Interview Of Dean Spade

NYC Trans Oral History Project

Dean Spade relates his journey and politicization first through the support of his mother in conservative Virginia, his first tastes of feminism and increasingly his work to provide support and resources through the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, advocating for transgender, intersex and gender non-conforming low income communites and people of color. Spade's story spans from Virginia and back and forth between New York and California. Working at a LGBTQ bookstore by day, promoting queer nightlife and involving himself in New York's community activism, Dean pursued law while developing a sharp sense of the limitations of institutional change. He shares both his personal experiences as well as grounding insights regarding the nature of social change, ending with a reflection on the current political climate. (Summary by Kirsten Adorian.)