I Did A Transrace Study And The Results Are Exactly What You'd Expect

many transrace people are sexually attracted to being their identified race

This is the transrace chapter of Autoheterosexual: Attracted to Being the Other Sex—my book that demystifies the most common type of transgenderism. Here, I present the results of a small transrace survey I conducted which investigates the possibility of an autosexual type of transracialism.

Since doing this writeup, I’ve received eight more survey responses. All were from females, and all but one reported cross-race eroticism.

Of these eight female respondents, two were FTM, one was nonbinary, and four reported strong attraction to FTMs and MTFs. Of these eight, four endorsed measures of autoheterosexuality (two moderately, two maximally).

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Born to strict Christian parents and bound to her family’s homestead property, Nkechi Diallo (pronounced “en-kay-chee dee-ah-loh”) would dream of being elsewhere whenever she got the chance. Hidden in a distant part of her family’s garden, she sometimes spread watery mud on her arms and legs to pretend she was an African princess or Bantu woman[i].

She had been introduced to images and stories of African people through the National Geographic subscription her grandmother gave her one Christmas. She thought they were beautiful and interesting, so much so that she longed to be one. Diallo saw herself as black and felt she was black, too[ii].

Later, she encountered black American athletes through issues of Sports Illustrated. They captured her full attention:

I was enraptured by what I saw. To me, the images of the Black athletes I found on the pages of the magazines were the very height of human beauty. Their complexions, their hair, their features, they were all so captivating to me.[iii]

In the pages of these magazines, she was introduced to Darryl Strawberry, Magic Johnson, and Mike Tyson. She was infatuated with all three, which left a lasting impression: “Though all three soon faded from my consciousness, the idealized image of Blackness I’d developed while studying photographs of them never did”[iv].

When Diallo was a teenager, her parents adopted four black babies. With their arrival, she finally felt like she truly had a family[v]. As they grew, she taught them what she had learned about black culture and history from the many library books she had read on the subject[vi]. Doing so made her feel more connected to black culture. She increasingly felt as though she saw the world through a black perspective[vii].

In college, she learned that race was a social construct that wasn’t based on genetics. This made her feel less obligated to identify as white[viii]. The first time she had her hair fully braided, it was a game changer[ix]. She felt more at home in herself and noticed that black people treated her in a more familiar, less guarded way.

After completing her undergraduate degree, Diallo was accepted to grad school at Howard University, the only school she applied to[x]. She married a black man while there, but he didn’t like her cross-race embodiment and kept imploring her to be more white[xi]. They soon divorced.

Diallo later became the president of the Spokane, Washington, chapter of the NAACP. On June 10, 2015, a local news reporter interviewed her and questioned her racial identity. Overwhelmed by that line of questioning, she abruptly turned off her mic and ended the interview[xii].

Within days, news articles depicting her as a white woman pretending to be black filled people’s social media feeds[xiii]. The articles often portrayed her as an object of ridicule. To many, she was a laughingstock. For a minute, she was the talk of the nation simply because she was born to parents of European descent yet identified as black. Her name was Rachel Dolezal at the time.

Diallo’s story spurred a national conversation about transracialism. Before her, transracialism usually referred to the cultural experience of children adopted by parents of another race.

But the kind of transracialism that comes from adoption isn’t the subject of this chapter. Instead, I’ll investigate a type of transracialism characterized by autosexual attraction to being a particular race.

Phylophilia: Race-Based Sexual Attraction

Although the existence of race-based attraction is common knowledge, there hasn’t been a neutral term for it. It’s often called “racial fetishism”[xiv].

Unfortunately, the “racial fetishism” label seemingly implies that race-based sexual attraction is less legitimate or worthy than other kinds of sexual attraction. To put race-based sexual attraction on equal standing with other dimensions of sexual attraction, I will instead use a Greek construction that adheres to standard naming conventions.

Phylophilia is a race-based sexual attraction (“phylo” means “tribe”, “kind”, or “race”). For example, if someone were specifically attracted to people of a particular racial phenotype, this attraction could be described as phylophilic. Instead of making a separate term for each race, I’ll use phylophilia as an umbrella term for race-based sexual attraction and leave it at that.

The autosexual counterpart to phylophilia is autophylophilia, a sexual attraction to being a particular race.

Anne Lawrence’s book contained a narrative from someone who specifically fantasized about being a woman of another race. They reported, “I am an Asian male, but I do not fantasize about being an Asian woman, but rather a Caucasian woman, because I prefer and am most sexually attracted to Caucasian women”[xv].

It stands to reason that if race-based attraction exists, then so does attraction to being a particular race. And if attraction to being a particular race exists, then so does a type of trans identity associated with that attraction. That’s why I think autophylophilia is the most likely cause of these newer cases of transrace identity that make such big waves in the media.

This newer type of transracialism is autophylophilic transracialism, because it occurs when a person develops a cross-race identity as a result of autosexual attraction to being that race.

If this theory seems far-fetched, consider a recent prominent case of transracialism, that of Oli London. In June of 2021, they came out as Korean and identified specifically as Jimin, a K-pop star they adore[xvi]. Although they didn’t outright say that their transrace identity had sexual roots, they did marry a cardboard cutout of Jimin the year before[xvii]. More recently, they came out as a transgender woman[xviii].

Multiple Types of Transrace Identity

One type of transracialism, adoptive transracialism, is the product of transracial adoption: when parents of one race adopt a child of another race.

There are also historical examples of people who chose to live as another race because it afforded them better social treatment, such as light-skinned descendants of slaves in America who could pass as white.

These types of transracialism are associated with specific life circumstances, so I’ll use situational transracialism as an umbrella term for cases of transracialism that are related to life circumstances rather than sexuality. Adoptive transracialism is one type of situational transracialism.

Some cases of transracialism are associated with sexuality (autophylophilic transracialism), while others are associated with life circumstances (situational transracialism). Thus, there are multiple distinct types of transracialism.

Investigating Transracialism

When I initially looked into transracialism, I quickly realized there was little empirical research about it. There were plenty of opinion pieces making fun of it, but very little on what it actually was.

Given what I knew about various forms of autosexual trans identity, I suspected that an autosexual version of race-based sexual attraction caused transracialism. After all, there are otherkin who identify as elves and vampires. The ears or teeth of these mythical races may be especially pointy, but they often look quite similar to humans. I figured that if cross-race identification as a mythical humanoid race could stem from autosexuality, cross-race identification as a real human race likely could as well.

I created a transracialism survey[xix] to explore this possibility. The online transracialism community is small and understandably wary of outsiders asking questions, but I was still able to collect some responses. At the time of this writing, I’d received thirteen responses from transrace people.

Since I specifically wanted to study autophylophilic transracialism, I excluded four responses from this analysis because they reported a lack of arousal to any forms of cross-race embodiment. A couple of these gave contradictory answers about how often they were their identified race in sexual fantasies, but overall, they reportedly never fantasied about various elements of being their identified race. I will rule them out as being either not autophylophilic, or insufficiently so. Among these four excluded responses, three were female and one was male.

I categorized the remaining nine responses as cases of autophylophilic transracialism. All nine said they were “frequently” or “often” their identified race in sexual fantasies. In contrast, all but one said they were “rarely” or “never” their assigned race[1] in sexual fantasies.

There were two females, both of whom reported a sexual preference for women. Of the seven males, six were transgender or nonbinary. All were under forty years of age. Four respondents were in their early twenties, three were in their late twenties, and two were in their thirties.

In addition to multiple-choice questions, I also asked some open-ended questions in order to get written responses. I’ve presented most of the written responses here just as I received them. In a few, I made small tweaks to grammar or syntax to improve clarity.

I posted the survey in two transracial subreddits and one transracial Facebook group. Based on submission timestamps, I suspect that seven respondents came from the transracial subreddit and two from the transracial Facebook group.

First Signs of Transracialism

To see if the developmental trajectory of transracialism paralleled the trajectory of other types of trans identity, I asked when their first signs of being transracial appeared and what those signs were. I also inquired about how they became aware of their transrace identity.

One of the female respondents wrote about her transrace awakening, which occurred at an age when many females are going through puberty:

It hit me like a truck. I was thinking about what I should even do since I was no longer satisfied by the immigration fantasy, and I imagined different versions of myself. It was a long time ago so I don’t remember exactly what I thought about, but it clicked really fast that “Asian me” was the real me. I felt like she was beautiful and that’s what was missing from me. I knew something was off for a long time and I didn’t know what until then. It was like a lightbulb moment.

An MTF explained how her experiences with black female classmates made her aware of her cross-race inclination. It happened at an age when many males start puberty:

Honestly, [I] became more aware of the feelings when I understood what being transgender meant. Got me thinking about where my envy of the black girls I met in school came from. Realized I was meant to be a black female. Just feel more comfortable identifying that way.

Her sense of kinship with black girls at school helped her realize she wanted to be one: “Mostly a kinship with the black girls in my school. Wishing I looked like them, talked like them, and just had experienced their life more so than my own”.

A nonbinary male exhibited the first signs of transracialism around five or six years of age, the earliest of any respondents. They reported the following signs: “Staying out of the sun in an attempt to lighten my skin, never identifying with my birth race, hating the color of parts that were dark. Staying away from people of my assigned race”.

Unfortunately, many of the respondents first questioned if they were transracial after encountering media about it, and most of that media was negative.

Media Coverage of Transracialism

I asked respondents how they felt about media coverage of transracialism. I wanted their side to be heard, because transracial voices are frequently left out of transracialism discourse.

They were united in perceiving media coverage of transracialism as negative and unfair to them. Most of them also wrote about how it hurt and why. It made one feel like “a weirdo”, while another felt “awful, like I’m not even human”.

One of the females had been hurt several times in this way: “People’s cruelty, hate, and mockery has ruined my day several times. I ugly cried about an article I read about us because it was so wrong about my experience and so hateful”.

One MTF shared that it “makes me feel sad and judged. I can’t help how I feel inside”. Another noted that “they’re always making fun of us. Nobody has defended us yet and it hurts to see that I have to be in the closet about this still”.

I asked them what they wanted the general public to know about transracialism. In response, survey respondents stressed their common humanity and asked for open-mindedness.

One said, “I didn’t choose this”. Another reinforced the importance of belonging: “I’m not lying. It is such a privilege to wake up and belong, please keep that in mind”. Another said, “We’re real human beings with real feelings. We’re for real”.

One of the transfem respondents remarked that “it’s no different than being transgender”. A couple of the other transfem respondents made clear their racial identifications were sincere and they weren’t trying to be offensive:

• “We’re not playing racial dress up or blackface, we fully intend to live as our identified race all pros and cons included such as enduring racism once we pass, racists won’t check your parental lineage before being racist to a darker person”

• “We aren’t trying to offend people. We want to identify the way we do and we feel comfortable/euphoric. Don’t take this away from us. We aren’t challenging your identity. We can both exist at the same time”

Overall, the transracial respondents made it clear that being transrace (trace) wasn’t easy. One asked the public for understanding:

Please be understanding. Stop mocking people for trying to figure themselves out. Being trace is a curse as it is, we don’t need hate on top of that. It’s been really hard for me, I imagine it’s been hard for others.

Unfortunately, the pain of being ridiculed in the media was far from their only obstacle. They also had to deal with race dysphoria.

Race Dysphoria

Race dysphoria was common in these nine participants. All but one reported strong race dysphoria. Like transgender people, they reported the strongest race dysphoria with respect to their bodies and social roles.

When describing how race dysphoria felt, they didn’t hold back. A female respondent spoke to the feeling of hopelessness and entrapment that characterized her race dysphoria:

It’s hell. It’s the most uncomfortable thing I experience. I feel hopeless and trapped when I experience it. I feel physically sick when I see my reflection when I’m having it. Sometimes it feels like there is nothing that can be done about it.

A transfem respondent wrote about the overlapping pain of both her types of dysphoria. She described it as “a dreadful emotional weight that I’ll be eternally stuck in the body of a white male. It’s constantly there and ruins my day”.

Another transfem remarked that race dysphoria felt “very similar to gender dysphoria; crushing, depressing”, while another said it felt “like you’re trapped in someone else’s body”.

“When I am in the closet,” wrote another transfem, “it is as if I have to be a stereotype of the race I was assigned at birth. Whereas when I’m able to express myself as my true race I feel more authentic”.

This sense of self-alienation came up in a few responses. “Every time you go outside”, reported a nonbinary male respondent, “it’s like someone else you don’t know is representing you, talking for you instead of you talking”. A female respondent even said this sense of separation transcended herself because it was “a disconnect from not only you, but your ancestors”.

The emotions these respondents described—feeling trapped, hopeless, disconnected, and depressed—are the same types of feelings that autohet trans people describe when they talk about gender dysphoria.

To get a sense for which situations triggered their race dysphoria, I asked if they had noticed any patterns about the types of situations that caused them to feel dysphoric. One transfem captured the overall pattern when she said a dysphoria-causing situation could be “any in which my assigned race is brought into attention”.

Other transracial respondents noted how having their racial identity invalidated, hearing their birth name, or wearing clothes associated with their assigned race could all dampen their spirits:

• “Being reminded that I’m white is like a bullet. People calling me white and shit triggers the hell out of me. Same with being told I’m not Asian. If I look in the mirror too long I get triggered too”

• “Situations such as being around people of my assigned race, wearing ethnic clothing, looking at old family pictures, hearing or reading your first and last name, and eating food that belongs to your assigned race when other people are around”

One of the transfem respondents mentioned the pain of intersecting race and gender dysphorias, saying, “Every waking moment existing as a white male and not a black female is such a weight”. Another said she was hurt by “racialized situations where I get treated as a white person or people that deny my blackness”.

Overall, it seemed that any perceived shortcomings of cross-racial embodiment could drag down their mood. Seeing themselves in the mirror, hearing their assigned name, and behaving or being seen by others as their assigned race could all bum them out.

Race Euphoria

Knowing that autoheterosexuals treasure gender euphoria, I asked about race euphoria. I wanted to see if transracial people described similar feelings of comfort, joy, and being at home in themselves. Unsurprisingly, they did.

Just as many respondents noted that race dysphoria created an internal disconnect within themselves, many also said that race euphoria made them feel more in touch with themselves.

A nonbinary male said race euphoria felt “like I’m closer to being myself”, while a female respondent said she felt “belonging and present in my body”. A transfem reported that when she was feeling race euphoria, “I feel like I am being genuine to myself. And less of a caricature”.

One transracial female found race euphoria comforting and acknowledged, “It’s not very intense yet since I haven’t had anything major done to convert to my desired race, but the little scraps that I get really help”.

Various transfem respondents said that race euphoria made them feel “happy with myself and my body”, “ecstatic, amazing, joyful”, or “like you can be free and yourself for a while”.

Another transfem said that during a race euphoria experience, “a sense of calm of self washes over me. Life and my goals become far more clear. As well, just feel more whole”.

As with the questions about dysphoria, I asked transracial respondents if they noticed any patterns regarding the specific situations that led them to feel race euphoria. In response, they told me of various ways they attained a sense of cross-race embodiment.

A female respondent remarked on the helpfulness of sartorial embodiment: “Dyeing my hair, dressing a certain way, and doing my make up a certain way can really help me feel better. Also, being honest with people about how I really feel helps a lot, especially if they are supportive.”

A transfem spoke to feeling racially embodied through interpersonal interactions: “My partners all know I’m trans black and support me and treat me in a way that acknowledges my blackness when appropriate and even pokes fun at it where appropriate”.

A nonbinary male said that “shaving and wearing sunscreen are the two biggest ones”. A transfem reported that “getting tan” and “imagination” helped her feel race euphoria. A different transfem noticed gender euphoria from “dressing, acting, and being as close to who I actually am inside”, while another said it happened “whenever I can just focus on being myself”.

A transfem who had put effort into learning the language of her identified race said that “speaking to others in our language absolutely helps me feel euphoric”.

Imagination. Behavior. Fashions. Social interactions. These are the same avenues that countless autosexuals have used to attain various forms of cross-embodiment.

I also asked transracial respondents how they felt when consuming media that helped them get in touch with their transrace identity. They reported “joy”, “recognition”, and “a sense of belonging, warmth, love, and respect”. Another felt “happiness and comfort” and explained, “It’s like a light for me in a dark world”. Others reported feeling “happiness, confidence, pleasure”, or “joy, euphoria, longing, sadness”.

Perhaps for historical reasons, a trans-indigenous respondent didn’t feel so good about consuming media relating to her transrace identity. She reported feeling grief and elaborated, “I’ve inherited all of the intergenerational trauma and none of the community”.

Medical Transracialism

Virtually all the transracial people under analysis here were interested in medical interventions to more closely align their racial phenotype with their racial identity.

With the exception of the one trans-indigenous respondent who already passed as her identified race, all the other cases discussed here were interested in getting facial surgery to more fully attain their desired racial phenotype, and all but one were interested in drugs to change their skin color.

Yet even though interest in these drugs and surgeries was high, only the nonbinary male had already tried drugs to change their skin color, and only a couple of the transfems had received race-affirming surgeries.

Race-Based Sexuality: Allophylophilia and Autophylophilia

As noted earlier, all nine cases here “frequently” or “often” pictured themselves in their sexual fantasies as their identified race. In contrast, all but one said they were “never” or “rarely” their assigned race in sexual fantasies.

In order to get more granular about which aspects of cross-race embodiment they found sexually interesting, I presented a set of five questions that asked about arousal at being their identified race, having physical features of it, being seen as it, dressing as it, and behaving as it. I asked these to investigate the presence of core, anatomic, interpersonal, sartorial, and behavioral autophylophilia, respectively.

Six of them said these forms of racial embodiment were at least “somewhat” arousing. Four reported higher levels of arousal—all were transfems.

Among the remaining three, one admitted he was “quite” aroused by imagining himself with the physical features of his race, one said she was “somewhat” aroused by the idea of being seen or treated as her identified race, and one denied all arousal to cross-racial embodiment.

I asked this same set of five embodiment questions about fantasy frequency, and all but one of the autophylophilic respondents gave high-frequency responses (“frequently” or “often”) to the majority of the questions. If the patterns here are the norm for autophylophilic transracial people, it seems that it is common for them to embody their identified race in sexual fantasies in body, behavior, dress, and social role.

Their allosexuality with respect to race suggested they were also particularly interested in people of their identified race. Seven of them said they’d prefer if their next sexual partner were of their identified race; just as many said they found people of their identified race more attractive than people of their assigned race. Six had a childhood crush on someone of their identified race.

I also asked how often they looked at porn depicting people of either their identified race or assigned race. Among the five respondents who reported watching porn of their assigned race and identified race at different rates, all watched porn of their identified race more often than porn of their assigned race.

Autoheterosexuality and Gendered Sexuality

Autoheterosexuality was present in autophylophilic respondents at rates far beyond those in the general population: five of nine said they were “frequently” or “often” the other sex in their sexual fantasies, and six of nine said they would be “quite” or “very” aroused by the majority of the scenarios having to do with cross-gender embodiment.

In fact, the only respondent who denied any cross-gender sexuality was a bisexual transfem who reported high attraction to trans people and gave high scores to all questions about cross-race sexual embodiment, so I suspect that her answers to questions about cross-gender fantasy reflected either confusion or a desire to deny autogynephilia.

As expected, signs of autoheterosexuality were strongly associated with having a nondefault gender identity. Five of the six respondents who reported high levels of cross-gender arousal had nondefault gender identities. Similarly, two of the three respondents who reported little or no cross-gender arousal were still using their default gender identities.

Even though seven of nine respondents had heterosexual first crushes, the sample was highly nonheterosexual and highly attracted to androgyny. When asked their sexual orientation, only one person said they were heterosexual, and this same person was the only one who said they weren’t strongly attracted to either trans men or trans women.

Both female respondents identified as homosexual and were most strongly attracted to women.

Overall, this sample was highly autoheterosexual, and correlates of autoheterosexuality such as bisexuality and attraction to trans people were also present at elevated rates.

Survey Summary

This small exploratory survey presents preliminary evidence that there is a type of transracialism which is accompanied by sexual interest in cross-race embodiment.

All respondents included in this analysis were frequently their identified race in their sexual fantasies, and a solid majority said it would be arousing to embody their identified race in body, behavior, dress, or social role.

Similarly, two-thirds indicated moderate to high arousal to embodying the other sex in body, behavior, dress, or social role. Relatedly, all but one reported a nonheterosexual orientation and a high degree of attraction to trans men or trans women. In addition, all but one of the male respondents were transgender or nonbinary.

Transracial respondents felt warm fuzzy feelings or at home in themselves when embodying their racial identity. By contrast, they felt awful when they perceived shortcomings in cross-racial embodiment. The positive and negative race-based feelings they described bore a strong resemblance to the gender-based feelings that autohet trans people describe. Similarly, many transracial respondents wanted to get drugs or surgeries to more fully embody their racial identity.

The high concurrent rates of autoheterosexuality and autophylophilia suggest that these orientations may both have a similar underlying cause.

Limitations

My analysis excluded transracial people who did not report any degree of erotic racial embodiment. By design, it did not try to account for all transracial people.

The size and type of the sample is another limitation. Only nine transracial people completed the survey and showed sufficient autophylophilia to be included in the analysis, all of whom were recruited through online transracial communities.

In addition, the sample was too small to analyze with inferential statistics, so the analysis was restricted to descriptive statistics.

Lastly, the scales I used to ask about various forms of embodiment all had fairly abstract, top-level items. Future investigators may want to create scales that focus with greater specificity on the various aspects of cross-race embodiment that appeal to transracial people.

Arguments for Transgender Legitimacy Also Apply to Transrace Identity

Given that the transracial people I surveyed dealt with race dysphoria and other difficult aspects of being transracial, I doubt they adopted transracial identities in order to feel special or stand out. In fact, about half hadn’t told any friends, family, or lovers about their racial identities.

Instead, I think these transracial people were dissatisfied with their birth race, yearned to be another race, and found the transrace label captured their feelings best. In short, they have feelings about their race which parallel the feelings autohet trans people have about their gender.

These similarities raise an important question in the domain of trans identity: if transracialism can be caused by race-based autosexual attraction, who can authoritatively say it isn’t every bit as legitimate as transgenderism that’s caused by gender-based autosexual attraction?

If transracial people truly do feel they are a race that differs from their racial phenotype, isn’t it time to treat people with transracial identities more respectfully? After all, arguments for the legitimacy of transgenderism also apply to transracialism: if one is legitimate, so is the other.

Feminists who have looked into this came to a similar conclusion[xx]. In her famous paper “In Defense of Transracialism”, Rebecca Tuvel contended:

Considerations that support transgenderism extend to transracialism. Given this parity, since we should accept transgender individuals’ decisions to change sexes, we should also accept transracial individuals’ decisions to change races.[xxi]

People of different races have more shared traits than do people of different sexes. Treating race-crossing as impossible while simultaneously treating gender-crossing as perfectly doable makes no sense.

If it’s appropriate to respect cross-gender identities caused by attraction to being another gender, then it’s also appropriate to respect cross-racial identities caused by attraction to being another race. It is logically inconsistent to admit one as legitimate and decry the other as illegitimate.

If transgenderism is legit, so is transracialism.

In Sum:

• Phylophilia is sexual attraction to people of a particular race. Its autosexual counterpart is autophylophilia, a sexual attraction to being a particular race.

• I collected survey data from transracial people in order to explore the possibility that some cases of transracialism were associated with autophylophilia rather than immersive cross-cultural experiences like transracial adoption. Most survey respondents reported autophylophilic fantasies or arousal. I examined these autophylophilic responses in greater detail.

• Autophylophilic transrace respondents talked about race dysphoria in ways that strongly resembled the gender dysphoria of autoheterosexual transgenderism. They battled internal disconnection, depression, and hopelessness. Authenticity came at a cost, but they pursued it anyway. Ultimately, anything in their environment that signified shortcomings of cross-racial embodiment could bring down their mood.

• Autophylophilic transrace respondents spoke of race euphoria in ways that mirror the gender euphoria of autoheterosexuals. When they were in touch with their race, they felt comfortable and at home in themselves. The internal disconnect dissipated, and they saw more clearly. They became more at peace with their body and were more able to feel joyful, free, or ecstatic. These positive feelings were associated with cross-race embodiment through imagination, behavior, dress, or social interactions.

• The transrace respondents analyzed here were all autophylophilic: all of them reported sexual fantasies in which they were their identified race. Similarly, most of them also reported that it would be arousing to embody their identified race. Their allosexual racial preferences seemed to mirror their autosexual ones: most respondents said they found people of their identified race more attractive than people of their birth race, and most had a preference for dating someone of their identified race. In addition, they tended to watch porn depicting people of their identified race more often than porn depicting people of their assigned race.

• Most autophylophilic transrace respondents had cross-gender sexual fantasies or found the idea of being the other sex arousing. Almost all of them had correlates of autoheterosexuality such as bisexuality, attraction to trans people, or nondefault gender identities.

• Transracial respondents were emotionally hurt by the unfair media treatment they received. They asked for understanding and stressed their common humanity.

• Arguments for the legitimacy of transgenderism also apply to the legitimacy of transracialism. If it’s appropriate to respect cross-gender identities caused by attraction to being another sex, then it’s also appropriate to respect cross-race identities caused by attraction to being another race.

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[1] Their “default” or “birth” race.

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[i] Dolezal and Reback, In Full Color, 11.

[ii] Dolezal and Reback, 12.

[iii] Dolezal and Reback, 23.

[iv] Dolezal and Reback, 23.

[v] Dolezal and Reback, 59.

[vi] Dolezal and Reback, 63.

[vii] Dolezal and Reback, 63.

[viii] Dolezal and Reback, 85.

[ix] Dolezal and Reback, 93.

[x] Dolezal and Reback, 112.

[xi] Dolezal and Reback, 115.

[xii] Shapiro, “Rachel Dolezal Is Asked About Father’s Race in Interview with ABC’s Spokane Affiliate.”

[xiii] Pérez-Peña, “Black or White? Woman’s Story Stirs Up a Furor - The New York Times”; Moyer, “‘Are You an African American?”

[xiv] Zheng, “Why Yellow Fever Isn’t Flattering.”

[xv] Lawrence, Men Trapped in Men’s Bodies, 186.

[xvi] Brown, “Oli London ‘identifies as Korean’ after Surgeries to Look like BTS’ Jimin.”

[xvii] Bennett and Tempesta, “K-Pop Superfan MARRIES a Cardboard Cutout of His Idol in Las Vegas.”

[xviii] Dennett, “Influencer Oli London Who Claims to Be Korean Comes out as a Transgender Woman.”

[xix] Illy, “Transracialism- Identity, Experiences, Embodiment, and Attraction.”

[xx] Overall, “Transsexualism and ‘Transracialism’”; Tuvel, “In Defense of Transracialism.”

[xxi] Tuvel, “In Defense of Transracialism,” 264.

[xxii] Loftus, The Outsider Test for Faith.

[xxiii] Jones, “Alice Dreger, Autogynephilia, and the Misrepresentation of Trans Sexualities”; Wyndzen, “Autogynephilia & Ray Blanchard’s Mis-Directed Sex-Drive Model of Transsexuality”; Autogynephilia; Serano, “Autogynephilia”; Serano, “Making Sense of Autogynephilia Debates”; Molay, “The Autogynephilia Theory Debunked by New German Study”; Serano, “The Case Against Autogynephilia”; Zagria, “What Is Autogynephilia?”