Let me start off by saying how excited I was to be given access to this book, Gender Pioneers. It encapsulates so much information about something I’m passionate about: LGBTQIA+ advocacy, especially as pertains to gender issues. It is my understanding, through experience and education, that gender is a spectrum. This means that some people are very masculine, some are very feminine, and a whole lot of people fall somewhere between the two extremes. The old-fashioned and unscientific opposing opinion tends to be the belief of the general public, though: that gender is binary and consists of either male or female. So, when I found a book detailing the histories of pioneering men, women, and nonbinary people, I knew it was my kind of book and I was excited to request access.

Gender Pioneers is alphabetized by everyone’s first name, which can make navigating through it a little difficult. The title page does not have the author’s name listed.

The most unfortunate aspect of this eBook (in Kindle-friendly MOBI format, anyway) and the thing I have to take off serious points for, is the formatting. Each pioneer’s entry starts off with the first letter of their first name hovering two lines above the rest of their name, like so:

A

rthur…

I assume the author wrote the first letters on each page in a special font, as some books have that, but for some reason it didn’t carry over to this format. This was visually jarring and distracting, and was immediately evident at the beginning, leaving me with a poor first impression. There continues to be formatting issues throughout the rest of the text.

I was very excited when I came upon Marsha P. Johnson’s entry, but it seems as though someone hacked up the words, cutting and pasting them in a nonsensical array, so that the entry, while readable, makes no sense. To have it make any sense at all, I had to read the first half of a sentence, then continue reading gibberish for 1.5 sentences, where the other half of the first was! Obviously, this is unacceptable.

This is an excerpt to show that issue:

“Marsha P. Johnson’s body was found in the beatings and arrests by the police. In the Hudson River and, despite visible wounds early hours of June 28th 1969, Johnson and reports of her being harassed, her is cited as ignited the Stonewall Riots by death was judged to be suicide.”

Another formatting issue that’s quickly evident is the arrangement of everyone’s name with their photos. I believe their names should show up beneath their visual representation (whether photo or artistic portrait). Instead, the individual’s name shows up on the top page of the next person’s entry, and is spelled out with letters of varying capitalization, making them hard to read and not very accessible. The page for Mary Frith aka Moll Cutpurse started with Marsha P. Johnson’s name written: “mArsHA P. JoHnson”, and I believe it should have been on the previous page, under her photo.

It’s quite possible that this eBook was written and edited for EPUB format, not MOBI, and that could be the cause of some of the issues. However, that should not be an acceptable excuse for a release-ready book. The editors and publishers should have caught this long before it ended up on NetGalley, because this book is not in the least reader-friendly, and I don’t think it’s ready for publishing.

Having said all of that, I do commend the author for their research, which appears to have been extensive. They list many trans, nonbinary, and intersex individuals who I had personally never heard of before, and I’ve been an advocate since 2004. It appears they dug through tons of historical records, including the accounts and biographies of those who knew them. There is a lot of information here I don’t think I’d find elsewhere, at least not all in one spot.

When not jumbled, the entries are written well and concisely, and mostly without judgmental language, leaving the reader to gasp and sigh at their treatment rather than read the author’s opinions and feelings. I appreciate that, partly because I’m highly sensitive and I don’t know if I could handle reading how it devastates the author while feeling my own sense of desolation. That manner of writing is also a good journalistic approach to the book, which fits its format well.

Coming up with a star rating for this book was difficult because every time I thought of something to condemn the book for, I found something worthy of praise. I decided to go with 3/5, because it needs quite a bit of improvement to be print-ready. However, I’d love to purchase my own copy when it gets the formatting kinks worked out of it.

First, thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Second, I was expecting more from this one to be honest. It was hard to actually finish it because it felt... incomplete. The idea? Great, wonderful, exciting! I'm nonbinary, so I'm all there! In practice? It didn't go so well, and there were even instances of misgendering. It felt rushed and compiled (in a not so great way) rather than thought over and written with care and the utmost respect. At times it feels a bit derogatory and weirdly essentialist, and it was very, very hard to read. I requested this initially to see if it could be something I might use in the classroom. After the first few pages, I absolutely vetoed that idea. I'm concerned this might actually spread more misinformation and do more harm than good.

Great idea! I'm so into this idea! But it wasn't done well.

Thanks in advance for the advance copy of this book. As excited as I was to read this book, It didn't quite it the mark for me. While the author had good intentions, I don't feel it truly celebrated gender pioneers effectively. There were points in the book where it felt less like a celebration of these gender pioneers.

This was a great nonfiction read. I enjoyed learning more about all of these people who paved the way for me to live my life to my fullest and truest identity.

I enjoyed this book and thought it was a very comprehensive history of historical transgender figures. I wish it went in chronological order though instead of alphabetical.

This wasn't what it was said to be. The cover said that the book's "a celebration of trans, nonbinary and intersex icons" but it wasn't that. For example one of the so called icons included was a murderer. The language used in this book wasn't respectful at all towards the identities of the people the author was writing about.

This book shows that trans and intersex people have existed throughout history, in all areas of the world. It presents profiles of historical trans/intersex/genderqueer figures and tells you about their lives and stories. I really liked the illustrations, and I learned a lot of names I didn't know before. This book is a great refutation to the argument that gender-diversity is a 'modern' phenomenon. This book also features people from across the political spectrum, and also discusses people with a variety of professions not just those who are deemed traditionally 'inspirational'. Although, like other reviewers, I felt that the inclusion of criminals and fascists was a bit disarming given the celebratory tone of the title. Generally speaking though, liked the diversity of people portrayed in this book, it is a short and sweet introduction to trans history and I enjoyed the read.

I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review- thanks to the author and publisher!

Well this was a slog.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this one at all. I was excited about this book, but the title itself is incredibly misleading. This is a far cry from celebration. Many of the entires misgender the person they are biographizing and spend most of the page-long entry discussing the subject's genetalia and "true" gender (sex assigned at birth), rather than what these indviduals actually did with their lives. When the individuals are discussed--oof. There was a literal murdered included--not things to be celebrated. I understand the author intended to show the long history of trans* people, and I don't think all queer people need to be perfect to be remembered, but it just felt wrong to have this in a book that is supposedly celebratory.

The book itself was extremely disorganized, as the individuals were only listed by alphabetical order rather than eras they lived, which made it difficult to make connections between various people who knew or married each other, and the writing was clunky.

Overall, this needs a major overhaul before publication. I highly recommend checking out reviews from other trans reviewers as well, who echo and expand on my opinions here.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for honest review.

The idea of a book filled with trans and gender expansive people through different periods is a good one - and this book is filled with a lot of people and information, sadly I found it very badly executed. I didn't enjoy the writing style, which honestly felt more like notes taken from wikipedia pages. The entries for each person were short so lacked a lot of detail and nuance. Some were unreadable (and will hopefully go through more editing before publication). In my opinion there were too many instances of going into great detail about an individual's genitals (especially intersex folks) - including the author describing someone's genitals as "strange" which is especially inappropriate for a book about gender variance! There's also multiple instances of misgendering, pronoun use I can't understand the justification of, and deadnaming.

The title is misleading too, as I wouldn't call literal murders "icons", as interesting as their place in history may still be.

This book had good potential but ultimately felt too rough and unfinished.

While the writing left things to be desired, I found the benefit of learning more about trans and intersex historical figures worth at least an extra star on the book. The way of handling gender and sex with the various entries also should have been more nuanced for this type of book.

This book brings visibility to the history of gender non-conforming people, which is crucial to combat the misunderstanding that this is a "trend." It's also done in a way that is informative and concise. It definitely leans more academic in tone and would be a great addition for courses on gender, transgender studies, or sexuality.

I enjoyed this book and how it went through different lgbt+ people who I never would have known about otherwise.

A decent reference book about transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people throughout history. While this would be great as a beginners guide to gender diverse history, it is clearly written with cis and binary people in mind. I felt some of the language used to refer to people wasn't very accurate or kind and still felt othering or even denying of their identities. While not misgendering, felt like it was written for people outside the community.

I think this book has the correct idea. Celebrating trans people as pioneers is important and good but this book needs another pass by an editor. Using the word prostitute for a sex worker, even if that was the term at the time, is outdated and offensive. Referring to a trans man as female even in the past tense is offensive. There are many examples in the book of trans people hiding their gender but what it’s written as is them hiding the gender they were assigned at birth. I would enjoy this book more if more care was taken in the language used. As a trans person, reading the stories that should uplift me just made me feel angry and unsafe.

I received this through Netgalley and want to give it an honest review.

I found this book really confusing: is it a book of illustrations with comments? Who is the target audience? Is it aimed at teenagers? Is it pro transgender or a bit TERFy? Is it an A-Z of all the slightly gender non conforming people the author could find? Why is it an A-Z of first names and not arranged chronologically?

Firstly, the illustrations were not for me and in the copy I received (pdf) it was not always obvious who the illustration was a picture of. This is just a question of taste: some may like them.

Secondly, the text needs much tighter editing. There are problems with sentence structure, the text reads like notes that have been rewritten in sentence form, but the paragraphing is confusing. Sometimes it just degenerates into a list of people who led similar lives. There are issues with the pronouns used - both using the correct one and consistency.

However, I wish these were the only two problems with this book. The title attracted me because I feel this is a part of history generally neglected, but I don't think the book does what it sets out to do. Are we really celebrating murderers and transmen who deceive women into marrying them here? Often the description is merely a description of the person's genitals rather than why the author thinks they are an icon. I would also question the inclusion of some of the people in this book as people who temporarily cross dress in order to achieve something in a very gendered society, are not necessarily trans, intersex or non binary. The inclusion of Hapshetsut purely on the grounds she wore the Pharaoh's fake beard is an interesting choice. Often facts about people's lives are left entirely without comment when a bit of depth would have been really interesting.

The simplistic language of the book and its short length makes me think this is aimed at teenagers. However, I would not give this book to a trans, intersex or non binary teen because, while it does go some way to show that it is not a new fad, it says things like "their true gender was revealed" suggesting that the person's transness isn't real. There's too much focus on genitals and the medical side of things rather than who these people were and what makes them iconic or pioneering.

This book definitely needs to be revised a lot to do what it sets out to. The language needs to be homogenized and the author needs to do a deep dive into their own beliefs and if they are qualified to speak for all trans people.

This is an excellent book for young readers, but the introduction is clearly written for adults. This would be fine as well, since I normally wouldn’t expect young readers assigned this book to pay any attention to an introduction they haven’t been assigned as reading. There, however, is the other problem. If this is a book for young readers, then this book would have to be assigned reading. If the young readers to whom this book has been assigned are meant to read the meat of the book and not the introduction, then the introduction must be for the adults who have assigned the book. However, the tone of the introduction is somewhat combative, as if it’s attempting to argue for the validity of trans people, full stop. The reading level of the introduction is years and years past the reading level of the book itself, but if adults are assigning already the book, I’m not sure they need this much convincing, and based on the reading level of the rest of the book, anyone assigned this book probably won’t be able to read the introduction at all.
I did not find the descriptions of the "pioneers" to be particularly edifying, which is a shame. Newly transitioning people should be comforted by reading about those who have gone before them. Unfortunately, this would not be the first book I'd recommend to them. I view this to be a companion book later on in their transition to add another layer to their journey. I thank the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and honestly review this book.

This was a solid introductory book for people looking for an overview of transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people throughout history. Its format reminded me a bit of the Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls books (i.e. a picture of each subject and then a brief biography). Like those books, this is not meant to be an exhaustive list or a comprehensive set of biographies, but rather a quick glance into the lives of the many people who have played a role in pushing back against the gender binary. There were a lot of people I was already familiar with, but there were also some who I had not come across before, and I cannot wait to do more research on their lives. Overall, a good read that I'd recommend to anyone looking for an entry point into gender history.

I wanted to love this. I wanted to share it with students, to give the information to them about pieces of history. I suppose I still could, because it could make for some interesting discussion, but it just... wasn't it. The constant misgendering of folks and just... the content didn't match the title. If this is about gender pioneers, if it's a celebration... then you want true pioneers. There were some, yes, but it was such a let down in terms of what the title and description led us to believe.

I did not end up finishing this book because of the consistent problems I encountered within it. Upon talking to with other reviewers who read this book, I knew finishing this book would not be productive to my mental health or education. There were people presented in this book who were misgendered. There seemed to be some confusion about whether some people were crossdressers, rather than actual trans people. In a book "celebrating" a group of people, they chose to include an actual murderer. My only question is, who approved this?