Joanne Herman, a transgender woman who read everything in sight to understand her own gender incongruity, has been helping others with her non-complicated explanations of transgender for almost a decade. Now she has written down her explanations for all to read in Transgender Explained For Those Who Are Not. Organized by topic into short, easy-to-read chapters, Transgender Explained is perfect for parents, relatives, colleagues, friends, allies and even journalists who want to quickly get up to speed on what it means to be transgender.
After almost half a century living as a male, Joanne Herman transitioned in 2002 to live as a female in order to resolve a gender incongruity she had felt for as long as she remembers. Since then she has been increasingly active as a spokeswoman for transgender awareness and understanding. She blogs about transgender issues for The Huffington Post.
Joanne is the first transgender person ever elected the Boards of Directors of Point Foundation and Fenway Health. She is the first openly transgender member of the congregation of Old South Church in Boston (United Church of Christ), the same church where Benjamin Franklin was baptized and Samuel Adams served as a deacon, and where Joanne married her partner Theresa (Terry) Fallon in 2010. And Joanne is one of the first openly transgender alumnae of Dartmouth College, as a graduate of the last all-male class. Dartmouth's then-President James Wright awarded Joanne a Class of 1975 diploma in her new name in 2006.
Joanne holds a BA in Government and Economics from Dartmouth and an MS/MBA from Northeastern University. She retired in 2010 from her position as Financial Controller at NEFA, the Boston-based grant maker to the arts, to devote more time to her advocacy and philanthropy. Joanne is fluent in French and an avid bowler.
