Genny Beemyn

(1966 - ) is a non-binary American Trans and LGBTQ+ activist, educator, researcher, and author. Beemyn has written more than 10 books in trans and queer studies.

One of the first since 2006. Beemyn is also the coordinator of Campus Pride Trans Policy Clearinghouse and co-chair of International Pronouns Day. They cite Stone Butch Blues (1993) by Leslie Feinberg as a "revelatory moment" for them as they related to the gender non-conforming main character.

Education Beemyn graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Africana Studies and Political Science from Cornell University in 1989. They then went on to complete two Masters at the University of Iowa in African American Studies (1991) and American Studies (1993). They completed their PhD in the same two subjects also at the University of Iowa in 1997.

In 2001, Beemyn graduated with a Masters in Higher Education Administration from the University of Rochester. These histories would be used later in Beemyn's 2014 A Queer Capital: A History of Gay Life in Washington D.C.

From 2001-2006, Beemyn worked as the GLBT Student Services Coordinator at Ohio State University. Two years later, Beemyn began working as the director of the Stonewall Center at UMass Amherst, third-oldest campus LGBTQ+ resource center in the US. In the forward to the book, Shannon Minter writes "Through surveys and interviews with a huge sampling of transgender people from across the country, [The Lives of Transgender People] is the first major study to combine methodological rigor with an insider’s grasp of the nuances and complexities of transgender lives." Beemyn and Rankin found that 257 of their survey participants did not identify with the gender identities of 'male,' 'female,' or 'trans' – with some preferring terms like "'fluid,' 'neutral,' 'queer,' [and] 'two-spirit,'" while were uncertain or found no suitable word existed as of yet.

In 2021 and 2022, Beemyn taught 'LGBTQ+ People in Higher Education' at the University of Michigan. ; Journal of Bisexuality; and Journal of Homosexuality.

Selected publications

Books

Book chapters

Awards