The t4t Issue

Originating in Craigslist personals to indicate a trans person seeking another trans person, the term “t4t” has come to describe not only circuits of desire and attraction but also practices of trans solidarity and mutual aid. Contributors to this issue investigate the multiple meanings associated with t4t, considering both its potential and its shortcomings. They explore forms of Black trans kinship, consider the possibilities and limits of trans crowdfunding, theorize transmasculine pornography as a site of identity formation, and critique t4t spaces that allow for abuse or exploitation. Because t4t names a type of separatism, it carries risks such as identity policing, the prioritization of one aspect of identity over others, and difficulty engaging in strategic coalition. And yet, in a world that remains hostile to trans forms of life, t4t also circulates as a promising practice of love, repair, and healing.

Contributors. Cassius Adair, Aren Aizura, Cameron Awkward-Rich, Chris Barcelos, Cynthia Citlallín Delgado Huitrón, Lauren Fournier, Vox Jo Hsu, Christopher Joseph Lee, Amira Lundy-Harris, Hil Malatino, Amy Marvin, Isaac Preiss, Amir Rabiyah, Nicholas Reich

Cameron Awkward-Rich is Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of Dispatch and Sympathetic Little Monster.

Hil Malatino is Assistant Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and of Philosophy at Pennsylvania State University and author of Trans Care and Queer Embodiment: Monstrosity, Medical Violence, and Intersex Experience.