How Tech Can Empower Trans Communities: This Michigan Author Explores the Possibilities
U-M professor Oliver Haimson says he thinks trans visibility is a 'double-edged sword'
Transgender Day of Visibility is a complex topic for Oliver Haimson. On one hand, he says he loves finding and leaning on community, especially through tumultuous times.
"But visibility is a double-edged sword," he tells Pride Source.
Haimson, a University of Michigan assistant professor and writer of the new book "Trans Technologies," says being visibly queer — and, more specifically, trans — can put a target on your back.
"When we're more visible, we've seen that trans violence and discrimination have increased along with the visibility," says Haimson, who will give a book talk at 6:30 p.m. April 7 at Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor. "I think this can be scary in a lot of ways, and I'm a very privileged trans person because I'm not typically targeted for violence and hate when I just walk down the street," he says.
Living as a cis-passing man, Haimson says he has struggled with how and when he should be visible and let people know one of the biggest parts of himself. When Haimson first started transitioning, he was bartending at a gay bar patroned by mostly cis gay men, who believed he was just like them. If he divulged that he was trans, he says he was often met with invasive, uncomfortable personal questions.
"So I just let people assume that I was a cis gay man, and that was a lot easier. And I just stuck with that for a long time," he says, which included his early career in academia, where he studied trans experiences, human-computer interaction, social computing and the intersection between them. Even while studying trans experiences, people still assumed he was cis.
"It seemed like people didn't expect that trans people would be academics, which was surprising to me. Nowadays, it seems much more obvious that people realize that trans people exist. But for a long period of time it was very confusing for me."
This personal experience with visibility directly informed Haimson's academic work. In 2021, he decided he wanted to write a book to uncover how technology creates new possibilities for transgender people, and how trans experiences, in turn, create new possibilities for technology. With this project, he says he wanted to go into it being fully and authentically himself.
With a February 2025 release date marked on a calendar years ago, Haimson says he had no way of knowing what the political and social climate would be like for queer people when "Trans Technologies" finally released this past February. He says the book's launch during scary unknowns feels like fate.
"I'm not immune to all the anti-trans legislation that is being proposed in the U.S., because even if I don't look trans, I am. And though speaking publicly raises more chances of being a target, I made this conscious choice that I was going to be more public and more visible when the book came out, and I am sticking to my decision. I just hope that it positively impacts people," he says.
Haimson's inspiration for this project is rooted in the complexity of working in and loving a field that he says often doesn't cater to or consider marginalized communities. His book examines what happens when trans people take technology design into their own hands, especially given that mainstream technologies often exclude or marginalize transgender users.
In "Trans Technologies," Haimson defines trans technology as technology that addresses unique needs or challenges faced by trans people and communities. He uses Solace — a gender-transitioning resource app where users can create a transition to-do list and are provided resources to accomplish those goals — to introduce the book. Solace is a technology made for trans users, and it was also created by a trans woman, albeit a white, college-educated one. Haimson takes time to detail that this technology might not be a one-size-fits-all model for trans people, but the beauty of trans technology is that there are many perspectives and approaches out there to help people find the right fit for them, which mirrors the transitioning experience.
Through his background in transgender studies, his own lived experience and in-depth interviews with over 100 creators in trans technology, Haimson surveys the landscape of trans technologies to reveal the design processes that brought these technologies to life. His research highlights what needs are being met in this industry and what work still needs to be done to include necessary voices and perspectives.
"When you're designing technology for marginalized folks, it's really important to include a diverse group of community members in the process of ideation and design," he says. "It's not enough just for a creator of technology to be trans themselves, because often, they end up creating tech in isolation, and that means that they can reinforce any privileged identities that they have."
Haimson's work examines how privilege, race and access to resources impact which trans technologies are built and who may be left out. He says there are often gaps between what the community needs and what tech is being designed, so including multiple perspectives was crucial for him to get his point across: listening to and leaning on community is important, even in the tech space.
"If we can understand the needs and start with that, then decide what to design and what technology to build, I think that is the approach we should be taking," he says.
The book not only identifies the role of trans technology in caring for individuals within the trans community but also shows how trans technology creation empowers some trans people to create their own tools for navigating the world. In the book, Haimson writes that having a book like "Trans Technologies" when he decided he wanted top surgery in 2010 could've saved him a lot of confusion and time. He searched far and wide for top surgeon recommendations and post-op photos, but mostly came up empty-handed. "I knew that the resource — that trans technology — was there, but I could not access it," he writes. Now that the book does exist, he's made something people can access and see themselves in — a work that articulates which trans needs and challenges are currently being addressed by technology and which still need to be addressed.
Despite the challenging political landscape surrounding the book's release, Haimson says he is excited to see his work, and the work of his many collaborators, come to life. And he couldn't think of a better way to celebrate than getting out in the queer community.
"It's great to be able to have an event to celebrate something that you've been working on for so long because there are so many milestones, like finishing the first draft or getting to hold the first physical copy," he says. "It's nice to have a book launch event to celebrate and hopefully uplift the community in various ways, especially the community here in Ann Arbor, which is so special."
Literati Bookstore (124 E Washington St., Ann Arbor) is hosting Haimson for a book talk about "Trans Technologies" on April 7 at 6:30 p.m. Visit literatibookstore.com/event/oliver-haimson-trans-technologies for more information.
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