Trans Radical Love: Reimagining Identity Through Practices of Refusal and Community

• In Event: The Queer Agenda: The Decolonial, Antiracist, Liberatory Future of Queer and Trans Education Research

Abstract

Within this paper, the author shares findings from a qualitative, multi-phased study based in mutuality and trust, in which they explored the ways racialization and transness influence the loving practices of a group of BIPOC trans young adults. Through drawing on theories in the flesh, trans of color critique, and Black feminist love politics, the author points to practices of refusal and affective community building as sites of possibility for reimagining identity and disrupting whiteness in approaches to trans justice in education. Trans radical love is the emerging affect borne of these theoretical traditions and as utilized, animates the imperative for educators and organizers to center the practices of BIPOC trans people as invaluable sites of knowledge production.

Author

• Page Valentine Regan, Colorado College