NYC Trans Oral History Project

Tanya Asapansa-Johnson Walker is a co-founder of the New York Transgender 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 and relocating to Germany. Upon her return, she moved...

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 fort...

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 gender nonconformity and transphobia. She also shares...

Fainan Lakha is a student at Columbia majoring in Comparative Literature and Society. She grew up in a Shia Imami Ismaili Muslim community in Seattle and became involved in the Oneness University associated with Tony Robbins before coming to New York and discovering philosophical materialism and Marxism. She is heavily active in current social movements and, in this interview, describes her vision...