Trans+ History Week has launched the 2026 edition of its workbook, a free toolkit for understanding and sharing the rich and diverse history of the trans community.
The annual seven-day event, which celebrates the long-overlooked history of trans, non-binary, and intersex people, will take place between 4-10 May, 2026.
Trans+ History Week was founded by Marty Davies after they learned the true history of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute of Sexual Science) in Berlin, which was the world’s first trans+ clinic.
On 6 May, 1933 the building was raided by the Nazis, who destroyed around 20,000 items – including vital research, books, and papers – in what became the first Nazi book burning.
Attending school under the much-reviled Section 28, Davies saw the infamous image of the Nazi book burning but did not learn the works being burned was literature about trans people until many years later.
Davies published a piece about the raid on LGBTQ+ publisher QueerAF, which subsequently helped them found Trans+ History Week.
The date of the burning, 6 May, now marks Trans+ History Day.
The 2026 workbook – which can be downloaded here – is designed for anyone who wants to run a session or create content about trans history and is structured around four lessons, each of which is anchored in a specific historical event or community and paired with discussion prompts and facilitation guidance.
- “We’re more than Trans+” looks at the long history of gender diversity in family models. It includes information about Charles Hamilton, who was labelled a “female husband” in 1746 headlines, to stories which highlight the presence of trans people and their fight for legal and social recognition is nothing new.
- “We’ve always been here” highlights the pre-colonial trans identities of Lango in Uganda and beyond, where the mudoko dako were a recognised third gender, and how colonial power reshaped what was once socially understood.
- “We can’t be erased” reveals how transmasculine communities have been flourishing underground in Japan for decades, despite significant challenges and pressure.
- “We’re stronger together” traces the legacy of Miss Major to trans women in San Francisco who were building queer community at Compton’s Cafeteria, forming the long arc of collective resistance and care years before Stonewall.
Creation of the workbook was led by trans History Week’s research lead Gray Burke-Stowe and written by Trans+ contributors from the QueerAF and Trans+ History Week creative alumni community, including Nisreen Fox, Kat Joplin, Ella Osho, and William Elisabeth Cuthbert.
“The UK enters this LGBT+ History Month marking a new historical milestone: The biggest backslide in Trans+ rights and safety ever in the UK,” Davies, founder of Trans+ History Week, said.
“It’s been fuelled by cruel and dishonest rhetoric – but that rhetoric that crumbles in the face of facts and history, which show that we’ve always been here and always will be, overcoming resistance and repression time and time again. It is the fact of our expansive humanity that this workbook brings to life.”
Davies continued: “The Government’s statutory guidance on Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education says that people should be ‘taught the facts’ about gender identities and not ‘oversimplify’ or ‘perpetuate stereotypes’.
“While concerns have been raised about the guidance overall, this specific point provides us with a springboard to teach people of all ages the facts, the real history – that gender diverse people have always been here.
“We hope this workbook can help our global community feel empowered, as well as shift the hearts and minds of those not Trans+.”
Marie-Helene Tyack, chair of the Board of Trustees at DIVA Charitable Trust, said: “DIVA Charitable Trust are very proud to be supporting the Trans+ History Week Workbook.
“DIVA has always been inclusive of Trans+ stories and we believe that this initiative is crucial in fostering understanding, inclusivity and respect for the wonderfully rich narratives within the Trans+ community.
“By supporting this workbook, DIVA Charitable Trust is taking a meaningful step in building a more informed and compassionate society where everyone’s story is valued and celebrated.”
Jamie Wareham, founder of QueerAF CIC, said: “The Trans+ community is devastated and worried about the way the judiciary, parliament and media are vilifying them.
“Much of this rhetoric follows misinformation and knowledge gaps about Trans+ people throughout history, and how laws in the UK have been formed.
“This toolkit shows that gender diversity in history can be traced back throughout all of time, a story we don’t hear enough.
“It’s a critical lesson for policymakers: the way laws governing the Trans+ community have been enacted is far more nuanced than they are presented in headlines, and if there was better understanding of them – we’d be able to cut through the noise and arrive at a discussion grounded in knowledge.”
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