This week, Vanity Fair and Condé Nast are publishing a special edition entitled Vanity Fair: Trans America, focused on gender identity and expression, and featuring groundbreaking stories on the transgender community’s pioneers (including Caitlyn Jenner, Renée Richards, Chaz Bono, and Laverne Cox), several of which were previously published in *Vanity Fair’*s sister publications, including The New Yorker, Glamour, GQ, and Vogue. Among some of the highlights, Vanity Fair: Trans America includes Buzz Bissinger’s full Vanity Fair profile of Caitlyn Jenner, photographed by Annie Leibovitz; an interview with Mixed Martial Arts fighter Fallon Fox, by Nancy Hass for GQ; and a Vogue piece by Alice Gregory on Make Up for Ever’s new face (and reputed new Taylor Swift BFF), Australian supermodel Andreja Pejic. In addition, the issue features a helpful primer on transgender history, a look at gender roles and expression in the movies, and a photo portfolio of the transgender names you should know. Also included is a 1997 New Yorker essay by the late John Gregory Dunne on the assault and murder of Brandon Teena and two companions, a horrific crime that would inspire the 1999 film Boys Don’t Cry.

Sadly, in the weeks since the edition was sent to print, at least six transgender women of color were lost to senseless violence. The publications involved in creating this special edition share in the grief surrounding these tragedies. It is the hope that this issue, on newsstands this week, will help educate people and underscore the efforts of those who have helped promote wider understanding of transgender people.

In creating the issue, Vanity Fair publisher Condé Nast also sought to recognize several organizations that serve the transgender community, including the Los Angeles Gender Center; the National Center for Transgender Equality; the Trans Justice Funding Project; the Translatina Network; and the Center for Transyouth Health and Development, Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Vanity Fair: Trans America can be found on newsstands everywhere and online on August 18.