Big thanks to Robert Nichols for interviewing me for Upping the Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action.
New Law Review Article about Queer & Trans Prisoners and Safety
The Circuit, which is the online journal of the California Law Review, just published a response piece I wrote. I responded to an article that Prof. Russell Robinson wrote about the K6G unit at the Los Angeles County Jail, which is a unit designated for trans women and queer men. In my response, I suggest that the K6G unit, which was developed after a lawsuit brought on behalf of queer prisoners but has utterly failed to protect them, is a clear example of why we need prison abolition scholarship and politics in order to sufficiently analyze and confront the violence faced by queer and trans prisoners.
The Only Way to End Racialized Gender Violence in Prisons is to End Prisons
I wrote “The Only Way to End Racialized Gender Violence in Prisons is to End Prisons: A Response to Russell Robinson’s Masculinity As Prison,” published by California Law Review Circuit in December 2012. You can read it here.
The New Transgender Movement: Race, Poverty, Gender, Policing, and Pinkwashing
Lovers & Fighters in Polish, and the World Social Forum Free Palestine
I’m writing from Brazil, where I have traveled to attend the World Social Forum Free Palestine and specifically to participate in the Queer Visions gathering and public panels here focused on anti-pinkwashing work. The Queer Visions meetings were convened by the wonderful activists from Pinkwatching Israel who gathered 16 international activists doing anti-pinkwashing work in their own contexts. Here is a video from the Assembly that ended the Forum of anti-pinkwashers presenting a resolution. Below are some pictures from the march in Porto Alegre–the one with lots of purple is a feminist/women’s solidarity contingent that had beautiful quilted signs. I also wanted to share the sweet news that Wania and Ewe have translated my 2004 essay, For Lovers and Fighters, into Polish! You can grab it in Polish here.
New Video, Book Reviews and Recommended Reading
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of joining Laura Whitehorn in the Radical Book Tent at the Baltimore Book Festival, organized by the wonderful people at Red Emma’s.
In other news, I’ve added a bunch of reviews of Normal Life to the writing page on this site, in case they interest you.
Also, I want to recommend an exciting new book, The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard. You can order a copy to be sent to a prisoner when you order your own on the Topside Press website. Please do!
Their Laws Will Never Make Us Safer
The new Against Equality book, Prisons Will Not Protect You, has been published! I wrote an introduction for it called “Their Laws Will Never Make Us Safer” about why hate crime laws don’t help queer and trans people, but do build up a police state that targets us.
Learn more about the anthology from Against Equality.
Interview: Toward a Critical Trans Politics
Toward a Critical Trans Politics: An Interview with Dean Spade by Rob Nichols, published in Upping the Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action, Number 14, 2012.
Romantic Friendship, Palestine and California
A few recent things to share: Here is a link to a radio interview between me and the brilliant and inspiring activist-scholars Eric Stanley and Reina July about trans politics and prison abolition that took place in January on Romantic Friendship radio. I also want to share this open letter created by activist from a recent LGBTQ delegation to Palestine that I participated in in January. Please sign on! Below is a photo from my trip–a mural on a part of the separation wall. I’m working on creating some writing about my trip to share with photos that will hopefully be posted here soon. Finally, Toshio Meronek recently interviewed Eric Stanley and I about Captive Genders and Normal Life in advance of our trip to speak at UC Davis. You can read Toshio’s article here.
Building an Abolitionist Trans and Queer Movement With Everything We’ve Got
Morgan Bassichis, Alex Lee, and I co-authored “Building an Abolitionist Trans & Queer Movement with Everything We’ve Got” in the anthology Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex, edited by Eric Stanley and Nat Smith. A Mandarin translation is available here: 全力打造一個以廢除為目標的跨性／酷兒運動).
Learn more about Captive Genders here.