Italian Trans Geographies

Book excerpt: How does the mapping of Italian culture change when it is charted from the perspective of gender-variant people? Italian Trans Geographies tackles this question by retracing trans and gender-variant experiences within the Italian peninsula and along diasporic routes. The volume adopts a cross-disciplinary approach that combines scholarly analyses with grassroots engagement and creative work and centers the voices of Italian and Italian American transpeople through autobiographies, memoirs, interviews, poetry, and visual works. The contributions include works by key Italian trans activists, including Romina Cecconi, Porpora Marcasciano, and Helena Velena, as well as critical interpretations of scholars and artists (many of whom self-identify as trans). Ultimately, these voices show how trans people have contributed to shaping Italian places and cultures while, in turn, being shaped by those places and cultures. Through its attention to geospecific sites, the book highlights blind spots in the hegemonic Anglo-American discourse about gender and overlooked intersections between LGBTQIA+ global discourse and local realities.