When Deborah Rudacille learned that a close friend had decided to transition from female to male, she felt compelled to understand why.

Coming at the controversial subject of transsexualism from several angles–historical, sociological, psychological, medical–Rudacille discovered that gender variance is anything but new, that changing one’s gender has been met with both acceptance and hostility through the years, and that gender identity, like sexual orientation, appears to be inborn, not learned, though in some people the sex of the body does not match the sex of the brain.

Informed not only by meticulous research, but also by the author’s interviews with prominent members of the transgender community, The Riddle of Gender is a sympathetic and wise look at a sexual revolution that calls into question many of our most deeply held assumptions about what it means to be a man, a woman, and a human being.

“Sympathetic and well-researched. . . . Lively enough to be a good introduction for the educated lay reader and documented enough for the scholar.” –Publishers Weekly

The author of "The Scalpel and the Butterfly" offers a timely examination of the transgender movement that calls into question some of the most fundamental assumptions about gender identity.

Deborah Rudacille is a science writer at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of The Scalpel and the Butterfly: The Conflict Between Animal Research and Animal Protection She lives in Baltimore.

Introduction

The Hands of God

Conversation with Ben Barres, M.D., Ph.D.

Through Science to Justice

Conversation with Susan Stryker, Ph.D.

The Bombshell

Conversation with Aleshia Brevard

Men and Women, Boys and Girls

Conversation with Chelsea Goodwin and Rusty Mae Moore, Ph.D.

Liberating the Rainbow

Conversation with Tom Kennard

Childhood, Interrupted

Conversation with Dana Beyer, M.D.

Fear of a Pink Planet

Conversation with Joanna Clark

Answering the Riddle

Two Years Later: Afterword to the Anchor Books Edition

Acknowledgments

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index