Transgendered people face an array of interpersonal repudiations in their everyday lives, emanating from the political right through to the left, from social conservatives, various leading psychiatrists, radical feminists, as well as many lesbians and gays. In Transpeople, Christopher Shelley examines why so many transpeople are treated with such prejudice from a broad range of the socio-political spectrum, and how society can - and must - improve its understanding of transpeople and trans-related issues.

Shelley's study of discrimination and acceptance uses an interdisciplinary approach that includes in-depth interviews with ten male-to-female and ten female-to-male transpeople, along with psychological, feminist, and political theory. He studies both the inadvertent challenges that transpeople make to traditional sex and gender definitions, and the reactions of resistance, defensiveness, and phobias of non-trans people when sex and gender norms are challenged.

A vitally important work of gender and sex theory, Transpeople provides innumerable insights into both the experiences of transpeople, and the root causes of gender- and sex-related discrimination.