What’s Coming for “If We Knew Trans History” and How Can I Help?

Believe it or not, “If We Knew Trans History” is six months old!  It’s a good time to pause, reflect, and share my plans for this blog in 2017.
So far, my posts have focused on Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and STAR,  the organization they founded together.  Sylvia and Marsha inspire me, but I am excited to expand the topics I cover.  However, the pace of academic research is slow and I still have so much to say about the movement for transgender liberation in New York City in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.   For the next six months, you can expect to hear more about Sylvia and Marsha, but I will also be focusing more about how trans history intersects with other systems of oppression.   Here are a few topics and resources I plan to cover in the new year:
  • STAR organizing guide: what lessons can we learn from STAR?  I hope to create a resource that is useful to contemporary liberation movements
  • “Teachable Trans History”: primary sources and other resources that can be easily used in teach-ins, community organizations, and classrooms
  • Mike Pence’s “conversion therapy” proposals in historical context
  • LGBT youth movements in New York City in the late 1960s and early 1970s: why adults we’re not involved in youth LGBT organizations and how youth movements targeted ageism
  • Marsha P. Johnson, disability, and anti-Black transmisogyny: how Marsha’s experiences as a disabled person informed her activism
  • Trans movements on campus: how STAR worked with students and what they demanded from universities
  • Reflections on transgender people as symbols of the past and the future
  • Profiles of trans historians who are preserving our past and “liberating” primary sources.

I hope you’re as interested in these topics as I am!  I depend on your support for the success of this blog.  If you would like to see it continue to grow, then I need your help.  Here are a few ways that you can support this project:

  • Like and share the “If We Knew Trans History” Facebook page:  I currently have almost 100 followers.  I want to increase that number and I need your help to do so.  Invite your friends to like my page and share my monthly blog posts.
  • Support “If We Knew Trans History” on Patreon: I am on Patreon and I have one stalwart backer!  If more people are willing to financially support this project, I can grow it.  I am offering some great perks for backers, including a monthly video chat and opportunities to suggest blog topics.  As a transgender graduate student, I deeply appreciate your financial support.

Thank you for making this project possible and so rewarding.  I continue to believe that if we knew trans history, all of our movements for justice would be stronger.

With love,
J.M. Ellison
h o t - a i r
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