Trans+ History Week launches 2025 workbook to champion hidden stories

A workbook designed to highlight overlooked historical evidence of trans and non-binary people has been published.

In anticipation of Trans+ History Week later this year, QueerAF, alongside Trans+ History Week CIC, launched the downloadable workbook as a way to showcase “powerful lessons from history.”

The awareness week, founded in 2024, exists to promote the real history of trans and non-binary people, as well as combatting erasure.

Developed through 80+ hours of research led by Gray Burke-Stowe, the resource also helps to challenge harmful narratives about the trans and non-binary community across society, including in politics and media.

Marty Davies, founder of Trans+ History Week CIC, said that the workbook was released ahead of Trans+ History Week, which takes place between 5-11 May in 2025, to help “inspire the world to mark the week in their own way.”

“The workbook is the most important artefact we produce each year,” she said. “In place of a theme, we have four lessons that we illuminate each year with fresh stories from our history.”

The workbook’s four lessons – “We’ve always been here”, “We can’t be erased”, “We’re stronger together”, and “We’re more than Trans+” – each contain historical accounts of trans and non-binary people existing and fighting for their rights.

Among them is the story of the Māhū people – a group of Native Hawaiian and Tahitian people who embody both the male and the female spirit – and their role as honoured people in their societies, as well as the infamously queer history of Ballroom and much more.

Davies said that the lessons are more important than ever at a time when trans rights are being threatened once again. In the UK, hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people have skyrocketed by 503 per cent since 2011 and there have been a 72 per cent increase in suicide attempts among trans under-18s in the US.

Trans+ History Week founder says ‘getting geeky’ about history helps to fight stigma

“It’s never been more important to share the truth that we’ve always been here and will always be to dismantle the modern myth that we’re not,” Davies said. “We’re not, we are as old as time.

“Getting geeky about history helps us in our fight against efforts to delegitimize and erase us. Trans+ people are as enduring as the sun in the sky and the earth beneath our feet. So let’s make sure our history reaches politicians that are persecuting us and our Trans+ youth who may be feeling hopeless and alone with a message that they belong.”

The workbook was created in collaboration with LGBTQ+ advocacy group QueerAF, which helped pay and mentor four trans and non-binary writers – Adam Khan, Ella Osho, William Elisabeth Cuthbert, and Sabah Choudrey.

Their work, Trans+ History Week CIC says, helps bring “lived experience and historical depth to [the] four key lessons.

“There are few silver bullets in doing stories justice and getting media representation right, but investing in talent from the communities you are creating content about gets pretty close,” Jamie Wareham, QueerAF’s founder, says. “There is a vast lack of representation of trans+ people in the media, but what we see every week at Queer AF is how vast the talent pools.”

Wareham continued that the workbook’s writers “brought a unique perspective” to the research that, he says, “we couldn’t have got from anywhere else.”

“That’s what makes the history lessons contained within so rich. And ultimately, they all hammer home our timeless message: We’ve always been here, and always will be.”

The Trans+ History Week workbook is available to download here.