It was such an honor to be part of this panel of Kessler Award winners, with Urvashi Vaid and Amber Hollibaugh, skillfully facilitated by Shanté Paradigm Smalls.
Video: Bodies, Sexualities and Law Panel
I had the pleasure of being part of this conversation with Madhavi Menon, Rahul Rao, and Flavia Agnes.
New Writing and Videos
I have gotten a bit behind at posting new work. Many new things have come out.
First, the new edition of Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law is out from Duke University Press. It includes new reflecting on the mainstreaming of trans politics and new cover art by Xylor Jane.
Normal Life was published last month in Spanish from Bellaterra Press. You can find Una Vida Normal here.
In other translations news, I had a wonderful visit to the Center for the Study of Sexualities at the National Central University of Taiwan. My generous hosts translated some of my writing to Mandarin. Here is Chapter 2 of Normal Life, “What’s Wrong with Rights?” in Mandarin. Here is the article I co-authored with Morgan Bassichis and Alex Lee that appears in Captive Genders, “Building an Abolitionist Trans & Queer Movement with Everything We’ve Got” translated to Mandarin. And here is an article with some US trans law basics in Mandarin.
My documentary Pinkwashing Exposed: Seattle Fights Back! (1 hour long) came out in the summer of 2015. You can watch the entire film on the website and you can watch with captions in English, Spanish or Greek captions (Mandarin is coming soon!).
We also made short clips that address particular topics that are easy to share. These include “What is Pinkwashing?” “What is Brand Israel?” and “What is Normalization?” I put all of these and the full documentary online hoping that people will do free screenings in their own communities and on their campuses. I am happy to report that the documentary has already screened at festivals and community events around the United States and in Canada, Argentina, Japan, Korea, Greece, Holland and in the UK. It is playing on Cambridge Community Television tomorrow! You can read a review of the Pinkwashing Exposed in the recent issue of Make/Shift magazine.
Last month, The Scholar and the Feminist Online published a special issue co-edited by Soniya Munshi and Craig Willse, entitled “Navigating Neoliberalism in the Academy, Non-Profits and Beyond.” It is full of great articles and I highly recommend the whole issue. It includes a new article I co-wrote with Dr. Rori Rohlfs called “Legal Equality and the (After?)Math of Eugenics” that looks critically at the proliferation of new statistics about LGBT populations and how they are used in legal reform efforts. The special issue also includes six more short videos in the series that Hope Dector and I are making as part of our Queer Dreams and Nonprofit Blues project.
Finally, in November I participated in an Oxford Union Debate about whether states should recognize marriage. It was probably among the most uncomfortable events of my life, not only because I was wearing a tuxedo but also because I was on the “same side” of the debate with a raging zionist and a raging transphobe. Still not sure what to make of all that, but if you want to see what I said, here is the video.
Legal Equality, Gay Numbers and the (After?)Math of Eugenics, co-authored with Rori Rohlfs
I wrote this essay, “Legal Equality, Gay Numbers and the (After?)Math of Eugenics” with Rori Rohlfs for S&F Online: Navigating Neoliberalism in the Academy, Nonprofits, and Beyond, edited by Soniya Munshi and Craig Willse, in 2016. You can read it here.
Impossibility Now: A Trans Politics Manifesto
Be Professional!
I wrote “Be Professional!, published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender in 2010 in response to Bob Chang and Adrienne Davis’ article, “Making Up Is Hard to Do: Race/Gender/Sexual Orientation in the Law School Classroom,” 33 Harv. J. L. & Gender 1 (2010). You can read it here.
Abstract
In 2010, the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender published a series of letters between Adrienne Davis and Bob Chang entitled, “Making Up Is Hard to Do: Race/Gender/Sexual Orientation in the Law School Classroom,” along with three response pieces by Adele Morrison, Darren Rosenblum and Dean Spade. “Be Professional!” is written in letter form like “Making Up Is Hard to Do” and discusses Spade’s experience becoming and being a trans law professor, as well as broader questions about activism, academia, professionalism and the neo-liberal academy.
Beyond Gay Marriage Podcast
Lisa Dettmer just released her podcast and article critically examining same-sex marriage advocacy. The podcast includes interviews me and many other critics of same-sex marriage advocacy. Thanks to Lisa for the great work!
Click here
White Knight, co-authored with Craig Willse
Keynote Address: Trans Law and Politics on a Neoliberal Landscape
I wrote “Keynote Address: Trans Law and Politics on a Neoliberal Landscape” in Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review in 2009. You can read it here.
Abstract
These edited Keynote remarks from the Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review Symposium on transgender law address how questions of law reform strategy relate to critical understandings of neoliberalism. The paper addresses questions of administrative governance, identity documentation, the relationship between law and social movements, and questions of economic and racial justice as applied to transgender politics.