Abstract
A revision of a text originally published in 2011, this is the second edition of Spade’s book. The central thesis aims to question the rights-based equality strategies of the civil rights movement as the most effective way of addressing the ‘poverty and criminalisation’ of trans populations. Whilst the focus is explicitly on trans politics and experiences, Spade both draws upon and provides lessons for other aspects of identity and social justice. The timing of this edition is interesting, being updated and published following a number of significant initiatives which have seen the mainstreaming of both trans and broader LGBT concerns within the West. Although the discussion in Normal Life is specifically orientated to developments in the US, I would suggest that it has a broader international appeal as similar developments are apparent in the UK and the EU and are being fought for by organisations such as the United Nations.
Spade suggest that rights-based approaches, secured through legislation, tend to be orientated towards challenging discrimination, either by identifying trans identities as one of a series of protected social characteristics or through hate crime legislation. Drawing on lessons from critical race theory and the experience of disabled and racialised communities, the author constructs a convincing argument that such policies do not effectively reduce or end discrimination. Rather they individualise discrimination, conceptualising the harm caused by such discrimination as occurring through a dyadic relationship between the victim and the perpetrator (p. 42). Individualising the issue of discrimination in this way renders systematic or structural oppression invisible and obscures the historical context of discrimination in a way, Spade suggests, that ‘papers over’ ongoing inequalities.
Furthermore, it is argued that these pro queer and/or pro LGBT policies perform a role in obscuring a more violent and reactionary agenda contributing to a widening poverty gap and the increasing criminalisation and colonisation of some sections of society. As such it is suggested that ‘Gay Rights’ as a symbol of a politics associated with freedom and liberation has provided a false marker of progressive politics. Within this context, the public assertions that governments make about their commitment to gay rights, and their demonstration of this commitment through changes to legal and policy frameworks, provide little or no relief for those facing increasing precarity as a result of criminalisation, colonisation or austerity. The result of this approach, it is maintained, has been that legal reform has maintained, and even strengthened ‘systems of maldistribution and control in the name of equality, individuality, and even diversity’ (p. 71).
Having set out the arguments against a rights-based perspective Normal Life then goes on to argue that what is needed is action to transform those systems that provide change at population, rather than individual level. Here Spade lists those areas of policy that are of key concern to critical social policy: welfare, health care, immigration and criminal justice. Viewing these as sites of the administration of societal norms, it is here where it is argued we need to take strategic action.
Overall Spade identifies two spaces of trans activism, one focussed on neo-liberal mainstreaming which is seen as endorsing and ‘pinkwashing’ the state apparatus, and one which is located in grassroots trans activism focussed on mutual aid, community organising and the production of alternative structures to support transformative change. In the afterword, Spade notes that there have been many exciting moments between the development of the first and second editions of this text during which people were finding new ways to take risks and challenge the status quo of capitalism and white supremacy. Since this new edition was published, however, the far right have made significant political gains and politicians in significant sectors of the Global North are constructing arguments about rescinding legal protections. Whilst the changes won thus far are those that normalise a particular type of LGBT lifestyle that mirrors the heteropatriarchal structures of society, it nevertheless seems strategically important to protect these rights from a right wing backlash whilst also continuing the fight for more far reaching transformation.