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Genealogy is concerned with something more than the origin of things. To describe a genealogy is to look beyond linear narratives of causation. As Foucault (1977: 147) argues,‘it disturbs what was previously considered immobile; it fragments what was thought unified; it shows the heterogeneity of what was imagined consistent with itself’.

The articles of this special issue are concerned with the fragmented paths to trans becoming: that is, the myriad means by which the terminologies of ‘trans’ have come to be, and by which a range of trans identities and experiences have become possible and recognisable. These are not simple histories. Rather, they are narratives of contestation and negotiation over meaning in a range of social contexts.