by H. Melt
Transness is inherently futuristic. It requires us to imagine ourselves anew. At the same time, gender nonconformity has a long history that is often hidden, erased, and ignored by white supremacy, colonialism, and Christianity in the United States. While it may seem contradictory, writing about trans futures encouraged me to conduct historical and familial research. This is evident in poems like “On My Way to Liberation” and “The Riots Must Continue,” where I merge my familial and trans ancestries. I am tracing my own lineage, one that embraces trans beauty, brilliance, and resistance.
There Are Trans People Here is also deeply connected to my experiences in queer and trans communities in Chicago. There are people working every day to make the world more welcoming to trans people. Many people I know are organizing to abolish the carceral state, stop deportations, defund the police, and decriminalize sex work. We are reimagining our communities one garden, march, protest, lesson plan, name change, and poster at a time. Trans people deserve to live long and fulfilling lives. We deserve a world free of prisons, police, and deportations, a world where we have universal healthcare and stable housing, and schools that affirm trans youth. Abolition and liberation are not abstract concepts. I know all of these things are possible because they are already happening.
My radical imagination was crucial in writing this book. Mariame Kaba writes in We Do This ’Til We Free Us, “My friend, scholar and activist Erica Meiners says that liberation under oppression is unthinkable by design… Our charge is to make imagining liberation under oppression completely thinkable.”4 I hope that my work makes trans liberation more thinkable and more of a concrete reality. In “City of Trans Liberation,” I dreamt of public art dedicated to trans elders. Other people must’ve imagined this too. A few years after writing that poem, She Built NYC announced plans to install permanent statues of Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson in New York. When I learned about this, it was a reminder that dreaming and action are both required to transform the world.
The artists, activists, and organizers around me encourage me to tap into my radical imagination, and create art relevant to social movements. They have paved the way for my own path to liberation. Art, writing, and creativity have always guided me into the future. There Are Trans People Here is my attempt to write the future I want into existence.
3 Bea Rogers, Joey Gabriel, Sunny Suits, and Nan Goldin (Photographer), The Other Side, (Göttingen: Steidl, 2019), 7.
4 Mariame Kaba, We Do This ’Til We Free Us (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2021), 92.
STUDY GUIDE
Written by Rabiya Kassam-Clay
Rabiya Kassam-Clay has a Masters of Education in Secondary Education with a focus in Social Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught middle and high school English and Social Studies in Philadelphia, Mexico City, and Los Angeles.
The full guide, with additional classroom activities, assessments, and resources, can be found online at www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1761-there-are-trans-people-here.
I. Three Big Questions
What is liberation? How do we recognize it? How do we practice it?
How does care work flourish in the context of community?
Who are our ancestors? What do our inherited and chosen ancestors teach us?
II. Analytical Projects
1.Imagine you were creating your own collage inspired by the one in the book. Locate a photograph that you would include in your collage of community. Take note of the visual elements present including: setting, objects, people. Determine the significance of the photograph: Why does it matter to you/us? What has or has not changed since the photograph was taken? What does it reveal about our past, present, or future?
2.Explore the themes of death and the future in There Are Trans People Here. In the afterword, H. Melt writes, “I need to know trans joy exists in order to imagine myself living in the future,” and “Transness is inherently futuristic. It requires us to imagine ourselves anew.” What is the relationship between death and the future?
3.How does H. Melt open up the theme of family? What are the connections and contrasts between families of origin and chosen families? How are different types of families in the book tied to sweetness?
III. Creative Projects
1.Who in your life has a story that connects to the poems in There Are Trans People Here? Listen to, watch, or read an interview from an oral history project. Examples include: the Act Up Oral History Project (and the corresponding film United in Anger), the Dragon Fruit Project, the podcast Gender Reveal, Outwords, and the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project. Record an oral history with someone in your life like a friend, a relative, or a community member. Share it with text, drawings, audio, or video.
2.Create an artifact of abolition, liberation, or community care. As H. Melt writes in the afterword, “We are reimagining our communities one garden, march, protest, lesson plan, name change, and poster at a time.” What would your poster or flag be? Consider the following resources:
Monica Helms’ transgender pride flag
Trans Day of Resilience Art Project
Aram Han Sifuentes’s the Protest Banner Lending Library
Justseeds’ Celebrate People’s History poster series
Matthew Riemer & Leighton Brown’s @lgbt_history Instagram archive
ONE Archives Foundation’s digital collection of posters
3.In the afterword, H. Melt writes,
“In ‘City of Trans Liberation,’ I dreamt of public art dedicated to trans elders. Other people must’ve imagined this too. A few years after writing that poem, She Built NYC announced plans to install permanent statues of Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson in New York. When I learned about this, it was a reminder that dreaming and action are both required to transform the world.”
What other people and events in history do you think should be commemorated and how? What event, exhibit, museum, monument, public space, organization, or public resource do you think should be created to honor them? Create your vision.
IV. PEOPLE
Howard Melton (1931-2021), grandfather of H. Melt, was born in Lithuania. He was 10 years old when World War II began. Howard and his family were sent to a labor camp in Latvia. Howard’s younger sister was sent on to Auschwitz where she was killed. His mother and older sister were both killed in Stutthof. Howard was sent to Dachau concentration camp where he survived countless human atrocities, including a death march at the end of the war. He moved to New York City in 1949, and later to Milwaukee to be near his friend Al Beder, who he formed a lifelong bond with in the camps. He was married in 1951 to Evelyn Melton. They had four children together, and eventually, many grandchildren and great grandchildren. He dedicated his life to speaking about his experiences as a Holocaust survivor. On My Way to Liberation , p. 3.
Lou Sullivan (1951-91) was an HIV+ gay trans man who grew up in Milwaukee and moved to San Francisco in the 1970s. He was an activist, writer, and organizer, known for leading support groups for trans men, writing the newsletter FTM International, and helping found the GLBT Historical Society. During his time, trans people were often denied medical services by gender clinics if they were not straight. “Trans men weren’t supposed to be gay…. In the eyes of the medical establishment, he could either be a man or attracted to men, but not both. Lou knew otherwise.” You can learn more about Sullivan from the book We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan edited by Ellis Martin and Zach Ozma. “City of Trans Liberation,” p. 26.
Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992) and Sylvia Rivera (1951-2002) were friends, part of the Stonewall Riots and co-founders of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) which provided housing and support for homeless queer and trans youth. Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson was known for her joyous flower crowns, caring personality, and ongoing activism. You can learn more about Johnson in the films Happy Birthday, Marsha! by Tourmaline and Pay It No Mind by Michael Kasino. Sylvia Rivera was a life-long organizer who worked wit
h many organizations including the Young Lords and Gay Liberation Front. She was an outspoken advocate for trans women of color to be included in the fight for gay liberation. This can be seen in her famous speech “Y’all better quiet down” at the Christopher Street Liberation Day in 1973. Johnson & Rivera left an important legacy by resisting assimilation and focusing on housing access, fighting back against police, supporting queer youth and centering the needs of trans women of color. “City of Trans Liberation,” p. 26 & afterword, p. 52.
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy is a Black transgender elder and activist who was born in Chicago in 1940. She moved to New York City and was an active force in the Stonewall Riots. Major is a survivor of Attica State Prison and a former sex worker. Her decades of activism across the country have been focused on advocating for trans women of color who are sex workers, survivors of police brutality, and who are currently or formerly incarcerated. She worked with the Trans, Gender-Variant and Intersex Justice Project, and her legacy project is the House of GG. You can learn more about Major in the films The Personal Things by Tourmaline and MAJOR! by Annalise Ophelian. “On Trans Street,” p. 28.
Jennicet Gutiérrez is a transgender Latina from México who was born in 1986. She is an organizer with Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement. In 2015, Gutiérrez received national attention when she attended a pride event at the White House under then president Barack Obama. While he was giving a speech, she called on him from the crowd to release trans immigrants from detention centers and address the violence trans women face in detention. Reflecting on that day, she wrote, “There is no pride in how LGBTQ immigrants are treated in this country.” She continues to amplify the voices of trans women of color and works to free immigrants and people of color from the carceral system. “Camp Trans,” p. 33
V. RELATED WORK
Films
Disclosure by Sam Feder (2020)
Free CeCe by Laverne Cox and Jacques Gares (2016)
Happy Birthday, Marsha! by Tourmaline (2017)
MAJOR! by Annalise Ophelian (2015)
Paragraph 175 by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (2000)
Pay It No Mind by Michael Kasino (2012)
Screaming Queens by Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman (2005)
We’ve Been Around series by Rhys Ernst (2016)
Books
Branded by the Pink Triangle by Ken Setterington
Captive Genders edited by Nat Smith & Eric A. Stanley
Care Work by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg
To Survive on This Shore by Jess T. Dugan & Vanessa Fabbre
Trans Care by Hil Malatino
Transgender History by Susan Stryker
We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan
edited by Ellis Martin & Zach Ozma
We Do This ‘Til We Free Us by Mariame Kaba
Archives & Museums
The Digital Trans Archive
https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/
Gerber/Hart Library, Chicago, IL
https://www.gerberhart.org/
GLBT Historical Society, San Francisco, CA
https://www.glbthistory.org
Illinois Holocaust Museum, Skokie, IL
https://www.ilholocaustmuseum.org/
Leather Archives & Museum, Chicago, IL
https://leatherarchives.org/
Lesbian Herstory Archives, Brooklyn, NY
https://lesbianherstoryarchives.org/
Leslie/Lohman Museum, New York City, NY
https://www.leslielohman.org/
Museum of Transgender Hirstory & Art
www.sfmotha.org
ONE Archives, Los Angeles, CA
https://www.onearchives.org
Queer Zine Archive Project
www.archive.qzap.org
Stonewall Museum & Archive, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
https://stonewall-museum.org/
Community Organizations
Below are a few organizations whose politics, organizing, and programs have helped shape the vision of this book.
Black & Pink
https://blackandpinkpenpals.org/
Brave Space Alliance
https://www.bravespacealliance.org/
Chicago Women’s Health Center
https://www.chicagowomenshealthcenter.org/
Dyke March Chicago
https://www.facebook.com/Dyke-MarchChicago/
Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement
https://familiatqlm.org/
Gay Shame
https://gayshame.net/
Lyon-Martin Health Services
https://www.healthright360.org/agency/lyon-martin-healthservices
Masjid al-Rabia
https://masjidalrabia.org
Sylvia Rivera Law Project
https://www.srlp.org
TransLatin@ Coalition
https://www.translatinacoalition.org/
Transformative Justice Law Project
https://www.tjlp.org/
Visual AIDS
https://visualaids.org/
William Way LGBT Community Center
https://www.waygay.org/
NOTES
“City of Trans Liberation” is after Martín Espada’s poem “Imagine the Angels of Bread.”
“If You Are Over Cis People” is after Morgan Parker’s poem “If You Are Over Staying Woke.”
“At the Dream Job” is titled after Carmen Maria Machado’s book In the Dream House.
“Trans Lit” is after Jamila Woods’s poem “Blk Girl Art.”
“There are Trans People Here” is after Jamaal May’s poem “There Are Birds Here.”
“Dysphoria Is Not My Name” is after Ross Gay’s poem “Sorrow Is Not My Name.” The italicized line is from this poem.
“To Sylvie, To Frank” is after Frank O’Hara’s poem “Adieu to Norman, Bon Jour to Joan and Jean-Paul.” The italicized line is from this poem.
“Trans Day of Revenge” is after the song of the same name by G.L.O.S.S.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Some of the poems in this collection were included in the chapbook On My Way to Liberation (Haymarket Books, 2018). The following poems previously appeared in:
Chicago Reader: “At the Chicago Marathon” and “Prayer for My Trans Siblings”
Cosmonauts Avenue: “On Trans Street”
Heart Journal: “On My Way to Liberation”
Hooligan Mag: “Giovanni’s Room” and “I Don’t Want a Trans President”
Jewish Currents: “There are Trans People Here”
Lambda Literary: “City of Trans Liberation”
The Rumpus: “Trans Day of Revenge,” and “All the Missing Sweetness”
Split This Rock: “Every Day is a Trans Day”
Tinderbox: “Intensive Care”
Vida Review: “Dysphoria Is Not My Name”
GRATITUDE TO
Nate Marshall. Jamila Woods. Fatimah Asghar. Eve Ewing. Alison C. Rollins. River Kerstetter. Oli Rodriguez. Reese Kelly. Sylvie Lydon. Ydalmi Noriega. Fred Sasaki. Emily Jungmin Yoon. Sam Herschel Wein. Levi Todd. Ruby Western. Shira Erlichman. Angel Nafis. Morgan Parker. Hanif Abdurraqib. Kaveh Akbar. Cameron Awkward-Rich. Franny Choi. Danez Smith. Eloisa Amezcua. José Olivarez. Britteney Black Rose Kapri. Logan Pierce. Patrick Del Percio. Tempestt Hazel. Krista Franklin. Kris Hankins. My parents. My therapist. My doctors. The Tin House Workshop. The team at Haymarket Books. Trans writers who write for us.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
H. Melt is a poet, artist, and educator whose work celebrates trans people, history, and culture. They are the author of The Plural, The Blurring and editor of Subject to Change: Trans Poetry & Conversation. H. Melt was an artist-in-residence at the Newberry Library, researching the Chicago Protest Collection. They attended the Tin House Writer’s Workshop and received the Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging LGBTQ Writers from Lambda Literary.
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