In Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity, C. Riley Snorton re-examines the history of trans identity through the intertwined histories of race, slavery, and Black life in the United States.

As transgender history is not a recent nor isolated phenomenon, Snorton traces how ideas about gender variance emerged alongside the racial logics of the Atlantic world, moving from the archives of slavery through literature, medical discourse, and twentieth-century activism.

Drawing on historical records, visual culture, and figures ranging from enslaved people to early twentieth-century gender-nonconforming performers, the book argues that the categories used to understand trans identity were shaped within systems that also produced racial hierarchy.

Snorton’s work reframes the history of gender variance as inseparable from the history of Blackness itself, offering a rigorous and influential intervention in contemporary gender studies. It is not a simple read, however it is a vital text in gender and race studies.