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!
Queering Abolition
American Quarterly just published an conversation between me, Eric A. Stanley and the authors of Queer (In)Justice. You can download it here. Speaking of abolition, last week’s public forum about King County’s plans to pour a ton of money into rehabilitating our youth jail and the court buildings where kids of color get sentenced to jail and parents of color get their kids taken away was very contentious. I wrote something about what happened and why the forum should not have been shut down here.
In other news, Normal Life is a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award! Some of the finalists in the Seattle region are reading together on April 25 at 7pm at Vermillion. Hope to see you there!
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.
New Law and Social Movements Syllabus and Radio
Normal Life is out!
Normal Life is available in stores now! I hope you’ll order it from your independent bookstore.
Laws as Tactics
I’ve just posted an article I wrote for a 2010 symposium about the impact of Judith Butler’s work on legal scholarship that was recently published by the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. I welcome feedback!
Sci-Fi Inspired
The exciting new online journal, feminists@law, recently published their first issue. I wrote a little essay in there about what feminist legal theorists might learn from science fiction.
Guernica Interview and Books!
Meaghan Winter recently interviewed me for Guernica, have a look. In other news, I’m very excited that Nat Smith and Eric Stanley’s anthology, Captive Genders: Transembodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex is coming out in August. Finally, I’m happy to report that, working with the editors at South End Press, I’ve finally settled on a title for my forthcoming book, Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law.
About Purportedly Gendered Body Parts
I wrote up a little something about the language that we use to talk about body parts that are most strongly associated with gender norms. It might be of use, particularly, to health practitioners and others who talk about bodies a lot.