Being Trans in Philosophy OUT NOW!
Read Issue #0 Launch Press Release / Edited by Ding & Willow Starr
"Philosophy has a history of treating the existence of trans people as though it is a problem to be resolved ... This is, by and large, the model our discipline has presented to the world, and it is a model we see reflected back at us, in executive orders and discriminatory policy and widely debunked 'empirical' mythology ...
"If history has taught us anything, it's that times are darkest when we lose sight of each other's humanity, and that is exactly what happens when we frame the existence of an entire population as a question mark. The narratives in this zine [present] an alternative model for philosophical questions about gender and trans experience -- one which takes seriously what it's like to be the person on the other end of that question, 'what is it to be trans?'"
-- Dee Payton, Chair of the American Philosophical Association Committee on LGBTQ People in the Profession
Being trans is not a controversial idea. It is a lived reality.
Philosophical conversations about trans people do not happen in a vacuum. They happen in a political context where trans people are relentlessly attacked and a material context where trans lives are particularly vulnerable. These contexts make it impossible to "just ask questions" about trans people. And trans people and our loved ones are not okay -- in, with, and because of our discipline.
So what is it like to be a table in a discipline that has been busy writing table-burning instructions? Being Trans in Philosophy collects first-personal accounts from 22 trans philosophers and philosopher-parents of trans kids. These stories detail the material and on-the-ground consequences of our discipline's role in providing intellectual cover for a global transmisogynistic and transphobic moral panic -- one that has been increasingly institutionalized into laws and policies. But they also speak to solidarity, freedom, hope, moral progress, and our shared love for philosophy.
We encourage allies to make and distribute copies at their discretion (at conferences, in your departments, etc.).