Transcripts Presents: "Queering Abolition," Rustbelt Abolition Radio

Next up in our "trans anti-fascist Fall podcast series," an episode of Rustbelt Abolition Radio about how queer and trans struggles are linked to abolishing prison and detention centers. It's difficult stuff, but timely and important. Some of this audio is hard to hear: you can use the episode transcription to follow along or as an alternative method of engaging this material.

Quick note: since this episode was first released, some things have changed-- Dr. Treva Ellison now works at Pomona College, and the scholar-activist Tourmaline was referred to in this episode by a former name.

This episode contains descriptions of physical violence and abuse in detention.

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ORIGINAL SHOW NOTES:

In this episode we examine the relationships between carcerality, gendered and sexual violence on the one hand, and on the other: queer and trans liberation and the abolitionist horizon.

Josue Saldivar and Karolina Lopez from the Arizona-based organization Mariposas Sin Fronteras discuss the ways that migrants fleeing heteropatriarchal and transphobic oppression in their home countries are re-subjected to this abuse through the gendered and sexual operations of the U.S. carceral state and its militarized borders. We also speak with abolitionist scholar and activist, Treva Ellison, who examines the ways in which racial capitalism has continuously reproduced queer criminality, and how queer abolition may fundamentally shift our understanding of the geographies of carcerality.

To learn more about Mariposas Sin Fronteras and ways to support their work, click here.

Image credit: Abby Gordon

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The Transcripts podcast is a project of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota Libraries. We're funded by the TAWANI Foundation
 and the Minnesota Humanities Innovation Lab. You can learn more about us at bit.ly/transcriptspod. Thanks for listening.