Act Queer! Teleconference: Police, Prisons and Queer Organizing
The purpose of Act Queer! is to connect grassroots LGBTQ racial and economic justice organizations with national queer and/or allied coalitions and organizations to share information and strategies on racial and economic justice research, organizing and advocacy.
Our June 25, 2009 teleconference focused on queer organizing around prisons, policing, and violence around the country.
To hear the each presenter, press play on the audio player. Read materials from each presenter just below the audio player.
Travis Sands & Christoph Hanssmann, Queer & Trans Jail Stoppers (Seattle, WA). Discuss the reasons for the forming of the group, the work they’re doing in coalition to stop $232 million dollar jail, and how they’re using this as an opportunity to build movement toward a queer movement that sees racial justice as part of its work.
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Materials from Queer and Trans Jail Stoppers
Join the Facebook Page Queer and Trans People Say no New Jail in Seattle (or Anywhere)
Queer and Trans Jail Stoppers Talking Points
No New Jails Queer Graphic Image
Ejeris Dixon, Safe Outside the System Collective, Audre Lorde Project (Brooklyn, NY). Discusses the politics, vision, and strategies of building community led solutions to violence against LGBTQ and gender nonconforming folks in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn.
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Deon Haywood, Women With A Vision (New Orleans, LA). Discusses how an HIV prevention & education organization is having to transform its work to doing organizing, leadership development and advocacy, due to the post-Katrina criminalization of sex work through Lousiana’s “Crimes Against Nature” statues, that forces sex workers to be distinguish as sex offender. This work is happening with the help of CHAMP’s Project Unshackle.
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Materials from Women with a Vision:
Newspaper Article on Crimes Against Nature Laws
Louisiana Crime Against Nature Law
Lori Girshick, Sociolgist/Researcher/Writer. (Arizona). Discusses the results of an upcoming research project on masculine-identified women in the California Prison System.
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If you have questions, comments, or know of other resources or events related to this topic, please feel free to post in the comments section!