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Cristan Williams and transgender people

Cristan Williams is an American independent researcher and activist. Williams is editor of TransAdvocate.

Background

According to a self-published bio, Williams “co-founded the first federally funded trans-only homeless program, pioneered affordable health care for trans people in the Houston area, won the right for trans people to change their gender on Texas ID prior to surgery, started numerous trans social service programs and founded the Transgender Center as well as the Transgender Archives.” Williams is a founding member of the Transgender Foundation of America and the Bee Busy Wellness Center.

TransAdvocate.com was created in 2002. Cristan Williams became TransAdvocate’s managing editor in 2012. Williams was an advisor on the book Trans Bodies, Trans Selves and The Gender Book.

Williams earned a bachelor’s degree from Southern New Hampshire University in 2020, then took courses at online college Saybroook University, earning a master’s degree in 2024 and then began a doctorate program. Williams then earned an MBA in 2025 from online school Western Governors University.

References

Houston Area Rainbow Collective History (ARCH) oral histories (March 10, 2010). Cristan Williams oral history interview. https://digitalcollections.rice.edu/Documents/Detail/cristan-williams-oral-history-interview/249809

Selected writing by Williams

Williams C (2021). Women’s Movement, Trans Inclusion In/Exclusion From. In Goldberg AE, Beemyn G [Eds.] The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies, SAGE, ISBN 9781544393841

Williams C (2021). TERFs. In Goldberg AE, Beemyn G [Eds.] The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies, SAGE, ISBN 9781544393841

Williams C (2020). The ontological woman: A history of deauthentication, dehumanization, and violence. The Sociological Review, 68(4), 718–734. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026120938292

Williams, Cristan (January 22, 2017). Disco sexology series. TransAdvocate

Williams C (2016). Radical Inclusion. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 3(1–2), 254–258. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-3334463

Williams C, Rawson KJ (2014). Transgender*: The Rhetorical Landscape of a Term. Present Tense, 3(2), 1–9. [PDF]

Williams C (2014). Transgender. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 1(1–2), 232–234. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-2400136

Williams, Cristan (2014). Alpha Male. In Ray, Douglas [Ed.] The Queer South: LGBTQ Writers on the American South, pp. 276-278. Sibling Rivalry Press, ISBN 978-1937420802

Resources

Cristan Williams: Ehipassiko (cristanwilliams.com)

TransAdvocate (transadvocate.com)

Transgender Foundation of America (tfahouston.com)

The TERFS (theterfs.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

TG Center (tgctr.org) [archive]

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Amercan Board of Sexology (americanboardofsexology.org)