans Activism in Canada opens up a dialogue between scholars and community members in an effort to improve the lives of sex and gender variant people.The first of its kind, this anthology brings together activists and allies to examine the various strategies and forms of resistance needed to transform oppression into opportunity for change. Reflecting upon the challenges trans communities face and offering insight into achieving institutional reform, the themes addressed range from poverty and isolation to health care and best practices. Using personal narratives, archival material, and qualitative research, as well as case- and community-based research, this text demonstrates the leading role of trans and two-spirit activists in generating social change. By drawing on feminist, anti-racist, and social justice frameworks, the contributors approach oppression and activism as inseparable from hetero-patriarchal, colonialist, and capitalist power relations.Written for trans activists, scholars, and allies, Trans Activism in Canada is poised to enrich transgender theorizing by focusing on concrete experiences and practical knowledge gained from the everyday lives of trans people.

Dan Irving is Assistant Professor of Sexuality Studies and Human Rights in the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies at Carleton University. Dan is co-author, with David Bedford, of The Tragedy of Progress: Marxism, Modernity and the Aboriginal Question (2001).

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Rupert Raj is a psychotherapist specializing in gender and sexual identity issues in Toronto. He received the City of Toronto Access and Equity Human Rights Pride Award in 2007 and was inducted into the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives’ National Portrait Collection in 2013.

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"The strength of this anthology is its invitation to think differently. Whether in currents of research, trans studies, community building, clinical knowledge, advocacy, or the act and process of listening itself, this book challenges us to reimagine how we can know the realities of trans people, and why such knowledge matters. This is a supremely useful book: a document of what has been accomplished, an encyclopedia of what’s happening now, a who’s who of activism, and a roadmap to the future as we bend the long arc of the universe toward justice for trans people.— “Susan Stryker, Director for the Institute for LGBT Studies, University of Arizona