I’ve co-authored a short chapter for a new book that’s due out in February. The book, titled A History of Transgender Medicine in the United States: From Margins to Mainstream, traces the development of trans medicine across three centuries, with writing from more than 40 contributors.

The book is currently on offer from the publisher, SUNY Press. If you order by 6th December you can buy the book for 50% off with the code HOLIDAY24. That means the paperback edition will come to $22.47 for those in the USA, or £24.12 with postage for buyers in the UK.

I should clarify also that, as usual with academic books, I won’t personally be seeing a penny from its sale. So if you’d like to read this publication, please do get it at a bargain price if you can!

Our chapter is titled “By Us and For Us: Bringing Ethics into Transgender Health Research“, and I wrote it collaboratively with Noah Adams, Jaimie Veale, Asa Radix, Amrita Sarkar, and Danielle Castro.

In this chapter we explore the context and subsequent impact of an earlier work, our co-authored journal article (with additional author Kai Cheng Thom) Guidance and Ethical Considerations for Undertaking Transgender Health Research and Institutional Review Boards Adjudicating this Research. That article is now one of the most highly-cited works I’ve contributed to. Since its publication in 2017, it’s been used to inform the design and implementation of hundreds of studies, becoming more influential than I ever could have imagined.

I’m really grateful especially to Noah Adams for leading on the process of both our 2017 article and new book chapter. I first met Noah, along with Jaimie and Asa , at the 2016 WPATH Symposium in Amsterdam, which saw the presentation of numerous extremely unethical studies on trans and intersex people. I learned a great deal very fast at that symposium, and through the subsequent writing process with Amrita, Danielle, and Kai.

Most importantly, I learned that it is possible to change research and practice for the better through interventions that centre community perspectives, mutual learning, and our collective responsibilities to one another. This is an important thing to bear in mind in our current age of disinformation and the abuse of scientific discourse: while abusive practices have a long history in trans medicine and medical research, another world is possible.