Should people seeking social change start by trying to change the law? Does changing the law change our lives? Should groups facing significant state violence and poverty, like trans populations, center legal reforms in their strategies for social change? Will anti-discrimination laws and hate crime laws protect trans people from the conditions they currently face? Dean Spade's new book, Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law, considers these questions by examining what the politics of racism, poverty and immigration enforcement in the U.S. suggest about the U.S. legal system and the potential of law reform. Spade, a trans lawyer and law professor, asks whether trans people should follow the path of contemporary US gay and lesbian rights politics which has centered legal battles like the quest for same-sex marriage recognition and access to military service for gay and lesbian people. Spade calls for a critical trans politics that centers racial and economic justice and grassroots mobilization, analyzing provocative demands emerging from marginalized communities, such as the demands for prison abolition and open borders.
Presentation and discussion in english and german (Translation: Bettina Stehli, Alecs Recher, Andrea Thal)
