Here is an interview I did with Natalie Oswin on Normal Life for Society and Space.
Here is an interview I did with Natalie Oswin on Normal Life for Society and Space.
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
Colby Lenz and I co-authored this article “Can You Hear Me Now?” originally published by CommunityChange.org. Read the full-text below.
By Colby Lenz and Dean Spade
Many of us share a set of concerns or complaints about cell phones. You hear them all the time. Nobody makes plan anymore ahead of time. People talk on cell phones everywhere instead of looking around and being present. The constant noise of cell phone use is annoying and often rude and inappropriate. Cell phones (including those with email) encourage people to work more, losing any sense of work-life balance.
These are solid, important complaints and we have more concerns about cell phones that we want to add to the list. We hope to re-frame the conversation about this suddenly ubiquitous technology in a broader and more urgent context. Here are six problems to consider:
But why single out cell phones for these concerns? Many other products harm the environment and mobilize our minds, bodies and social connections in the interest capital. So many products have negative health impacts and so many can be used as tools of state terror. Cell phones are not unique these ways. But what concerns us is the uncritical embrace of cell phones, especially by people on the left and self-proclaimed anti-capitalist activists. While we have an ongoing critique of cars and real estate and sweatshop-produced clothing and many other things, this gigantic, new and extremely pervasive shift in consumption goes almost un-critiqued in terms of these ramifications.
This is a call for an analysis of the operation of this technology and the telecommunications market, using all the critical skills that radical activists have developed. This is an invitation to join us and get rid of your cell phone — or don’t get one in the first place. Help us resist the allures of this technology and support each other in remembering other ways to communicate, organize and connect with one another. Like all of our other endeavors to create a better world, this is not about perfection. We are all caught in this economy, engaging in consumer practices that are harmful, but we can still identify and act on the concentrations. It is more than possible to live without a cell phone – some of us find life way better without them.
Read more like this at Enough: The Personal Politics of Resisting Capitalism, a collaborative project with Roan Boucher.
Paisley Currah and I co-edited the two-part special issue “The State We’re In: Locations of Coercion and Resistance in Trans Policy” in Sexuality Research and Social Policy: Journal of NSRC Vol. 4. No. 4 (December 2007) and Vol. 5, No. 1 (March 2008).
Read the introduction to the first volume here and read the introduction to the second volume here. A table of contents for both issues and links to most of the articles are below.
Part 1 (December 2007): Table of Contents
Introduction to Special Issue The State We’re In: Locations of Coercion and Resistance in Trans Policy, Part 1, Paisley Currah and Dean Spade
Unraveling Injustice: Race and Class Impact of Medicaid Exclusions of Transition-Related Health Care for Transgender People, Pooja S. Gehi and Gabriel Arkles
Sex Workers, Fem Queens, and Cross-Dressers: Differential Marginalizations and HIV Vulnerabilities Among Three Ethnocultural Male-to-Female Transgender Communities in New York City, Sel Julian Hwahng and Larry Nuttbrock
Seeking Refuge Under the Umbrella: Inclusion, Exclusion, and Organizing Within the Category Transgender, Megan Davidson
Transgender Health Benefits: Collateral Damage in the Resolution of the National Health Care Financing Dilemma, R. Nick Gorton
Momentum: A Photo Essay of the Transgender Community in the United States Over 30 Years, 1978–2007, Mariette Pathy Allen
Part 2 (March 2008): Table of Contents
Introduction to Special Issue The State We’re In: Locations of Coercion and Resistance in Trans Policy, Part 2, Dean Spade and Paisley Currah
Talking, Gawking, or Getting It Done: Provider Trainings to Increase Cultural and Clinical Competence for Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Patients and Clients, Christoph Hanssmann, Darius Morrison, and Ellery Russian
Gender Identity and Hate Crimes: Violence Against Transgender People in Los Angeles County, Rebecca L. Stotzer
The Nonprofit Industrial Complex and Trans Resistance, Rickke Mananzala and Dean Spade
And by the Way, Do You Know He Thinks He’s a Girl? The Failures of Law, Policy, and Legal Representation for Transgender Youth in Juvenile Delinquency Courts, Jody Marksamer
I co-authored “The Non-Profit Industrial Complex and Trans Resistance” with Rickke Mananzala in Sexuality Research and Social Policy: Journal of National Sexuality Resource Center published in December 2007. You can read it here.