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Who gets to define what transgender is, or who is transgender? The very notion of a transgender population poses numerous political and technical challenges. How are trans people counted, by whom, and for what purposes? What is at stake in “making transgender count,” and how might this process vary across national, linguistic, or cultural contexts? This special issue of TSQ presents a range of approaches to these questions, including analyses that generate more effective and inclusive ways to measure and count gender identity and/or transgender people. Essays also offer critical perspectives on quantitative methodologies and the politics of what Ian Hacking calls “making up people,” the impact that classification has on those being classified. Contributors consider to what extent counting transgender people makes that population's government accountable to those individuals.

Contributors: Kellan Baker, Jenifer Bratter, Kerith J. Conron, Andrew R. Flores, Alison Gill, Nick Gorton, Jaime M. Grant, Emily A. Greytak, Jack Harrison-Quintana, Jody L. Herman, Natalie Ingraham, Jeffrey Johnson, Colton Keo-Meier, Lisa King, Anna Kłonkowska, Kyle G. Knight, Christine Labuski, Emilia Lombardi, Phoenix Alicia Matthews, Sheila J. Nezhad, Vanessa Pratt, Sari L. Reisner, Ignacio Rivera, Megan R. Rohrer, Kristen Schilt, Nfn Scout, Ben Singer, Hale Thompson

TSQ aims to be the journal of record for the rapidly emerging field of transgender studies. The inaugural issue, "Postposttranssexual: Key Concepts for a 21st-Century Transgender Studies," pays homage to Sandy Stone's field-defining "Posttranssexual Manifesto" and assesses where the field is now and where it seems to be heading. Comprising over eighty short essays by authors ranging from graduate students to senior scholars, the issue takes on such topics as biopolitics, disability, political economy, childhood, trans-of-color critique, area studies, translation, pathologization, the state, and animal studies. Some keyword entries resemble encyclopedia articles (sports, psychoanalysis); others are poetic meditations on concepts (capacity, transition); still others offer whimsical and eccentric expositions of words that are more unexpected-and unexpectedly productive (perfume, hips). Some entries pose trenchant resistances to the keyword concept itself. The issue includes a substantive introduction by the editors and serves as a primer for readers encountering transgender studies for the first time.

"Transgender Rights packs a surprising amount of information into a small space. Offering spare, tightly executed essays, this slim volume nonetheless succeeds in creating a spectacular, well-researched compendium of the transgender movement." -Law Library Journal

Over the past three decades, the transgender movement has gained visibility and achieved significant victories. Discrimination has been prohibited in several states, dozens of municipalities, and more than two hundred private companies, while hate crime laws in eight states have been amended to include gender identity. Yet prejudice and violence against transgender people remain all too common.

With analysis from legal and policy experts, activists and advocates, Transgender Rights assesses the movement’s achievements, challenges, and opportunities for future action. Examining crucial topics like family law, employment policies, public health, economics, and grassroots organizing, this groundbreaking book is an indispensable resource in the fight for the freedom and equality of those who cross gender boundaries. Moving beyond media representations to grapple with the real lives and issues of transgender people, Transgender Rights will launch a new moment for human rights activism in America.

Contributors: Kylar W. Broadus, Judith Butler, Mauro Cabral, Dallas Denny, Taylor Flynn, Phyllis Randolph Frye, Julie A. Greenberg, Morgan Holmes, Bennett H. Klein, Jennifer L. Levi, Ruthann Robson, Nohemy Solórzano-Thompson, Dean Spade, Kendall Thomas, Paula Viturro, Willy Wilkinson.

Paisley Currah is associate professor of political science at Brooklyn College, executive director of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center, and a founding board member of the Transgender Law and Policy Institute.

Richard M. Juang cochairs the advisory board of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) in Washington, DC. He has taught at Oberlin College and Susquehanna University. He is the lead editor of NCTE's Responding to Hate Crimes: A Community Resource Manual and coeditor of Transgender Justice, which explores models of activism.

Shannon Price Minter is legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and a founding board member of the Transgender Law and Policy Institute.