Dean Spade on hate crimes

Trans Law & Politics on a Neo-liberal Landscape by Dean Spade, from pages 4-5 (added some paragraph breaks to make it more readable in this format)

Hate crimes laws are promoted under a related logic. Proponents point out that trans people are murdered at high rates and are subject to a great deal of violence. In many instances, trans people’s lives are so devalued by police and prosecutors that murders of trans people are not investigated, or trans people’s murderers are given extremely light punishment. Many people believe that hate crimes laws could intervene in this situation, making state actors take violence against trans people seriously.

Dean Spade on queer liberation and the law

Yesterday I listened to the Yale Law School lecture by Dean Spade on “the limitations of current popular legal equality demands emerging under the ‘trans rights’ framework.” So fucking brilliant, I listened to it twice! He talks really quickly and, as the audience is academic, uses jargon freely. It definitely requires full attention to follow, but as a non-professional, non-academic activist/thinker I was able to follow all the main points. This might be a bit overwhelming as an introduction to these issues, but if you are interested dive in!