![](\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/TICKET-TO-ANOHNI-AND-THE-JOHNSONS-CONCERT.jpg\")
<\/p>The Museum of Transology is ringing in a decade with a new exhibition tracing trans, non-binary and intersex experiences through over 1000 objects and stories.<\/p>\n
Transcestry is no regular exhibition. Bringing together 1000 objects and stories from trans, non-binary and intersex communities, it brings together everything from protest placards to personal ephemera to create a wide-ranging view of gender diverse life.<\/p>\n
Here, artwork and zines are displayed alongside tights, items of clothing, tickets and razors \u2013 placing creative work exploring transness in dialogue with quotidian artefacts from individuals’ private gender journeys. Presented alongside these various objects are modest, brown tags carrying a note from the original owner about its significance, often written with earnest joy or misty-eyed sentimentality.<\/p>\n
To be in a space which centres trans, non-binary and intersex lives, their personal histories and joys, is a special experience. Nowhere is there an impulse to explain or, worse, justify oneself for a cis audience: it’s a rare opportunity for gender diverse perspectives to be presented in an accepting, affirming environment and a place where trans+ folks can see their experiences reflected back to them.<\/p>\n
For the past decade, The Museum of Transology has been dedicated to faithfully archiving gender diverse life for future generations and Transcestry is a celebration of ten years of this vital work. Below, E-J Scott, Founder of the Museum of Transology and a Senior Lecturer at Central Saint Martins, pulls out five key works from Transcestry and explains their significance.<\/p>\n
<\/p>
Marlo Mortimer, Letter To My Little Trans Self in collaboration with hotpencil press. MOT\/2024\/LTMLTS\/007<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Tag: “MY TICKET TO SEE ANOHNI AND THE JOHNSONS AT SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE IN 2005. IT WAS THE FIRST TIME I SAW HER PERFORM LIVE. I HAVE NOW SEEN HER 7 TIMES. SHE IS A TRUE LOVE OF MINE. I FOUND SOMETHING IN HER MUSIC I BADLY NEEDED TO HEAR \ud83d\udc9f THANK YOU ANOHNI!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n E-J: \u201cJust like in the gay community, cultural icons act as role models for the trans community that we turn to in the best of times and the hardest of times. Anohni actually kissed Martha P Johnson\u2019s hand! We have been supporting each other across generations in the fight for trans human rights.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Travis Alabanza, Original Collection, 2014. MOT000052\/1\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Tag: “<\/b>this wasn’t the first dress I ever wore, but it was the first dress I put on and thought… “oh my god, I look good, I look like, me” I truly felt, if possible, like my gender.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n E-J: \u201cWhen you visit the TRANSCESTRY exhibition, the first thing you\u2019ll see is Zsarday Forde\u2019s fur coat (AKA Skinny Bitch), then a video of her performing in a fur coat at the Black Cap where she is introduced onto the stage by Regina Fong (1992). Then you\u2019ll see Mzz Kimberley\u2019s first dress, she was the one who saved Zsarday\u2019s coat when she died on her 40th birthday, and then years later donated it to the Museum of Transology. Then you\u2019ll see the first dress Travis Alabanza felt truly reflected their gender identity. In the next video after Zsarday\u2019s, Travis Alabanza restages her act move-for-move at Duckie\u2019s Gay Shame (2019). Their act was directed by Nando Messiah\u2019s, whose dress from her performance series Sissy\u2019s Progress (2013).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This lineage proves trans women of colour have been saving their transcestry long before British Museums were.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Charlie Craggs, Letter To My Little Trans Self in collaboration with hotpencil press. MOT\/2024\/LTMLTS\/011<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Tag: “<\/b>These green tights were my ‘hair’ as a child, and in retrospect my first experience of <\/span>\u2728<\/span>GENDER EUPHORIA<\/span>\u2728”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n E-J: \u00a0“<\/b>I mean everyone knows how hilarious and brave and honest Charlie Craggs is \u2013 now we have evidence she\u2019s been cheeky since she was a kid! This object is full of so much trans joy you can\u2019t help but smile imagining her running around with it on her head.”<\/span><\/p>\n National Day of Trans Collecting, M Shed Bristol, funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund.\u00a0MOT\/2024\/BRIS\/010.1\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Tag: “<\/b>The floor of my dressing room! While stuck in the closet at home, the most convenient place I can dress how I want to when going out is a driveway that leads to an alleyway behind everyone\u2019s back-gardens. Today like many days, the stone are wet courtesy of the delightful British weather :D”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n E-J: “There is so much meaning in this little money bag of pebbles. The way trans people can be forced into the closet, just like lesbian and gay people were and still are in some cultures for their own safety. It shows the determination nonetheless, to live our lives fully. It shows how these situations can lead to danger \u2013 just imagine the misreporting to police that could happen if a trans misogynist saw her changing outside… And finally, her inspirational sense of humour \u2013 despite the trauma embedded in this story, she can still crack a joke about the English weather.”<\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/BLACK-DRESS.jpg\")
<\/p>BLACK DRESS<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GREEN-TIGHTS-WIG.jpg\")
<\/p>GREEN TIGHTS \u201cWIG\u201d<\/b><\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/PEBBLES-IN-A-BAG.jpg\")
<\/p>PEBBLES IN A BAG<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/SILVER-RAZOR-copy-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>SILVER RAZOR<\/h3>\n