As a student of history, I'm well aware of that there is a lot missing when it comes to who and what tends to be included in history textbooks.
The typical lens used in the study of history for so long has meant that entire groups of people are erased from the general public's historical knowledge. It can lead many to mistakenly believe that these people either didn't exist or didn't contribute to history.
Gender Pioneers gives us an amazing compilation of individuals who don't necessarily fit into the gender binary. It highlights the trans, non-binary, and intersex people who have impacted history and shows that they have been here all along. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to fill any gaps in their knowledge from their previous education.

This is a great little coffee book to have on your table. It’s a great introduction into transgender and non binary people throughout history, some I had never heard of before.

While they are informative and interesting, there was only so much info that could be added. They’re all one page summaries, and I wished they were a bit longer.

This is a great book to read for anyone interested, and one I would recommend to educate people.

Informational with nice art. But it was a bit stale feeling, and wasn't the most fun or engaging to read. I think the format lead it to feel very repetitive and I had a hard time wanting to really sit down and read it, which is a shame.

Needs some heavy editing still, particularly the Marsha P. Johnson portion and beyond. But overall, fantastic concept and I really, really enjoyed it! I kept getting so excited at the stories, running into different rooms to tell my partner about them.

Gender Pioneers is a record of a variety of gender-diverse people through history. Even though it can be sad to read, it shows how poorly they were usually treated, and what little resources were provided, as many were forced to turn to crime. Despite the often sad tones of the brief biographies, it is still a pleasure to read, as it goes to show that in many cultures it is unusual to limit people to simply two gender categories, and that as long as we have had writing we have had proof of the existence of gender-diverse people. We are not new, and we’re not going anywhere.

As a nonbinary lesbian, I was excited to read this but it didn't do it for me. For a book on gender-diverse people, it had a large focus on sex and also made some leaping conclusions. Parts of it felt very clunky. Overall, it didn't do it for me at all and I'm quite disappointed. It's a good idea and I hope some people got more out of it than I did.

I loved reading this, and I definitely learned a lot. I do think it could have benefitted from MUCH better editing. There are some mistakes that are offensive to trans and nonbinary readers.
Several times, there are lines about someone "discovering" a person was female or male. This negates the chosen gender of the person being described and makes it seem as though there was something deceitful about their identity.
Also, there are places where the author shares that there is debate about a person's gender identity (this happens a lot with crossdressing vs. trans vs. intersex vs. nonbinary in historical situations), and the author decides to refer to the person by "they" in an effort to acknowledge the debate. However, several times the passage will then revert to a "she" or "he" later in the passage.
The book and its contents are necessary. It's something trans and nonbinary folk really need. However, it's unsteady and inconsistent in the way it deals with gender, assigned sex, and pronouns.

This is a short history book about transgender, intersex, non-binary, and other not cisgender people throughout history. Each brief biography is accompanied by an illustration of the subject. Many people are still under the impression that identifying as something aside from cis-gendered is relatively new. This book is the perfect collection to bust through that myth and provide readers with bits of many different individuals history. This book features strong and incredibly brave individuals and it was an absolute joy to celebrate their stories and the beautiful images that suit each individual.

Thank you so much to netgalley and publisher for providing an e-copy for me to leave my honest opinion. I was drawn to this title immediately and I couldn't be happier with the result and the knowledge gained from the relatively short amount of time it took to fully experience this book. This is one book I will turn to again for sure.

This book appears interesting on the surface and I was drawn in by the title. I enjoyed the time span of the mentioned people, from time of Roman Emperors to almost present day. It features an array of names that are both well-known and plenty that I have no doubt will be new to readers, and therefore gives ample opportunity to learn. Appendix A gave awesome information in regards to cultures and countries we may have heard less about. Appendix B added some dates of importance and this was a welcome addition.

Having said that, unfortunately I felt the execution of the book didn’t meet my expectations. Some stories felt thoroughly researched whilst others seemed rushed. I found the alphabetical order confusing as it meant the timelines were crossed and I felt it would have made more sense in chronological time order. One story contained speculations which I didn’t think we’re suitable to add without evidence.

Sadly formatting and sentence errors made for difficult and clunky reading (although I’m hoping that’s an easily fixable issue).

I really enjoyed this book! It was very informative, though there were some parts that I thought could use more information (Catalina de Erauso, for example, was allegedly a pretty horrible person, between the racism and misogyny, and I feel we need to resist the temptation to put all trans people in a positive light by simple virtue of who they are). But, I can see how the aesthetics of the book played into how much information was provided on each person, so that's cool. Also, I'm just really happy to see more trans representation in literature and highlighting of trans individuals in history!

History is getting the re-write that it so desperately needs with books like this. Gender Pioneers is not only for all the people who need to see themselves in history but also for all the people who claim "ALL THIS GENDER STUFF IS JUST SO DANG NEW." Like, no, Aunt Linda, sit down and read this please.

While I loved reading stories that dated back as little as a decade ago to centuries, I did feel like some of the language in the biographies could be problematic. I wasn't sure whether the intent was to portray the biography in the language of the person's time or not, but I'll give you a few examples of the wording I found unfavorable and why:

"She was certainly gender fluid and can be considered as transgender as it was possible to be in her time."
Why I find it problematic:
Being transgender, even today, is a spectrum. You can do as little as socially transition (ex. name and pronouns), or do as much as get every surgery available. In between and still outside of those is a huge spectrum of valid transgender expression. Now, I can *maybe* understand the intent of this sentence being that she was from a different time and therefore would have had to be careful with how she presented her transition, however that's not fully how it came across and the impact, to me, seemed to say that in today's terms she wouldn't be considered "transgender enough."

"...whilst still wearing female clothes."
Why I find it problematic:
I know it's essentially impossible at the moment to get rid of the binary completely BUT sentences like this play into the binary. We could easily edit this sentence to say "..whilst still wearing clothes that were typically reserved for people who identify as female." Or some such and other. And here's the thing, is that nit picky? Probably. But if we change more sentences like that outside of books about gender (think largescale like fiction, other nonfiction, visual media, etc, etc, etc.) maybe we could finally move away from clothes being associated with one gender or the other.

"However, Mary did eventually discover that Charles was female and reported him, which led to his arrest and trial in Taunton."
Why I find it problematic:
If you know anything about gender/transgender terminology this one should be a no-brainer but here we go. In this bio we are learning about Charles Hamilton. And while Charles' pronouns are being respected, his gender is not! An easy edit for this sentence: "However, Mary did eventually discover that Charles had male genitalia, and reported him..." OR "Mary did eventually discover that Charles was assigned female at birth, and reported him..." Either one would remind us that Charles is transgender while respecting the gender he identifies as.

"They said that they were female at birth."
Why I find it problematic:
This one I can maybe let slide, especially if those were in fact Chevalier's words. However, if they were, I feel like they should be in quotes. And if not, again a simple edit would include saying this person was assigned female at birth.

In addition to these problematic wordings, we were also introduced to different people with excellent wording, mostly including the terms "assigned female/male/intersex at birth."

I also want to give a caveat to this entire review that I am a cishet white woman, so I cannot possibly ever fully understand or speak to the transgender experience. These are my thoughts from having transgender and non-binary relatives and friends, learning from multiple creators and educators, and reading whatever I can find on the subject of gender. Maybe my opinions of this book are off-base with the authors particular experience, I'm not sure. All I can speak to is what I've learned as a cis person.

Overall, I think the book comes at an important time in our collective history and I really did enjoy reading of all the people and appreciate the thorough research that went into it!

The writing in this was strange for a text that is supposed to be a celebration of Trans identity. This read like a list of some trans people and focused to much on specific types of access to that identity.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review an advanced reader's copy of this book.
This did not necessarily feel like a celebration but an acknowledgement, which is needed but the execution did not quite sit right with me. I saw another review write about the wording of certain things and I agree, it was quite uncomfortable to read at times. Overall an informative read but I am not sure I would recommend it to, say, a trans person, due to the aforementioned problem.

This is one book that was good in concept, but not in execution. Had there not been some major slipups, I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more.

For something that claims to be a celebration of transgender, non-binary and intersex icons, it sure as hell focuses a LOT on the genitalia of those it claims to be celebrating, which doesn't sit right with me. It also undermines the identity of a lot of those people it's claiming as icons, by saying they were "found as female". If someone does not identify as female, they are not female. It's entirely inappropriate, and I'm glad I have found that I'm not the only one that has thought as such.

I found that the foreward seemed to imply that trans people were only trans if they desired SRS, which is not the case. I found myself entirely let down by this clunky writing.

Thanks to Net Galley, Phillipa Punchard and Jessica Kingsley Publishers for the eARC.

A short historical book! A very necessary book but written terribly. I wish another author had taken this on to give the content and the people in the book justice. I will not recommend this to anyone.

Interesting to learn the history of those in the past. We hear a lot about what’s going on now but as mentioned in the book - people have been transgender, gay, intersex, etc since the beginning of time. Some of the stories were hard to read, the struggles that some of these individuals went through are truly upsetting. I got confused in some areas with the way things were structured or I would probably rate higher.

This is a book with short stories and illustrations about transgender, non-binary, and intersex individuals throughout history. Our society wants us to believe that being transgender is a new trend, however this book shows us that is has been around for thousands of years. The only difference is our society today has become more accepting of these individuals. It was a very quick, yet informative read. The only negative for me is I wanted more to the stories. I wish they had been longer and went more in depth of the individuals history. Over all a solid read and would definitely recommend to those who want to learn more about gender history.

a lovely book, showing us that history was more diverse than we tend to give it credit for. I loved learning about all these people, and the variable people showcased. I also loved the fact that they came with pictures, really allowing to imagine what their lives might have been like (and providing some goals to look like..). I was pleasantly surprised said pictures showed up quite well on my black and white ereader, too.
For me, it felt weirdly liberating and encouraging to look at those who came before, and I think that is important.
The only qualm I have, is that the text sometimes was a bit crude in its wording. I understand that this was to keep it short, when entire novels could be written about these people, but it still irked me from time to time.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC of this great book. Gender Pioneers provides a series of short but detailed biographies on non-cisgender people throughout history. The book’s mission is to show that transgender (and non-binary, intersex, genderqueer etc) people are not a modern invention- they have existed for all of history. The book achieves this mission by providing a wide range of biographies. I also liked that this book was easy to read due to the short length of the biographies. Sometimes non-fiction can be daunting and lengthy, but this was a much more accessible read. I also liked the inclusion of the artwork depicting each individual written about in the book. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in queer history, and I am excited for it to be released next year.

Thank you to NetGallery and the publisher for the advance copy of this book.

This is a short collection of biographies of influential transgender, non binary and intersex people throughout history containing a wide variety of icons. An informative and engaging read with beautiful illustrations. Due to the short biographies it is a quick read and offers itself to those of all ages. Sometimes history books can exclude certian readers but this book can be accessible to all and has a brilliant introduction on trans history. I loved how it emphasized that trans individuals have always existed within history. I will definitely recommend this book for those who are looking for an introduction on gender pioneers.