Dean Spade

Dean Spade, legal expert on transgender issues and founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, discusses what trans politics can mean in the current political context and how we might understand strategies for trans legal equality in these times. What role does or should radical gender politics play in a historical moment marked by trends of privatization, labor and environmental deregulation, and the elimination of health and welfare programs, all of which contribute to an overall upward distribution of wealth and decreasing life chances for the poor? Neoliberalism's hallmarks are cooptation and incorporation, meaning that the words and ideas of resistance movements are frequently recast to become legitimizing tools for oppressive political agendas. What can trans activists and our allies learn from these trends and how can we conceptualize trans strategies that prioritize those who are the objects of the violence produced by neoliberalism? This lecture took place on February 9, 2009 at Barnard College.