The Power of Local Trans Organizing
TransLash Podcast with Imara Jones
TransLash Media
4.3 • 619 Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2025
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As anti-trans policies continue to escalate at the national and state level, local organizing has become a bastion of hope. This week, Imara talks with two leaders working to protect their communities in increasingly hostile environments. First, she’s joined by Iowa-based advocate Max Mowitz who unpacks the surprising removal of gender identity protections from the state’s civil rights law. They discuss the impact of corporate withdrawal from LGBTQ+ causes and the ways that mutual aid has helped fill the growing financial needs of trans Iowans. Imara then talks with Daroneshia Duncan-Boyd about her 10+ years of experience serving trans women of color in Birmingham, Alabama, plus why she has no time for performative leadership.
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Follow our guests on social media!
Arya Shae: Instagram (@transaffirmidaho)
Max Mowtiz: Instagram (@iowatransmutualaidfund @maxwellhowdy)
Daroneshia Duncan-Boyd: Instagram (@daroneshia_duncan)
TransLash Podcast is produced by TransLash Media.
Translash Team: Imara Jones, Oliver-Ash Kleine, Aubrey Calaway.
Xander Adams is our senior sound engineer and a contributing producer.
Morgan Astbury is our social media coordinator.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey fam, it's me, Amara. |
| 0:11.3 | Welcome to the TransLash podcast, a show where we tell trans stories to save trans lives. |
| 0:16.8 | Today we're diving into the power of local organizing, which is critical in this moment. |
| 0:23.7 | How trans people are coming together in their communities right now to fight for survival, |
| 0:28.6 | joy and justice will determine what's ahead for us in the future. |
| 0:33.3 | With attacks on trans rights ramping up across the country, local grassroots activism has never |
| 0:39.2 | been more important. But beyond resistance, trans organizations are also creating networks of care, |
| 0:46.6 | mutual aid, and empowerment that are changing lives and also helping people get to the other side. |
| 0:53.5 | So today we'll talk with two leaders about the |
| 0:55.7 | intrinsic hope of organizing and hostile environments, what it takes to sustain this work, and how |
| 1:02.1 | we can all step up to support transled movements from the ground up. First, I'll be speaking with |
| 1:08.3 | Max Mowitz, who's based in Iowa, about the repeal of civil rights |
| 1:12.7 | protections in that state and what they and others are doing to help create alternative |
| 1:17.6 | networks of care and support. |
| 1:20.2 | When more of folks' basic needs are being met, they're more able to be involved in their |
| 1:24.8 | local community. |
| 1:26.1 | Then I will be talking with Deranisha Duncan Boyd about how her work to empower trans |
| 1:31.6 | women of color in Birmingham, Alabama has lessons for us all. |
| 1:36.3 | The work is actually getting down in the trenches, killing out people, freeing out people, and most of all, reaching out people. |
| 1:44.8 | But before we get to these two inspiring conversations, let's start out as always with some |
| 1:50.3 | trans joy. |
| 1:51.1 | Thank you. There is no better source of joy in this moment than the local organizers who are showing up every day to protect our community. |
... |
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