4.5/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Jessica Kingsley Publishers for the ARC!

Trans and Disabled is an essay collection featuring voices that exist in the intersection of being disabled and not-cisgender.
This was a really good essay collection. I’m someone who struggles a lot with anthologies, but I enjoyed all of the essays in here. As a trans and disabled person, myself, I was able to relate a lot to the various essays.
Despite the similarities in identities, it was interesting to see the differences in perspective among the writers. I especially liked seeing the writing on COVID lockdown and the varying effects across the trans/disabled community.

CW: trans/queerphobia; ableism; abuse; deadnaming; medical content/trauma; suicidal thoughts & ideation

This book was alright. As far as structure goes, I think it fit the synopsis and I enjoyed how the essays were categorized into three sections. However, it's always a little difficult to review an anthology like this because some essays were really insightful and others were written by the most annoying people ever (read: spends too much time on Tumblr). While some writings were truly informative, others lamented so hard to the point of me going, okayyy I get it.

I am certainly not the core audience for this book, though I did appreciate many essays. Definitely a better read for someone in either the gender diverse or dis/abled community.

There were so many fantastic authors brought together to make this work. The last essay "who fights for us..." was particularly poignant considering the politics in the United States and the UK, among others, where life seems particularly hard for the trans and disabled community at the moment and for the foreseeable.

I find as with every essay collection that it is hard for every essay to be your cup of tea; ideally they are selected for variety so by their nature you aren't likely to love all of them. Having said that, I loved almost all of them and the essays I didn't love, I still enjoyed. I also found it generally very accessible and not too academic or dense. Content warnings are also very well marked.

Feels like a book we need right now, and if you can access a copy I would really recommend it.

Whenever I read something that involves Alex Iantaffi, I feel huge quantities of joy. This book is no exception. The collection of stories, academic texts, poetry, experiences, thoughts and feelings is so perfect for discussing the intersections between trans and disabled identities. I really enjoyed the variety and I think it helped illustrate how different we all are even when united under the same characteristics.

I thoroughly enjoyed the variety of people who contributed to this book too. I particularly appreciated the space held for trans disabled people to grieve, be angry, and have strong emotions. As a trans disabled person myself it often feels that society doesn't want us to have any of those emotions and that we should exist as emotionless beings. The authors in this book take that idea and obliterate it in this fantastic display of truly human experiences.

With thanks to NetGalley for an ARC

Trans and Disabled is a really nice anthology of diverse trans voices through personal essays, poems, and vulnerable stories. One of my favorite quotes from it that I think encapsulates the whole book is "My body hurts in a lot of ways." And it that doesn't sum up the trans and disabled experience, I don't know what does. I am enby, ASD, and have a chronic illness myself, so I found it relatable and nice to read.

Thanks to netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book was an excellent social science piece. It mapped the intersections transness and disability through personal stories. The book was formatted into three sections focusing on the lived experience of being trans and disabled. The second section focuses on the topic of society's treatment of trans and disabled people. The final section focuses on self love and community in the trans and disabled community.

I liked many things about this book. It has an impressive range of topics. These topics range from pluralism to medical discrimination and intersections with different communities, all covered in just over 200 pages.

The book has a variety of contributors from different social, racial economic and disability backgrounds.

This book was a favorite and I was sorry it was so short. I liked many of the different essays and poems but two stood out as my favorite. The first piece was called Pural, Trans and Disabled by Meg-John Baker. This piece explores the lived experiences of being a pural system. It also discusses the intersections that occur when being pural, trans and disabled.

While my other favorite is Bathroom Buzzcut by Liz Moore who talks about her relationship with her hair as her gender and disability evolved. This is an important topic to me and many other queer people. We often have to fight with ourselves. We also have to confront society when it comes to wearing our hair in a way that makes us comfortable.

I’d give this book five stars all of the writing was amazing in different ways and it was edited very cleanly

this is a really fantastic and diverse collection of essays, art and poetry from trans and disabled individuals. there is a myriad of different perspectives on both transness and disability in this collection, and the pieces are organised well to ensure good flow throughout the book. it's clear that the editor put a lot of effort into this project, as well as into uplifting diverse voices within these two communities. standouts for me included Bathroom buzz cut and COVID-19, self-revelations, and the resilience of intersectional online community.

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity.

Everyone should read this book as being trans and disabled it was so great to feel seen.

I really appreciated the variety of essays in this collection-- a good mix of theory and experience (the highest compliment from me). I especially enjoyed the poetry. It can be hard to edit a collection this diverse and still have it feel connected. Iantaffi did a wonderful job.

As a Trans and Disabled person, this was a great read that reflected my lived experience in many ways. I didn't agree with everything in it but I got something from everything in it.

As someone who is also trans and disabled, this was a powerful anthology.
Identity can be a more layered thing for many people in those categories. The authors in this collection really captured the complex thoughts and emotions that come with it. Exploring how trans experiences and disabled experiences intersect was very interesting; ranging from the relationship with the body to discrimination to medical trauma to community and more. I cried while reading some of them. The top three standouts for me were:
"Do No Harm" by Eddy Samara - transphobia from medical professionals
"Bathroom buzz cut" by Liz Moore - gender euphoria, queer community, and living with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (A condition that I actually also have)
"What are we worth?" by Lee K Hulme - the anxieties of insecurities of dating when trans/disabled

Trans and Disabled is an anthology of writing and art. This writing takes a wide variety of forms, and is authored by a wide variety of trans and disabled people.

“More than anything, I wanted to be free from the expectation to be anything other than who I was, and to be able to exist in a self that was varied and sometimes incomprehensible to others.”

As a queer and disabled person I adored this collection! I found not only recognition in these pages, but also learnt from all the different points of view covered. I loved the variety in age of the authors, which contributes to the intersectionality of this book. I've collected so many quotes from this anthology, and have talked about it with many queer and disabled friends.

"Despite all of the struggle, there is still such beauty in knowing who you are. In finding the words that slide over you and perfectly click. The labels that fill every nook and cranny, eliminating the void of being unknown to yourself. When we find ourselves, in language and in community, it feels like coming home."

Every piece of writing is different, so not every piece might resonate with you, but you can still learn from every single word written. When I started reading this book I was not as familiar with plurality. Luckily Trans and Disabled opens with information on this topic. It was a great idea to make this the first piece you read, because it lays a foundation for what is yet to come.

I read this anthology a few chapters a day, one at a time, because honestly it can be a lot to be confronted with some of the cruel realities laid bare in these pages. But I also loved taking my time so I could reflect on each story. I also see myself returning to this anthology in the future, because I feel there are even deeper layers that can be discovered upon re-reading.

"If you're reading this as a cisgender and/or an abled person, please do not look for inspiration here or for our courage and resilience; this is not what our lives are for, and neither are these pages. I hope, however, that you can find expansion within your mind and heart through these pages."

I would recommend this anthology to every, single person on this earth that is the appropriate age to read this and can handle the trigger warning topics. It is not only a way for trans and/or disabled people to feel validated, but also an important learning tool for people who do not personally identify with these identities. This marginalized community does not only deserve recognition, they deserve justice. Having more knowledge on these subjects can help cis and able-bodied people help fight for a more equitable world.

TW for a wide variety of topics, including: ableism, child abuse, fatphobia, medical abuse, medical endangerment, medical neglect, PTSD, racism, self harm, suicidal ideation and attempts.

A great variety of different perspectives. There are a few about dissociative identity disorder, and similar disorders, which is fun to see, and that doesn't exist much in more professional literature.
All in all a good read. I could definitely use this as a way to help people understand intersectionality, as that might be a hard concept to grasp, and this book really clarifies that.

As a chronically ill and queer person, I was very excited to get an early review copy of this book, especially because the more I learn about queerness and disability the more the intersection comes into focus. This book goes a long way to sharpen that focus and to provide further nuance when it comes to being gender queer, non-binary or trans. I really enjoyed the diversity of the authors, their disabilities and their queer identities. My favourite story was Bender which happened to have one of the best quotes I've ever read about queerness and disability: "I love the story that my gender and sexuality are bendy, my brain is bendy, my body is bendy - everything is all loose and floppy and resistant to catergorization and arabitrary boxes". A must read for disabled queer people looking for comfort, community and compassion.

Loved this! So grateful that this anthology was put together and that it showcased and uplifted so many trans and disabled voices. I hope that even those who aren’t trans and disabled are able to listen to these voices and gain insight. Truly an incredibly important book and I will definitely get a physical copy

oh what a beautiful book
If you are trans, or disabled, or both, you will find so many relatable emotions and experiences, and you will learn about ones you haven't gone through (or not yet), there are many things I hadn't even considered that now I know I will always be looking out for and advocating for now that I'm aware of how they're an issue

If you aren't any of those, you will learn so so much about the (varied, constant, sometimes unpredictable) challenges that trans and disabled people face, and hopefully gain a new understanding through these perspectives, thanks to the vulnerability the collaborators accepted to share

thank you to all the authors who contributed to this collection, thank you to the editor for getting it all together, thank you NetGalley and Jessica Kingsley Publishers for allowing me to read an ARC

highly highly recommend

This was a really interesting one. I've read most of the anthologies that Jessica Kingsley Publishers have put out, and I always find them to be expansive and illuminating; they always do a good job highlighting marginalised perspectives and experiences, and have a real commitment to elevating own voices narratives. Big fan, basically.

There was an awful lot to appreciate in this latest anthology. As multiple contributors point out in their essays, the intersections between the trans and disabled communities are vast, both in terms of common lived experiences shared by both communities, such as medical gaslighting and systemic social murder (i.e. unnatural deaths caused by oppressive social policies) and the sheer number of individuals who share both identities. It's a really welcome addition to the canon of queer and crip lit to have an anthology designed to explore that intersection.

This particular anthology seeks to explore a fairly diverse range of topics, from the relationship between EDS and autism, the 'trans broken arm' theory as it intersects with ableism, and plurality as a neuroqueer model for understanding disability and trans experiences. It generally does a good job in avoiding repetition, although I definitely think that the lack of trans femme and specifically trans women contributors is an issue; the majority of contributors to this anthology are AFAB non-binary folk, which may in itself be linked to the increased medical gaslighting experienced by people who are perceived to be women by the medical industry, but which might also just be a bit of an editorial oversight. Either way, I did think that a broader range of experiences and identities could and should have been represented here. The ways that trans women experience transmisogyny in the medical sphere wasn't touched upon at all here, and neither was the specific ways that people of colour are disbelieved in medical contexts, and I did find those omissions to be a little glaring. It undercut the overall goals of the anthology, imo.

As always, some essays were more interesting (and more well-written) than others. Most of them have a really easy to read conversational style, which makes this a fairly quick read. My particular favourites were Meg John Barker's essay on plurality, Finlay Games' essay on the way that society blames his disability on his trans affirmative surgeries, and Milo Cooper's essay to his future self. I also found Root Holden's essay on Saint Sebastian as a queer icon to be incredibly fruitful, but it was so brief - about half a page! - that it felt like a real missed opportunity. There was one piece of writing in particular, which I won't name here, which was genuinely just word salad, and which I think needed a lot more editorial oversight to bring the author's meaning out. Another piece just seemed like an advert for the author's YouTube channel, complete with multiple video links, which I thought was a tad inappropriate. The range of mediums here is also interesting, including essays, prose, poetry, a play, and some artwork, although I do think that the artwork might only really work in the print version of the book.

Overall, a genuinely insightful anthology, and which makes and raises a lot of really interesting points. It's especially relevant now, in our current post-Covid political climate, where more and more people are becoming disabled without any real improvement in society's willingness to accommodate disabilities, and in which trans people are becoming more and more marginalised due to governmental scapegoating. There's a lot in here that should really be more widely known and understood.

Thank you to Jessica Kingsley Publishers and NetGalley for this e-ARC for review. I’m quite excited to read it and will provide a review promptly.

Like many essay collections, there's a range of writing quality and depth. What no essay lacks is meaningful insight from trans-disabled people.

As a disabled WoC, I can relate. Prominently: medical professionals discounting our complaints, pain and personhood. All the essayists experience medical trauma from being trans, disabled, or both.

I appreciated Barker's essay on plurality, asserting the neuroqueer feminist model over other disability frameworks. I loved that the book kicked off with an essay on plurality. Both trans and cis people can learn from plural systems.

Jac from GenderMeowster's exploration of online queer/disabled communities during COVID was brief but valuable too. They highlight struggles felt as the world went back to "normal".

The poetry pieces didn't hit for me. It's probably my ADHD brain not vibing with poetry as a reading format. Also, there were barely any trans women voices; the intersection of transmisogyny and disability isn't explored, despite being a topic deserving of a book in itself.

If you want a deeper dive into the trans disabled experience, you won't get it here. Not much was new to me, as a queer disabled person myself. But cishet non-disabled people would likely learn something.

This is a really good collection of transmasc and nonbinary disabled perspectives, which ranged largely between insightful and moving. It's a pretty short read too, and the anthology can easily be picked up and put down for those with limited energy or time.

There were a couple of disappointing essays - a few I found a little basic for my tastes, and one that was basically an advert. I also found myself noticing the lack of transfemme perspectives when the collection was looked at as a whole.

Overall, this is a really strong collection that I would highly recommend to any and all who are at all interested. It's very thoughtful and many of the contributors clearly come from spaces of knowledge and experience. There are so many whose past and future work I'd love to check out after reading this anthology.