Julia Serano

Julia Serano
Julia Serano speaks at the GLBT History Museum, San Francisco
Residence	Oakland, California
Nationality	American
Education	Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biophysics from Columbia University
Occupation	Evolutionary and developmental biology researcher
Employer	UC Berkeley
Known for	Writer, spoken word performer, trans bi activist, biologist
Website	www.juliaserano.com

Julia Michelle Serano is an American writer, spoken-word performer, trans-bi activist, and biologist. Serano currently lives in Oakland, California and is the author of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity. Her second book, Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive, was published on September 10, 2013 by Seal Press. Her third book, Outspoken: A Decade of Transgender Activism and Trans Feminism, was published on November 2, 2016 by Switch Hitter Press.

Her work has appeared in queer, feminist, and pop-culture magazines, including Bitch, Clamor, Kitchen Sink, LiP, make/shift, and Transgender Tapestry. Excerpts of her work have appeared in The Believer and The San Francisco Chronicle, and on NPR.

Based on her insights into gender and her experiences as a trans woman, Serano has been invited to speak about transgender and trans women’s issues at numerous universities, often at queer-, feminist-, psychology-, and philosophy-themed conferences. Her writings have also been used in teaching materials in gender studies courses across the United States. She has coined several terms that are now used in gender studies courses such as cissexual assumption, oppositional sexism and effemimania.

Julia Serano first consciously recognized in herself a desire to be female during the late 1970s when she was 11 years old. A few years later, she began crossdressing. At first, she crossdressed secretively, but eventually she started identifying herself openly as a "male crossdresser." Serano attended her first support group for crossdressers in 1994 while living in Kansas.