The current LGBTQQIAA acronym has been growing in length and complexity since the early days of the gay and lesbian civil rights movement. Each letter of the acronym reflects the addition of a group who felt marginalized and left out, not fitting into the communities described by the existing letters. The addition of new boxes, however, has created increasing confusion and sometimes feelings of separation from each other. In this book, Vanderburgh has explained each letter from an "insider" perspective while also providing historical context explaining how we got from there to here.As a queer transman who transitioned out of lesbian community and now participates in gay male community while married to a genderqueer woman, Vanderburgh is in an excellent position to explain the many letters to each other. In addition, his work as a therapist allowed him deep insight into the various letters that don't reflect part of his identity. At 61, Vanderburgh came of age in the San Francisco lesbian community of the early 1970s and later came out as a transman in 1995 in the Pacific Northwest.

Journeys of Transformation: Stories from Across the Acronym

LGBTQQIAA??? Add a P? What about MOGAI? MOGII? Confused by all the permutations of possibility? Journeys of Transformation explains all the letters of the acronym (as of summer 2018!). Weaving personal stories with historical narrative, this book explains how we got to here from there as the acronym has expanded over the years.​ Journeys is now in its second edition — Reid explains the LGBTQQIAA acronym to each other, providing historical context to explain how we got from here to there. You may think this book doesn’t apply to you if you’re not LGBTQ, but one of those A’s stands for Ally — the most important letter.

Work In Progress, Reid’s memoir released December 2023!

This book presents a deeply personal point of view. I leave it to others to write histories of trans people at a more sociological level. Trans people need to tell our stories to each other, to provide this continuity that has been sadly lacking in previous times. Isolation and feelings of being negatively unique are common among many trans people, in part because this historical continuity has been lacking. It's an overwhelming proposition, writing this autobiography; all the layers co-exist from the beginning, and my story can be told from perspectives as superficial as my outward appearance, to the deepest subconscious thoughts and feelings buried in my mind from my earliest childhood. When one questions gender, one is questioning the bedrock of one's existence as a human being and the archaeology involved is formidable.