Reviews

No one writes more eloquently, honestly, or powerfully about transgender lives than Jamison Green, one of the intellectual heavyweights of the transgender movement. No one has done more to capture the complex experiences of transgender men, who continue to struggle for visibility even as transgender issues have loomed larger than ever in our national discourse. Green’s insightful treatise is a classic and, especially in this newly revised form, is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand gender and transgender issues.

Since I first met Jamison Green in 1990, I’ve known him to embody integrity and kindness. Becoming a Visible Man has stood the test of time and continues to offer hope and inspiration to new generations. It’s a work of both historical importance and contemporary relevance.

The OG of trans masculine visibility, advocacy, and representation is back—with a brand-new, fully-updated edition of his essential, no-less-than-life-saving resource for trans men of all generations. Born out of a necessity to document the forging of community when there was scarcely a community to speak of, Becoming a Visible Man is an evergreen history book that should be required reading for anybody interested in the future of social justice (for all). It is an unflinching, beautifully-written, and eminently readable memoir, which generously centers not only Green’s trailblazing life, but also the stories of so many other invisible pioneers from our collective history, without whom many of us—including myself—would simply not be where we are today.

Becoming a Visible Man is the one of the most important books about being a man and about being trans. Jamison Green’s writing is strong and steady. He has a gift of painting densely woven, intricate tales of lives less examined while remaining accessible and keeping readers rapt. His writing is not just rich and beautiful, it is life changing. He masterfully and lovingly leads us into learning about ourselves, about others and about what it means to be a person. This book illuminates and preserves an otherwise largely untethered, untold and rich history of the trans male experience. It captures the intimate experience of risking everything to become who you are. In its first edition, this book altered the course of my life and allowed me to see a future for the first time. This book was a lighthouse in uncharted waters. Nearly two decades later, in this revised version, the value is no different. This is a lifesaving book.

Ever the consummate storyteller, Dr. Jamison Green has, once again, captured the beauty and challenge that trans men encounter along their journey to discovering and living an authentic life. Through personal narrative interwoven with historical details, Dr. Green illuminates the insidious forms of marginalization and oppression experienced by many trans men beginning in childhood, as we navigate through the discomfort and dissonance we feel between our innate gender identification and society’s gender-related expectations. Jamison has brilliantly captured what many of us come to know: that along an arduous yet achievable journey to change our sex we must also work to find our way back into communion with loved ones who may feel betrayed, abandoned, or frightened at who we are becoming Visible Men.

Many of us can easily name traits of toxic masculinity, yet most struggle with defining what healthy masculinity looks like in action. Fortunately, Jamison Green’s Becoming a Visible Man, like Jamison’s own journey, offers a powerful roadmap any man – cisgender or transgender – can follow. This book is essential reading for those of us committed to becoming better men ready to build a more just and equitable world for people of all genders.

As Jamison Green himself points out in the preface to this second edition of Becoming a Visible Man, it’s remarkable that many questions about trans lives were the same twenty–or even fifty–years ago as they are today, which makes this book as timely now as when it was first published. That Green brings his long and deep perspective to bear in additional material on such current hot-button topics as feminist transphobia, the toilet wars, health care, and mainstream media representation makes this second edition even more important–a fitting update to a true classic of transgender nonfiction writing.