PORPORA MARCASCIANO is a sociologist, activist, writer, and municipal counselor in the city of Bologna, Italy. She is the honorary president of the Trans Identity Movement (MIT) and author of Dawn of the Bad Transwoman: Stories, Gazes and Experiences of My Transgender Generation.

FRANCESCO PASCUZZI is an assistant teaching professor at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. He is the coeditor of the collection Dreamscapes in Italian Cinema (2015). He lives in Somerset County, New Jersey.

SANDRA WATERS is the managing editor of Italian Quarterly and coedits the Other Voices of Italy series for Rutgers University Press. She is the coeditor of The Spaces and Places of Horror. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Foreword: "Giving Voice to the Italian Trans Community," Sara Galli and Mohammad Jamali
Translator's Note, Francesco Pascuzzi and Sandra Waters
Preface to the Italian edition: "The Unbearable Lightness of Gender in History and Biography," Laura Schettini

Chapter One
Le début (1973–1976)
Somewhere in the West
Traces of Dreams
The Source of Consciousness
Coming Out
It Happened
Trip
Other Dimensions
Changing the World
The Underground
Technical Rehearsals of Resistance
The Best of Youth
Rebel Music
Exodus, Displacement, Transition
Escape

Chapter Two
1977: Dreaming and Utopia
And 1977 Exploded!
The First Lesbian
We Want Everything!
Alice in the City, Transversalism, Situationism, Fantasy
Strawberries and Blood
Between Class and Gender Consciousness
Nomadic Tribes
The Crush Continuous
The Biggest Piazza Was Too Small
The Transvestite Cries Out for Revenge in the Presence of the Phallus
Porporino
La dolce vita
Lud
With the Faguettes or With the Chavs
Being Overwhelmed
Flora and Fauna
Good Morning, Night
The First of May
Distress and Self-Awareness
Living in a Dream and Not Dreaming about Living

Chapter Three
Extravagance (1978–1982)
Zanza
Valentina Sanna Cortese
Narciso
The Festival of Poets at Castelporziano
Capo Rizzuto and Gay Camping
Gay Activism and Its First Conference
Mario Mieli
Royal Family and Self-Defense Techniques
Monte Caprino
Extravaganza
Pisa
Desiring
Bologna and the Grand Duchy of Pistoia
Lesbians and/or Feminists
Punk
The '80s Began
Valerie
Theater
1981 and the First Gay New Year
Trans Manifesto for 164
Gay Occupations
Beaches
The Cassero

Chapter Four
Transition, Epic Passage (1983...)
Then Night Came!
The Gay Plague
Blows to the Heart

Author Acknowledgments
Appendices
Timelines
Key Words
Porpora's Publications
Notes on Contributors