Trans Geographies of Joy: Building Community in Atlanta

Shows how trans activists confront the intersections of white supremacy and transphobia

Trans Geographies of Joy charts the stories of trans activists in Atlanta, focusing particularly on people of color, to document how they confront the intersections of white supremacy and transphobia through their organizing. The volume offers insight into the oft-overlooked trans activist scene, particularly as political strategists and the broader news media struggle to make sense of newly-purple states like Georgia.

Elias Capello uncovers how trans activists create spaces to help them feel safe in the face of the violence they routinely encounter. He argues that colonialism, white supremacy, and cisnormativity are all connected through shame, designating cisgender bodies as "safe, secure, and sane.” Cisgender culture masks itself within whiteness to create a narrative of safety that prioritizes cisgender lives, all the while pathologizing, policing, and commodifying trans lives. Yet, as Capello illuminates, trans activists offer alternative narratives of safety, creating spaces of joy outside of cisnormativity’s colonial-based shame. The volume details how activists create art, spaces, and communities that help them flourish, illuminating trans pleasure and joy rather than focusing solely on the struggles trans people face.