American writer and activist
Julia Michelle Serano ( ; born 1967) is an American writer, musician, spoken-word performer, transgender and bisexual activist, and biologist. She is known for her transfeminist books, such as "Whipping Girl" (2007), "Excluded" (2013), and "Outspoken" (2016). She is also a public speaker who has given many talks at universities and conferences. Her writing is frequently featured in queer, feminist, and popular culture magazines.
Life.
Serano, who was assigned male at birth, has stated that she first consciously recognized in herself a desire to be female during the late 1970s, when she was 11 years old. A few years later, she began crossdressing. At first, she crossdressed secretively, but she eventually started identifying herself openly as a "male crossdresser." Serano attended her first support group for crossdressers in 1994 while she lived in Kansas.
Soon afterward, Serano moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where she met her wife, Dani, in 1998. During this time, Serano began identifying as not only a crossdresser but also transgender and bisexual. In 2001, she began medically transitioning and identifying as a transgender woman.
Career.
Serano earned her PhD in biochemistry and molecular biophysics from Columbia University. She researched genetics, developmental biology, and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Berkeley for 17 years.
Serano is the author of "Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity". Her second book, "Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive", was published on September 10, 2013, by Seal Press. It was named the 16th best nonfiction book of all time by readers of Ms. Magazine. Her third book, "Outspoken: A Decade of Transgender Activism and Trans Feminism", she published herself under Switch Hitter Press, which she founded along with Switch Hitter Records. "Outspoken" is a 2017 Lambda Literary Award finalist. Her 2020 book, "99 Erics: a Kat Cataclysm faux novel", also published by Switch Hitter, won the Publishing Triangle's 2021 Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction and was an "Independent Publisher" Book Awards 2021 silver medalist in LGBT+ Fiction.
Her work has appeared in queer, feminist, and pop culture magazines, including "Bitch", "Clamor", "Kitchen Sink", "LiP", "make/shift", and "Transgender Tapestry". Excerpts of her work have appeared in "The Believer" and "The San Francisco Chronicle" and on NPR.
Serano has spoken about transgender and trans women's issues at numerous universities, often at queer, feminist, psychology, and philosophy-themed conferences. In 2023, she gave the keynote address at the Moving Trans History Forward conference at the University of Victoria. Her writings have also been used in teaching materials in gender studies courses across the United States.
Serano is a slam poet and has given spoken-word performances at universities as well as at events such as the National Queer Arts Festival, San Francisco Pride Dyke March and Trans March stages, Ladyfest, outCRY!, Femme 2006 and in "The Vagina Monologues". She was a guitarist and vocalist for the band Bitesize from 1997 through the early 2000s and has also recorded solo music.
Serano organizes and hosts "GenderEnders", a performance series that features the work of transgender, intersex, and genderqueer artists and allies that has produced 20 shows. She received a grant to curate "The Penis Issue: Trans and Intersex Women Speak Their Minds," a spoken-word event, as part of the 2007 National Queer Arts Festival.
She writes social justice articles on the website "Medium" about topics like transgender identity, LGBTQ+ visibility, and identity politics.
Personal life.
Serano lives in Oakland, California.
References.
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