99.-queer-abolition-movement.pdf
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BUILDING AN
ABOLITIONIST
TRANS AND QUEER
MOVEMENT WITH
EVERYTHING
WE’VE GOT

Morgan Bossichis, Alexander Lee, Dean Spade

[As we write this, queer and trans people across the United Seates and in
many parts of the world have just celebrated the fortieth anniversary of
the Stonewall Rebellion. On that fateful night back in June 1969, sexual
and gender outsiders rose up against ongoing brutal police violence in an
inspiring act of defiance. These early freedom fighters knew all roo well
that the NYPD—"New York’ finest” —were the frontline threat to queer
and trans survival. Sconewall was the culmination of years of domination,
resentment, and upheaval in many marginalized communities coming t©
4 new consciousness of the depth of violence committed by the govern-
ment against poor people, people of color, women, and queer people both
within US borders and around the world. The Stonewall Rebellion, the
mass demonstrations against the war in Vietnam, and the campaign to

15
Captive Genders



fice imprisoned Black-liberation activist Assata Shakur were all powerful
‘examples of a groundswell of energy demanding an end to the “business
as usual” of US terror during this time.

‘Could these groundbreaking and often unsung activists have imag-
ined that only forty years later the “offical” gay rights agenda would be
largely pro-police, pro-prisons, and pro-war—exactly the forces they
‘worked so hard co resist? Just a few decades late, the most visible and
well-funded arms of the “LGBT movement’ look much more like a
‘corporate strategizing session than a grassroots social justice movement.
‘There are countless examples of this dramatic shift in priorities. What
‘emerged asa fight against racist, anti-poor, and anti-queer police violence
now works hand in hand with local and federal law enforcement agen-
<les—district attomeys are asked to speak at trans rallies, cops march in
Gay Pride parades. The agendas of prosecuror—those who lock up our
family, friends, and lovers—and many queer and trans organizations are
becoming increasingly similar, with sentence- and police enhancing leg
islation atthe top of the priority list. Hate crimes legislation is tacked on
to multi-billion dollar “defense” bills to support US military domination
in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Despite the rhetoric of an
“LGBT community” and gender-non-conforming people are
Building on Abolitionist Trans and Queer Movement



politics mentioned above. Although there is no neat line between official
say “equality” politics on the one hand, and radical “justice” politics on
the other, itis important to draw out some of the key distinctions in
how different parts of our movements today are responding to the main
problems that queer and trans people face. This is less about creating false
dichotomies between “good” and “bad” approaches, and more about
clarifying the actual impact that various strategies have, and recognizing
that alternative approaches to the “official” solutions are alive, are polit
cally viable, and are being pursued by activists and organizations around
the United States and beyond. In the frst column, we identify some of
these main challenges; in the second, we summarize what solutions are
being offered by the well-resourced* segments of our movement; and in
the third, we outline some approaches being used by more radical and
progressive queer and trans organizing to expand possibilities for broad-
based, social-justice solutions to these same problems.







‘The Current Landscape

‘Build community relationships and in-
frastrucure to support the healing and
‘transformation of people who have
been impacted by interpersonal and

violence; join with
‘movements addressing 100t causes
of queer and trans premature death,


Coptive Genders









we monsns | “ornaas” souumons ‘avarormarive APrRoAcNes
‘Queerand tans | Eliminate bans on | Join with war resisters, radical ve-
members of the | participation of gays | erans, and young people ro oppose
nilicary experience | and lesbians in US | military intervention, occupation, and

wnilitary ‘war abroad and at home, and demand












the reductionlelimination of “defense”
budgets



















(Queer and wans End the use of immigration policy @
people are targeted ciminalize people of color, exploit
by an unfair and worker, and maintain the deadly
punitive immigra wealth gap between the United Seats
tion system | for legal residency for | and the Globsl South; suppor current
the non-US citizen | detainees and end ICE rads, deport

spouse tions. and police collaboration
Queerand vans | Legliesamescx | Join with struggles of quee/tans and
families arevul-_ | marriage vo provide | — non-quecrerans familie of color
neable to legal | imprisoned parents and youth, na-
intervention and tive families, poor families, miltary
separation from families, and people with disabilities
the sae, insu to win community and family sede
sions, and/or non- termination and the right wo keep kids

hospital visitation
and inheritance



















parents, and other family members in.
thei families and communities




i
Building on Aboliionist Trans and Queer Movement





Queer and wane | Advocate for “aural | Build ongoing, accounabl clation-
people are ds- | competency” taining | ships with and advocate for quer and
proportionately | for law enforcement | rans people who are locked up to
policed, arested, | andthe construction | suppor ther daily well-being, healing,
and imprisoned, | of quer and rans- | leadenhip, and survival build com-
and fice high ates | specific and “gender- | munity nerworks of cae to support
‘of violence in state | responsive” facies: | people coming ou of prison andj
‘ustody from of- | create writen polices | cllaborae with other movements ©
ficial aswell as | that say thar queer address root causes of queer and tane
cother imprisoned | and tans people are | imprisonment; work abolish pri
cor detained people | equal to other people | ons, exablish community support for
in state custody; say | peopl wich disabilities and eliminate









1. How Did We Get Here?
“The streams of conservative as well as more progressive and radical queer
and trans politics developed over time and in the context of a rapidly
changing politcal, economic, and social landscape. Although we cant of-
fer a full history of how these different streams developed and how the
‘more conservative one gained national dominance, we think i is impor-
‘tant to trace the historical context in which these shifts occurred. To chart
«a different course for our movements, we need to understand the road weve
traveled. In particular, we believe that there are rwo major features of the
second half of the twentieth century that shaped the context in which the
‘queer and trans movement developed: (1) the active resistance and chal-
lenge by radical movement to state violence, and subsequent systematic
backlash,’ and (2) the massive turmoil and transformation of the global
‘economy.* Activists and scholars use a range of terms to describe this era
in which power, wealth, and oppression were transformed to respond 10
these two significant “crises"—including neoliberalism, the “New World
(Ordes” empire, globalization, free market democracy, or late capitalism.

9
Captive Genders



Each term describes a different aspect or “take” on the current historical
‘moment that we ae living i.

Itisimportant to be clear that none of the strategies ofthe “New World
Onder” are new: They might work faster, use new technologies, and recruit
the help of new groups, but they are not new. Oppressive dynamics in the
United States are as old asthe colonization of this land and che founding
of a country based on slavery and genocide. However, they have taken
intensified, tricky forms in the past few decades—particularly because our
governments keep telling us those institutions and practices have been
“abolished.” There were no “good old days” in the United States—just
times in which our movements and our communities were stronger oF
weaker, and times when we used different cracks in the system as op-
portunities for resistance. All in all, we might characterize the past many
decades asa time in which policies and ideas were promoted by powerful
nations and institutions (such as the World Teade Organization and the
International Monetary Fund) co destroy the minimal safery nets set up
for vulnerable people, dismantle the gains made by social movements, and
redistribuce wealth, resources, and life changes upward—away from the
poor and toward the elite.”

Below are some of the key tactics that the United States and others
hhave used in this most recent chapter of our history:







+ Pull Yourself Up by Your Bootstraps, Again

‘The US government and its ally nations and institutions in the Global
North helped pass laws and policies that made it harder for workers (0
organize into unions; destroyed welfare programs and created the image
‘of people on welfare as immoral and fraudulent; and created interna-
tional economic policies and trade agreements that reduced safery nets,
worker rights, and environmental protections, particularly for nations in
the Global South. Together, these efforts have dismantled laws and social
programs meant to protect people from poverty, violence, sickness, and
other harms of epiaiom.

EXAMPLE: In the carly 1990s, the North American Free Trade
‘Agreement (NAFTA) was implemented by the United States under
Democratic President Clinton to make it easier for corporations
‘0 do busines across borders between the United States, Mexico,
‘and Canada. Unfortunately, by allowing corporations to outsource
‘heir labor much more cheaply, che agreement also led to the loss

20
Building on Abolitionist Trans and Queer Movement



that much of the “public education” work around these issues often re-
lies on sexualization, voyeurism, sensationalism, and ferishization to get
its point across. In general there is a focus on graphic descriptions of
people's bodies (specifically their genitals), sexual violence, and the hu-
mmiliation they have faced. Imprisoned people (who are usually repre-
sented as black) and transgender people (who are usually represented
as transgender women of color in this context) have long been the tar-
get of voyeuristic representation—from porn movies that glorify rape
in prison ro fetishizing “human rights’ research distributed ro major-
ity white, middle-class audiences. As transgender people who often have
‘our bodies on display for non-transgender people who feel empowered
to question, display, and discuss us, we know that this is a dangerous
tend that seriously undercuts the integrity of our work and che types
of relationships that can be formed. Unless we address these exploitative
power dynamics in our work, even our most “well-intentioned” strategies
and movements will reproduce the prison industrial complex’s norms of
transphobic, misogynist, and racist sexualized violence. Research, media,
‘cultural work, and activism on this issue needs to be accountable to and di-
rected by low-income transgender people and transgender people of color and

‘our organizations



4. Wesee ending trans imprisonment as part of the larger struggle

for transformation.
“The violence that transgender people—significantly low-income trans
gender people of color—face in prisons, jails, and detention centers and
the cycles of poverty and criminalization that leads so many of us to im-
prisonment is a key place to work for broad-based social and political
transformation, There is no way that transgender people can ever be “sae”
in prisons as long as prisons exist and, as scholar Fred Morten has writ-
ten, 25 long as we live in a society that could even have prisons. Building
a trans and queer abolitionist movement means building power among
‘people facing multiple systems of oppression in order to imagine a world
beyond mass devastation, violence, and inequity that occurs within and
berween communities. We must resist the trap of being compartmental-
ized into “issues” and “priorities” and sacrificing a broader political vision
and movement ta react to the crisis of the here and now. This isthe logic
that allows many white and middle-class gay and lesbian folks ro chink
that marriage is che most important and pressing LGBT issue, without
being invested in the real goal of ending racism and capitalism. Seruggling



35
Captive Genders j

‘against trans imprisonment is one of many key places to radicalize queer and
trans politics, expand anti-prison politics, and join in a larger movement for
racial, economic, gender, and social justice to end all forms of militarization,
criminalization, and warfare.

II. So You Think We're Impossible? 3

‘This stuff is heavy, we realize. Our communities and our movements'afe
up against tremendous odds and have inherited a great deal of trauma that
‘we are still struggling to deal with. A common and reasonable response 0
these conditions is getting overwhelmed, feeling defeated, losing hope. Ia
this kind of emotional and political climate, when activists call for deep.
change like prison abolition (or, gasp, an LGBT agenda centered around
prison abolition), our demands get called “impossible” or “idealistic” of
‘ven “divisive.” As trans people, we've been hearing this for ages. After al
according to our legal system, the media, science, and many of our families
and religions, we shouldn't exist! Our ways of living and expressing ou
selves break such fundamental rules that systems crash at our feet, close
their doors to us, and attempt to wipe us out. And yet we exist, continuing,
to build and sustain new ways of looking at gender, bodies, family, desir
resistance, and happiness that nourish us and challenge expectations.

In an age when thousands of people are murdered annually in the
name of “democracy.” millions of people are locked up to “protect pubic
safety,” and LGBT organizations march hand in hand with cops in Pride
parades, being impossible may just be the best thing we've got going for
ourselves: Impossibility may very well be our only posibility

‘What would it mean to embrace, rather than shy away from, the
impossibility of our ways of living as well as our political visions? What
would it mean to desire a future that we cant even imagine but that We
are told couldnt ever exist? We see the abolition of policing, prisons, jails
and detention not strictly as a narrow answer to “imprisonment”
abuses chat occur within prisons, but also as a challenge to the rule of
poverty, violence, racism, alienation, and disconnection that we fce e¥eF
day. Abolition is not just about closing the doors to violent institutions
but also about building up and recovering institutions and practices and
relationships that nurture wholeness, self-determination, and transforma
tion, Abolition is not some distant furure but something we create in ve)
‘moment when we say no to the traps of empire and yes to the nourishing
possibilities dreamed of and practiced by our ancestors and friends. Br
cry time we insist on accessible and affirming healthcare, “a




Building on Abolitionist Trans and Queer Movement

education, meaningful and secure employment, loving and healing rela-
tionships, and being our full and whole selves, we are doing abolition.
‘Abolition is about breaking down things that oppress and building up
things that nourish, Abolition is the practice of transformation in the here
and now and the ever after.

‘Maybe wrestling with such a significane demand is the wake-up call
that an increasingly sleepy LGBT movement needs. The true potential of
queer and trans politics cannot be found in attempting to reinforce our
enuous right to exist by undermining someone els. If it is not clear
already, we are all n this together. To claim our legacy of beautifl impos-
sibility is to begin practicing ways of being with one another and making
‘movernent that sustain all life on this planet, withour exception. It is to
begin speaking what we have not yet had the words to wish for.

Nores,

1. We would like to thank the fiends, comrades, and organizations whose work,
love, and thinking have paved the path o this paper and our collective move
‘ments for liberation, including: Anna Agathangelou, Audre Lorde Projet
‘Comunity United Against Violence (CUAV), Communities Against Rape and
“Abuse (CARA), Cfitical Resistance, Eric Sealey, FIERCE, INCITE! Women
of Color Agins Violence, Justice Now, Lala Yants, Mar Spi, Mis Mor,
‘Mordecai Chen Ertnge, Nat Sith Southemers on New Ground (SONG),
Syvia Rivera Lae Projet (SRL), Tinsforming Justice Coalition, Transgender,
Gender Variant, Intersex Justice Project (TIP), and Vanes Huang,

2. Inthe wake ofthe 2011 repel of Dont Ask Dont Tall, queer and ras people
‘who oppose the horble viclnce commited by the US military allover the
vrord have been disappointed not only by pro-miiary rhetoric ofthe cam-
Jag ro allow gays ad lesbians ro seve, bu so bythe new debates that have
merged since then about ROTC on callge campuses. Many univesitis chat
have excluded the miliary from campuses are now considering bringing it back
to campus, and some activists ar arguing chat the military shoul be kepe off
‘campus because trans people te sll excluded from servic. The terms of this
debate painflly embraces US miliaris, and forges that longterm campugne
to exclude the US military from college campuses and to disrupr military
‘cruitment campaign and strategies are based in nor ony the horrible violence
‘ofthe military toward service members but abo the motivating clonal and
‘imperial purposes of US miliaris.

3, This has been painfully ilsrated by 2 range of LGBT foundation and indy
‘vidual funders who, inthe months leading up tothe struggle over Californias

7
Captive Genders



same-sex martage ban, Proposition 8, declared that mariage equity necded to
be the central Funding priority and discontinued vial funding for anc-volence,
HIV/AIDS, and ars organizations, among others

‘This isa reference othe “ickle-down' economic policies associated withthe
Reagan Administration, which promoted tax cuts forthe rich unde the guise of
<reatng jbs for midde-lass and working-class people. "The lef has rightly
argued that justice, wealth, and sfery do not “ickle down” but need be
redistributed ist to the people atthe bottom ofthe economic and political ad
det Tickle down policies primarily operate as another opportunity to disebute
‘wealth and security upward,

By this we mean the advocacy work and agenda-sring done by wealthy (bude
gt orer $1 milion) LGBT rights organizations such as the Human Right
‘Campaign and the National Lesbian and Gay Tak Fore.

See the Syvia Rivera Law Project’ [ei Wr in Here: Report on the Treatment
of Tramagender and Gender Non-Conforming People in New York State Pins
(available online at wwstip.org and Gendered Punishment: erate to Pret
Tramgender, Gender Variant and Inter People in Americds Prins (avaible
fom TGI justice Projet, nfoeip.on) fora deeper examination ofthe exes
‘of poverty, criminalization, imprisonment, and law-enforcement violence in
transgender and gender-non-conforming communities.

‘This was a period of heightened activity by radical and revolutionary national
and international movements resisting white supremacy, patriarchy, colonize
tion, and capitalsm—embodied by organizations such a the American Indian
Movement, the Black Liberation Army, the Young Lords, the Black Panthet
ary for Sel-Defense, the Brown Berets, Earth First, the Gay Liberation Front
and the Weather Underground in the United Sates, and ant-colonial org
nizations in Guinea-Bissau, Jamaica, Viemam, Puerto Rico, Zimbabwe, and
lsewhere. Mass movements throughout the work suceeded in winning maj"
victories against imperialism and white supremacy, and exposing the genocide
that lay barely underneath American narratives of democracy, exceptional
and liber

See Ruth Wilton Gilmore, “Globalisation and US Prison Growth: From Mili
tary Keynesianism to Post Keynesian Militaria,” Rac and Clas, Vol. 40, NO
2-3, 1998/99,

Fora compelling analysis of neoliberalism and its impacts on social movement
sce Lisa Duggan The Tuligh of Equality: Nelberatm, Calera Polit 2nd
the Atack on Democracy published by Beacon Pres in 2004

Public Citizen, NAFTA and Worker’ Rights and jobs, 2008, at hap//¥r%
‘itizenorg/trade/nfia/jobs.



i
2,

1.

4,

15.

18.

19.



ing on Abolitionist Trans and Queer Movement



Human Rights Watch, “NAFTA Labor Accord Ineffective,” April 15, 2001
at hup//heworg/english/docs!2001/04/16/global179.hem. Corporations spe-
<ficaly named in complaints by workers include General Electric, Honeywell,
Sony, General Motors, McDonald’, Sprint, and the Washington Stare apple
industry,

Sapphire, “A Homeless Manis Alternative to ‘Care Not Cash.” Poor Magazine,
Jaly 1, 2003, at hutp://www:poormagatine-org/indes.cfm?.I snews8ccategory=
508estor=1241

“The Sentencing Project “Life Sentences: Denying Welfare Benefit co Women
Convicted of Drug Offenses,” at herp://wwrw.sentencingprogrect.org/Admin
‘Documents/publications/women_smy_lifesentences pdf,

‘Alan David Freeman, *Legitimizing Racial Discrimination Through Ansiis-
crimination Law: A Critical Review of Supreme Court Doctrine,” 62 MINN.
L REV. 1049, 1052 (1978).

Visit generationFIVE. at hitp://www generatonfive.org and Stop It Now! at
hep: nw stopitnow-org online for more research documenting and tools for
‘nding child sexual abuse.

For a critique of hate crimes legislation, see Carolina Cordero Dyer, “The Pas:
sage of Hate Crimes Legsltion-No Cause to Celebrate.” INCITE! Women
‘of Color Against Violence, March 2001 ac hep://www.incitenational.org/
‘newa/_march0/editoral.html. Also see INCITE!-Denver and Denver on Fee's
response to the verdict in the 2009 Angie Zapata case at hep: /wwwlefeear.
org/2q=node/1310.

For an in-depth analysis of the growth and impacts of “nonprofi industrial
“comple” sce INCITE! Women of Color Agtinst Violence’s groundbreaking
anthology The Revolution Will Nor Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial
‘Complex, published by South End Pres in 2007

For a deeper examination of the FBISs arack on radical movements, see Ward
Churchill and Jim Vander Walls The COINTELPRO Paper: Documents from
the FBI Secret War Againse Domestic Disent, published by South End Pres in
1990. Also see the Freedom Archives 2006 documentary Legacy of Torture: The
War Aguas the Black Liberation Movement about the important case ofthe San
Francisco 8, Information available online at hup://wwwfreedomarchivesory/
BPPIeoreure hem.

‘See Justice Now co-founder Cassandra Shaylor’sesay “Neither Kind Nor Gen-
tle: The Peis of ‘Gender Responsive Justice” in The Violence of Incarceration,
‘edited by Phil craton and Jude McCalloch, published by Rousledge in 2008
‘Academy of Achievement: A Museum of Living History, “Rosa Parks” October,
25, 2005 at herp://wwrwachievement.ory/auodoc/page/partipro-.





39
21.

2.

23

m4,
25,
26.
2.

eeB

3

3B.

33

Captive Genders

‘Academy of Achicrement: A Muscum of Living History, “Rosa Parks,” Octobe,
31, 2005 at hep://www.achievement.orp/autodoc/page/parObio-1.
CNNMoney.com, “Oprah Car Winners Hit with Hefty Tax,” September, 2
2004 at hrep://money.cnn.com/2004/09/22/news/newsmakersoprah_car_tal
indexhem.

‘We recognize that we mention only relatively wellsfunded organizations and
‘mostly organizations in the San Francisco Bay Arca and New York Ci, ovo
strongholds of radical organizing and alo places where a significant amount
resources are concentrated. There are hundreds of other organizations around
the country and the word that we do not mention and do not know about
What ogenizations or spaces do you see embodying ridicl values?

‘The Sylvia Rivera Law Project a hepsi.

{Quces for Economic justice at hspiliwww.q.og.

‘Transgender, Gender Variant, and Intenex Justice Project hep//wwve spo
Cited Resistance a hep! ewoecrscalresvance org

FIERCE! at hep: ww: fercenyc org

Southerners on New Ground a hup:!/wwwsouthernersonnewground os -
‘See Creative Interventions at hrepi//wwwcreative-interventions.org, gee
tion FIVE at hurp://www.generationfive.org, Communities Against Rape and
Abuse at http://wwwccara-seattle.org, and Audre Lorde Project’ Safe OUTside
the System Collective at hep ewoealp ong.

For examples of LGBTQ-specfic organizations creating community-based
sponses to violeace, see the Audre Lond Projects Safe Ouse the Spaem Ca>
lective in Brooklyn (wwwalporg), the Northwest Network of BTLG Survives
of Abuse in Seattle, and Community Unieed Against Violence (CUAW) in Sat
Francisco (wwn.cuav.org)

Parcculaly signficafic was the Transforming Justice gathering in San Franco
in Ocrober 2007, which brought together over wo hundred LGBTQ and allied
formerly imprisoned people, activists and attorney t develop a shared anal
sis about the cycles of tans poverycriminalization, and imprisonment and
shared stategy moving forward. Transforming Justice, which has now erase
tioned fo a national coalition, was a culmination of tireless and often invsite
‘work on the part of imprisoned and formerly imprisoned people and their ales
‘over the past many years. For more, ee wwwctransformingjstice. omg.

See the Transforming Justice Coalitions statement “How We Do Our Woe” fo
«1 more derailed account of day-to-day organizing ethics, which can be request
from the TGI Justice Project at hep:/wmwgiip.ong-
‘Both of che lessons here were significantly and powerfully articulated and popula
‘zed by Critical Resistance and Justice Now, both primarily based in Oakland, CA














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