Trans Sex

Book excerpt: Finalist, 2022 Lambda Literary Awards (Trans-Non-fiction Category) Winner, of the 2022 AASECT Book Awards (Book for Sexuality Professionals) Despite the increasing visibility of trans and non-binary folx in media, political representation, and popular culture, their sexual lives and erotic embodiments are woefully under-attended-to in both scholarship and clinical practice. The aim of this book is to equip providers with both conceptual frameworks and concrete tools for better engaging their trans, non-binary, and gender expansive clients in pleasure-centered discussions of sexual health. Challenging the dominant images of trans sexualities that appear in the existing literature, such as an emphasis on avoiding gender dysphoria, the preservation of sexual function, or on sexual losses that may arise as a result of transition pathways, Trans Sex offers a pleasure-positive approach to working with trans clients. Providing concrete clinical practices and practical activities that utilize social justice, intersectional trans feminism, and radical queer theory as key conceptual frameworks, this groundbreaking text is designed to be accessible to a wide range of providers. This book draws on Fielding’s experiences as both a trans client/patient and as a therapist to shift and expand the conversation and includes contributions from other trans and non-binary providers working at the intersection of gender-affirmative care and sexuality. Trans Sex seeks to move trans sexualities from the margins of gender-affirmative clinical practice, to center pleasure, and to spark creativity and empathic attunement within the client-provider relationship. Whether they be mental health or medical providers, trainees, or seasoned practitioners in gender-affirmative work or sexualities, readers will be able harness creative strategies to enhance their practice and become more imaginative providers.