Dancing the Dialectic

Book excerpt: ABOUT DANCING THE DIALECTICElspeth Brown, PhD, Professor of History at the University of Toronto and Board Member of The ArQuives: Canada's LGBTQ2+ Archives says: "Rupert Raj is one of trans history's most important figures. His tireless activism in the 1970s and 1980s, in particular, paved the way for generations of activists not only in the U.S. and Canada, but globally as well. Dancing the Dialectic is a beautifully written, first-person account of that activism, joining other classics in the genre-from Emergence to Redefining Realness." "Born around the time that Christine Jorgensen's story made world headlines and retiring at a time when trans people are reaching an emancipation watershed worldwide, Rupert Raj is one of a select few whose life neatly tracks the arc of modern trans history. Weaving those two together, this updated memoir refers to a veritable 'Who's Who' of trans activism across borders and oceans. Dancing the Dialectic is the true 'warts and all' story of a man whose whole adult life has been devoted to advocacy and community support. Highly recommended." says Christine Burnes, MBE, Writer and equalities advocate (UK), Author of Pressing Matters and Editor of Trans Britain "Nearly half a century ago, Rupert Raj was one among the world's first generation of transsexual men taking matters into their own hands. Without any role models, or even a concept of trans masculinity, he delved into the unknown, searching for his personal truth, trusting only on instinct. We own a debt to pioneers like Rupert that nowadays trans men and women around the globe have ways of understanding and finding themselves. His life story is a crucial testimony that deserves to be read." comments Alex Bakker, MA Historian and writer (The Netherlands) and author of My Untrue Past and Transgender in Nederland RUPERT RAJ is a trailblazing, Eurasian-Canadian, trans activist and former psychotherapist, who transitioned from female to male in 1971 as a transsexual teenager. Dancing the Dialectic between gender dysphoria and gender euphoria, cynical despair and realistic hope, righteous rage and loving kindness, this Gender Worker tells us all about his lifelong fight for the rights of transgender intersex and two-spirit people-and his later-life role as a Rainbow Warrior working to free Mother Earth's enslaved animals. He is (co-)editor of Trans Activism in Canada: A Reader, and Of Souls and Roles, Of Sex and Gender: A Treasury of Transsexual, Transgenderist and Transvestic Verse from 1967 to 1991.