Previous research has explored the affiliation and distancing strategies employed in published memoirs of gender transition. In this article, we are particularly interested in elucidating the ways in which individuals construct identities and characterize their sexualities, and how sociohistorical constraints might influence what is expressed with respect to this in personal narratives of transition. Using the memoirs of Lili Elbe (Hoyer, 1933) and Joy Ladin (2013) as conceptual brackets, this article investigates the complex relationship between the development and articulation of trans* identities and lesbian sexualities within the context of published memoirs of gender transition.

Discussions of public sexual spaces in the social science literature have, until recently, been dominated by analyses of men's use of these spaces for erotic expression. In the late 1990s, feminist collectives began to explore the emancipatory potentials these spaces can have for lesbian sexualities. After a police raid on one such event called the "Pussy Palace," scholars in diverse disciplines began to explore how these events have both opened up and restricted erotic possibilities for lesbians, queer women, and trans* attendees. This article reviews the existing social science literature on lesbian and queer bathhouse events and highlights several key themes and subthemes that have dominated the discourse, including the importance that these spaces be recognized for their ability to both shape and be shaped by principles of community, safety, and sexual health/wellness.

This article explores trans identities, as articulated within a few historical texts. From early literary depictions of gender difference, to medicalized conceptions of transsexualism, to a proliferation of trans and queer identities represented by an ever-expanding "alphabet soup" of identity labels, our understandings of identities, sexualities, and queer community-building continue to change. I use the notion of "kind-making," as elaborated on in the work of Ian Hacking, to illustrate that some queer and trans identifications are affiliative, whereas others are contrastive or oppositional in nature, and these structural differences have important implications with respect to understanding identity and sexuality, and also trans inclusion within LGBT communities and activist efforts.