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For the focus of my Padlet, I'm researching how transgender people worldwide have organized, supported each other, and made themselves visible. We've heard of a couple of trans men and women, but I haven't heard much about the everyday transgender people living outside of North America. What were their lives like? How did they keep themselves safe while also being themselves? I believe that proof does exist, and I intend to find it and analyze the presence of trans people, out as their chosen gender identity, in a variety of nations. Trans people are everywhere people are, I want to find the proof.

For this project, I used the following databases:

1. JSTOR

2. Project Muse

3. Digital Transgender Archives

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South African and Namibian Transgender Communities

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South African and Namibian Transgender Communities

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This is the first source I found for this project. It shows the point I was trying to make in my search: trans people around the world feel invisible, and it's so hard to find evidence of them. That's actually why the name of this project is Trans Visibility. I was excited to find it, as it's one of the clearest documents I could find, and it uses the United States trans organizing as a comparison between that and the South African/Namibian organizing. Many of the documents outside of the United States have been focused on the LGBTQ community as a whole, and that's not what I was looking for. This goes into the reality of transgender individuals in South Africa and Namibia, how they are overlooked, how they fight back, and what they are doing differently in their communities. Not only does this highlight the existence of transgender people, but it also explores how their lives are lived, and what it looks like in comparison to the trans community in the United States. This is super perfect considering I was specifically looking for non-US representation, this also goes into the differences and similarities between the United States and Namibian/South African transgender communities. Which none of the other sources do (not that they need to, it would just be convenient for me and this project ). I found this source on Project Muse after looking up "trans around the world".

Citation: Currier, Ashley. "Transgender Invisibility in Namibian and South African LGBT Organizing." Feminist Formations, vol. 27 no. 1, 2015, p. 91-117. Project MUSE, https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/ff.2015.0000.

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Project MUSE - Transgender Invisibility in Namibian and South African LGBT Organizing

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The meanings of transgender invisibility in Namibian and South African lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements differ from those in LGBT movements in the United States. LGBT activists in Namibia and South Africa voluntarily included transgender rights and persons in the movement beginning in the mid-1990s, yet few constituents identified as transgender. Transgender invisibility in these movements indicates the discrepancy between collective and lived personal identities. Drawing on ethnographic observation of Namibian and South African LGBT activist organizations in 2005–06 and fifty-six interviews with LGBT activists, the article analyzes the contours of transgender invisibility within the Namibian and South African LGBT movements. A focus on transgender invisibility in LGBT movement organizations in Namibia and South Africa illuminates the uneven reception of identity terms and the identity work that LGBT activists in southern Africa perform to encourage constituents to align personal identities with prevailing collective-identity terms.

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Trans Women In Paris, London, Amsterdam and?

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Trans Women In Paris, London, Amsterdam and?

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Loved looking through this document, it was very interesting, it seems like a sexy magazine created for chasers? It was perfect for my project, though, it series multiple women across Europe and them being confident and 'sexy' (I don't like women like that, not trying to objectify, just trying to describe it). From London to France, to Amsterdam, this book has it all, undeniable proof of the existence, beauty, and success of European Trans Women. I had no clue something like this existed, and it seems like there are quite a few things like this out there; this is only one of the ones I went through. I found this by searching "trans around the world".

Citation: S-K Press. "Transvestism Around the World." Book. 1964. Digital Transgender Archive, https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/s7526c44f

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Transvestism around the world : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

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Contents: Bambi -- Coccinelle -- Carrousel Club -- Terry Durham -- Ricky Rene_ -- Shalimar -- Madame Arthur's (Paris) -- Madame Arthur's (Amsterdam).

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This is so lovely and just what I was looking for. However, it is extremely recent in 2023, but it's still important that we see international representation, considering how conservative so many people are nowadays and how cruel the world can be. This story follows a transgender woman named Shabu, who performs wedding songs that not only reflect the experience of many women or feminine-presenting people, but also her experience as a trans woman. I see this as a form of resistance, love, confidence, and bravery. Shabu lives in Kashmir, which was (and still is) a territory of conflict, not safe, dangerous, and full of restrictions for Shabu, yet she continues and is seen as a resistor for both cis and trans women. I want to see more of this as I continue my search. I found this by looking up "transgender worldwide" on Project Muse.

Citation: Fox, Diana J. and Shazia Malik. "“I Am Very Sexy, Sexy, Sexy”: Expressions of Freedom in Kashmiri Transgender Wedding Songs." English Language Notes, vol. 61 no. 2, 2023, p. 86-103. Project MUSE, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/915534.

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Project MUSE - “I Am Very Sexy, Sexy, Sexy”: Expressions of Freedom in Kashmiri Transgender Wedding Songs

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This newspaper clipping is from the Trikone Magazine in Mumbai, India, 1996. It is clear proof of the existence of trans people. A lot of this magazine article is discussing gay relationships and crossdressing however, this media representation is 100% essential in showing the queer community in India that others like them exist and that's okay. It proves the existence of gender bent identities, even if just in the media, it normalizes the idea of drag and queerness, as something lighthearted rather than something to be feared. This article may not reflect everyday transgender identities in the way a lot of these other sources do, which frankly tend to be very disregarding of someone's privacy. It is an important piece of information reflecting a certain culture around the idea of gender queerness, reaching back to the 1960s. To find this, I searched "trans in India" on the Digital Transgender Archive. I had the idea to search specifically for India because of the Gulabi Gang and their ideas on gender.

Citation: Chadwa, Anruddh. "Cracks in the Tinsel Closet: Genderbending in Bombay Films." Article. 1996. Digital Transgender Archive, https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/hx11xf62z

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Cracks in the Tinsel Closet: Genderbending in Bombay Films - Digital Transgender Archive

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An article about the history of queerness in Bollywood cinema from the 1960s to the 1990s.

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The Hijra are described as the third gender in many east asian countries, primarily India and Pakistan. These groups of gender queer, intersex people, could gather together to support each other in literally surviving, just everyday things. They follow a 'kinship' system and are important members of the overall community in Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, their existence within feminist movements (even by other queer people) is still 'controversial' despite all they do in support of their community. I found this by searching "Transgender in India" as well. I am going to do a deeper dive on the Hijra in my own time, I'm curious about their role in society and how it varies from place to place.

Citation: Moorti, Sujata. “A Queer Romance with the Hijra.” QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, vol. 3, no. 2, 2016, pp. 18–34. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.14321/qed.3.2.0018.

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JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources.

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This book goes over homophobia and transphobia in Senegal, but details about transgender people are not super prevalent. It might not show up immediately, but after looking, I found evidence of transgender people documented in Senegal. While this is a newly published book, it goes into depth about historical events and people, how it evolved, and what we missed looking in from the outside. It would be nice to have some more documents that aren't assessing the history of oppression or homophobia, it's important, but I would rather see everyday trans communities and achievements for this project. I found this on Project Muse by searching up "transgenderism around the world".

Citation: M'Baye, Babacar. "The Origins of Senegalese Homophobia: Discourses on Homosexuals and Transgender People in Colonial and Postcolonial Senegal." African Studies Review, vol. 56 no. 2, 2013, p. 109-128. Project MUSE, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/519186.

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Project MUSE - The Origins of Senegalese Homophobia: Discourses on Homosexuals and Transgender People in Colonial and Postcolonial Senegal

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This article traces the history of homosexual and transgender behavior in Senegal from colonial times to the contemporary period in order to demonstrate the flimsiness of the claims, made by many political and religious leaders and scholars, that homosexuality is “un-African.” Such claims, which appear as reactions to neocolonialism and Western intervention in African affairs, usually are homophobic discourses that invoke patriotism, cultural difference, and morality in order to justify the subjugation of homosexual and gender nonconforming individuals (goor-jiggens) living in Senegal. In an attempt to understand the roots of Senegalese homophobia, the article analyzes several depictions of homosexuals and transgender people in contemporary Senegal and traces them to similar representations in European writings of the colonial period. As this approach reveals, homosexuals and transgender people in Senegal, from colonial times to the present, have been constructed as scapegoats, first of the French mission civilisatrice (civilizing mission) and then of Senegalese political and Islamic backlashes. Although they have always cohabited with the rest of the society, homosexuals and transgender people in Senegal have been treated largely as strangers in their own land. By analyzing the discourses of both French colonials and Senegalese, one finds a persistent binary opposing the West and Africa and denigrating sexual and gender variances and subcultures in Senegal as pathological European imports.

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This article details a teacher's experience after discovering a new pop artist from one of his students. The pop artist is commonly listened to, so he decides to look into it. Turns out it's an Israeli pop artist known as Danna International, and she is a transgender woman. He goes into detail about the implications of this and how it affects political, cultural, and social circumstances moving forward in the Middle East, specifically Egypt. Danna performed at Eurovision back in 1998! This is an amazing example of a transgender person making themselves visible, literally across the world. Thanks Danna! I found this article by searching "transgenders in the middle east".

Citation: Swedenburg, Ted. “Saida Sultan/Danna International: Transgender Pop and the Polysemiotics of Sex, Nation, and Ethnicity on the Israeli-Egyptian Border.” The Musical Quarterly, vol. 81, no. 1, 1997, pp. 81–108. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/742451.

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JSTOR is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources.