Interview of Lina Bradford for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Gavilán Rayna Russom for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Aristilde Kirby for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Honey Pluton for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Davey Davis for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Eliot Duncan for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Alexandra Burris and Emmy Pritykin for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Dee Holtsclaw for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectTOHP

Interview of Callan Molinari for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Saoirse Sawyer Eason for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Julia Salgado for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Cristy Road Carrera for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Bernie Wagenblast for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Nathan Levitt for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of K. Kerimian for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Simo for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Siobhan Meow for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Sean Ebony Coleman is the founder of Destination Tomorrow, a LGBTQ+ center in the Bronx that provides services like job readiness, HIV testing, and emergency housing. In this interview, he describes growing up in Brooklyn with his grandmother and brother. At a young age, he became involved in the ballroom scene, a community which still provides mos…

Image Object was raised in an inclusive and accepting environment. Object underwent many queer expressions, each expanding his identity politics and teaching him more about who Object is. The nightlife scene in NYC gave Object room to grow and play and push through the boundaries of gender. Object discusses NYC nightlife centers, parties and bars, …

Interview of Lix Z for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Macy Rodman was born in Juneau, Alaska. During her early life she describes visits to the local sex shop where she learned about gay life, including NYC’s glam scene which featured images of modified and expansive versions of femininity including Amanda Lepore. She explored making music with her sister which grew into her own project with her move …

(Entrevista en español/Interview in Spanish) En esta entrevista, ChiChi describe su niñez como joven gay en Lima, Perú y su inmigración a Nueva York sola a los veinte años mientras experimentaba la homofobia y ocultaba quién era. Habla de la comunidad de mujeres trans que encontraba en Nueva York y sus experiencias con la transición, las inyeccione…

Josephine Perez is a trans* advocate who emphasizes a need for better law enforcement protections for transgender women. Josephine experienced sexual violence on multiple occasions and became a sex worker at an early age. She hopes that her work advocating for the trans* community will help to prevent others from similar experiences in the future.…

Angal Field shares his experience of being a writer, filmmaker and photographer in today’s media landscape and discusses the trappings of trans visibility. Using the medium of film to “speak back” he personally explores queer family stories and complex subject hoods. Angal speaks of the highs and lows of medically transitioning and the experience o…

Ric explores the complexity of language in the trans community, and her experiences interviewing trans elders for the NYC Trans Oral History Project. Ric also reflects on drug use and how it is not necessarily a form of escapism, but a way to view things differently.NYC Trans Oral History Project

Born in rural California, Eli Erlick recounts her experiences as one of the only trans kids in her area, which led her, at age 15, to co-found Trans Student Educational Resources, an organization that works to implement trans-inclusive policy models in school systems across the country. Erlick also discusses her time studying Gender Studies at Pitz…

Tanya Asapansa-Johnson Walker is a co-founder of the New York Trans-gender Advocacy Group (NYTAG). Here, she shares her history of LGB and trans activism in New York City. Born on Staten Island, Miss Tanya describes her childhood confronting racism, homophobia, and transphobia along the east coast of the United States before joining the military an…

Interview of Erica Dawn Lyle for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Daphne Banks for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Born in Long Island, Ayelet Hashachar Adelaman recounts growing up in Jerusalem, participating in an anarchist drum line group called Kasamba, and discovering a positive relationship between her anti-Zionism and transness. Since moving back to North America, Adelman has worked as a Hebrew teacher and an herbalist, recently teaching about plants wit…

Qais Kamran describes his experiences growing up as a first generation Iranian Jew in Los Angeles, attending Jewish day school and discovering the importance of oral history to his family’s community. After attending UC Davis, Kamran moved to Tel Aviv, where he forged intergenerational relationships that allowed him to get in touch with his own tra…

Interview of Yves Bess Golden for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Interview of Ita Segev for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

TOHP

Interview of Sawyer DeVuyst for the NYC Trans Oral History ProjectNYC Trans Oral History Project

Ari Brostoff is an author and editor at Jewish Currents magazine. In this interview, they recount reading Jewish historical fiction as a child growing up in California. After attending college on the East Coast, where they spent time engaging with queer theory texts from the 1990s, Ari moved to New York and quickly became embedded in organizing wor…

NYC Trans Oral History Project

NYC Trans Oral History Project

Gage Spex discusses growing up in Western Massachusetts, where, at a young age, they fell in love with fashion through older movies, like those of Judy Garland. Gage later moved to San Francisco to attend art school, eventually settling in NYC. Gage became heavily involved with the nightlife scene, opening venues like Dreamhouse and Spectrum. Gage …

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. S…

Cecilia Gentili is the Director of Policy at Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC). In this wide-ranging interview, she reflects on the relationships and experiences that inform her story of struggle, resilience, and joy. Cecilia recounts her childhood and adolescence in Gálvez, Argentina, describing complex family dynamics and early experiences with gend…

Jay Toole describes her experiences of queer homelessness in New York City. Born in the South Bronx, she became homeless as a child due to the circumstances of her family and identity as a stone butch. She describes her chosen queer family in Washington Square Park in the 1960-70s and their means of survival. She recalls stealing a NYC Taxi Cab and…

Bianey Garcia is a community organizer at Make the Road New York, a non-profit organization providing services and advocacy for Latinx and working class communities. Born in Veracruz, Mexico and raised in Veracruz and Chiapas, Bianey describes the transphobic violence that forced her to relocate to Tijuana at 14 and subsequently New York City. Bian…

After purchasing a house in Park Slope in the 1980's to be closer to her kids, Dr. Rusty Mae Moore and Chelsea Goodwin opened their home to homeless trans folk. Transy House, as it was called, aimed to be a place where trans people could feel safe from the objectification and harassment. To this day, the continue to live with other trans folks on L…

Julian Talamantez Brolaski uses language and xirs' own pronoun paradigm to come closer to words that best express xir identity; at one time utilizing "it" as xir pronoun and appreciating the leveling impact of recognizing a unity with all things. Seeking what would feel closer to "home" both conceptually and geographically, xe sought community in S…

Born in NYC, Reneé Imperato, is a proud anti racist, pro union trans woman who has lived her life fighting for the rights of others. In this interview she shares her memories of growing up in New York including her childhood spent in Times Square, her friendship with Leslie Feinberg, and her memories of the legendary 220 club in New York City’s Wes…

Paris shares her experience of growing up in Atlanta and starting to “live her truth” at a young age. She recalls finding reassurance in a community of other Black trans women for the first time and getting involved with parts of the Atlanta Black Queer and Trans scene. Professionally, Paris has spoken on panels about LGBT issues, worked as a music…

Phoenix Danger was active in the successful unionization campaign at Babeland, a NYC sex toy shop. In this interview, they recount their early life in suburban New York as the child of Filipino immigrants, facing social rejection in school and discovering an affirming online queer community. They relate their struggles in an abusive relationship du…

Genevieve Tatum, a transgender woman, retells her experiences as an adolescent in The Village in New York City. She describes the aftermath of the Stonewall riot, the Civil Rights movement, and the Women's movement. Genevieve also reveals her journey in accepting her trans-identity; first as a cross-dresser, and eventually coming out as a non-opera…

Pauline Park is a long-time transgender activist based in New York City who led the campaign for the 2004 New York City transgender rights law. Born in Korea but adopted into a Christian evangelical family in Milwaukee, Park has dedicated decades of her life to LGBTQ, Asian-American, and Palestinian solidarity activism, viewing all human rights' st…