Praise for There Are Trans People Here

“The declarative premise of this collection, that there are trans people here—in the bookstore, in history, on the bus, ‘next to you,’ wherever you are—should not need to be said. Yet, in the cis imagination, trans life is so often understood as figural, as less than fully here. Given this, H. Melt’s matter-of-fact, precise, cartographic poems perform necessary care work for the trans people and places they attend to and yearn toward. Deeply grounded in the plain, bountiful fact of trans worlds—and insisting on our worlds to come—this book offers all who need it a map to a world ‘forever in bloom.’”

—Cameron Awkward-Rich, author of Dispatch

“There Are Trans People Here is an ode to trans joy, resilience, and communal care. A trans-utopian manifesto for a world that ‘let[s] us be beautiful / on our own terms.’ H. Melt’s verse is bold, stark, and uncompromising. Threading elements of familial narrative, memoir, and queer history, they trace through-lines from our past to a brighter, queerer future.”

—torrin a. greathouse, author of Wound from the Mouth of a Wound

“In There Are Trans People Here, H. Melt celebrates the blooming of trans identities and experiences in a landscape often hostile to trans survival. By invoking self-determination and communal care, these poems meld individual resilience with collective resistance to illuminate the everyday beauty of trans lives in refusing the lure of conditional inclusion to instead challenge dominant institutions of oppression, demand structural change, and remake the world.”

—Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, author of The Freezer Door

“There Are Trans People Here is a book that straddles the lines between past, present, and future, looking back in order to imagine what is new, and in the imagining, makes it possible, brings the future to us in a way that is touchable, right there, alive and under our fingertips. In the poem ‘City of Trans Liberation’ H. Melt writes, ‘Where there are no borders / between who we were / & who we are / becoming.’ For we are always becoming, always dissolving borders, or else, erecting them. In these poems H. Melt dissolves and becomes and becomes.”

—Fatimah Asghar, author of If They Come for Us

“Reading this book it is abundantly clear that H. Melt is not only a brilliant poet but also a diligent reader. These poems pay homage to poets in H. Melt’s lineage, while also giving us vibrant portraits of their community and envisioning a future world where safety, freedom, joy, and love for trans people is not only possible but abundant and right here.”

—Jamila Woods, singer and songwriter of LEGACY! LEGACY!

© 2021 H. Melt

Published in 2021 by

Haymarket Books

P.O. Box 180165

Chicago, IL 60618

773-583-7884

www.haymarketbooks.org

info@haymarketbooks.org

ISBN: 978-1-64259-668-7

Distributed to the trade in the US through Consortium Book Sales and Distribution (www.cbsd.com) and internationally through Ingram Publisher Services International (www.ingramcontent.com).

This book was published with the generous support of Lannan Foundation and Wallace Action Fund.

Special discounts are available for bulk purchases by organizations and institutions. Please email info@haymarketbooks.org for more information.

Cover design by River Kerstetter. Cover background and interior collages from “Transgender Hiroes” promotional broadside, MOTHA, 2013. Courtesy of Chris E. Vargas.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

Dedicated to my trans ancestors, elders,
and mentors who show me what’s possible

“Care is deeply political.”
—Hil Malatino, Trans Care

THERE ARE TRANS PEOPLE HERE

after Jamaal May

There are trans people here

so many trans people here

is what I am trying to say.

When they say we are all

trapped in the wrong body

impostor, impossible. No.

We are on the bus

next to you. In the

cubicle next to you.

In the check out line

next to you.

Some of us are sex workers

teachers, artists, nurses

homeless, unemployed

& hungry too.

We are as real

& complicated

as anyone else.

But they won’t stop murdering.

Stop legislating. Stop imprisoning.

Stop claiming we are ruining our

countries, families, friendships

& futures too.

When every day

we awaken to

build them

anew.

ON MY WAY TO LIBERATION

for Pa Howie

I’m on the train

wearing a pink shirt

with a floral tie

on the way to celebrate

my grandfather’s liberation

from dachau

when the nazis

came for his family

in Kovno, Lithuania

my grandfather

dressed like a girl

to stay close to his

mother & sisters

when he immigrated

to the united states

he changed his name

from Michelson to Melton

I’ve changed my name

& my clothes too

on my way to

liberation.

ALL THE MISSING SWEETNESS

Forgive me for crying & screaming

in my bedroom, refusing to pile into the car

making us late for every high holiday service

forgive me for stepping on my neighbor’s toes

as we found four seats in the synagogue together

forgive me & I’ll forgive you

for forcing me into a skirt

not paying attention when I didn’t

break the fast, for eating apples raw

without dipping them in honey first

which I now squeeze into my cup

every morning, trying to recover

all the missing sweetness

from every passing year.

DYSPHORIA IS NOT MY NAME

after Ross Gay

Joy brought me here.

Lifted me onto this bed

on wheels, tied drawstrings

behind the back of my gown

affixed a hairnet atop my crown.

Look, in this country alone, there are

millions of us, naturally occurring

sweet things, with names

we carved ourselves.

No matter what the doctors say

I castrated myself & I’m all smiles.

There are so many surgeries

I could’ve had but timing

is everything.

It’s a new decade, a new life.

Purple is the color of my scars.

Purple is my favorite color.

I’m forever in bloom.

TRANS CARE

When I went to the

feminist health clinic

I said hysterectomy

they said iud, didn’t mention

misoprostol or that a pharmacist

would ask, are you pregnant?

they said insertion will only

take a few minutes, slight

cramping may occur

nothing about metal rods

puking up my breakfast

or suicidal ideation

after Sylvie survived

her surgery, I knew

I could too

I gathered the letters

I fought with insurance

I wrote a care plan

River watched

The Price is Right

with me in pre-op

Logan got me a unicorn balloon

& slept soundly as my catheter

was slowly removed

Sam drove me home

from the hospital &

picked up my pills

Eve organized my meal train

Jamila & Fati ordered fried chicken

Dominique bottled hibiscus lemonade

Ruby & I shared a pesto pizza

Emily cooked a veggie quiche

Fred delivered vienna beef

my dad sent a gift basket

my mom cooked mac & cheese

Ydalmi came with me to post-op

my iud is history

my tubes are finally tied

my uterus & cervix gone

this is not birth

control for me, it is

a beginning.

TO SYLVIE, TO FRANK

after Frank O’Hara

I wish I was having a coke with you

maybe a cherry, though I prefer

orange crush, apple juice, or iced tea

I would drink out of the bottle with you

on Coney Island, atop the Wonder Wheel

on Lake Michigan in a leather jacket

on Lake Champlain or my ikea couch

which you called “T Girl friendly”

with your long legs, your hands

picked up my call, when

a truck almost ended me

in Chicago, it is 6:48 pm

in Los Angeles it is 4:48 pm

I’m texting you in the middle

of a writing workshop, in the middle

of a pandemic, which stopped us

from being together & Frank says

the only thing to do is simply continue

I do not want to continue

without you.

AT THE CHICAGO MARATHON

a woman drapes

the canadian flag

over a barricade

I dangle

the trans flag

& she asks

what country is that?

when Logan

rounds the corner

with his sister

by his side

I hand him the trans flag

he wraps it around

his new chest

like a cape

as he flies

through the city

beaming with pride.

INTENSIVE CARE

River woke up

with their name

on the whiteboard

a crucifix on the wall

their parents straight

from New Mexico

we talk of poems

of estrogen, who

sent the flowers

when the nurse

asks me to shave

their face, I do

when the nurse

slips a she in

my direction

I don’t correct him

River does, despite the

difficulty of speaking

I wish we woke up

in a different world

but we’re here

holding hands

in intensive

care.

GIOVANNI’S ROOM

Est. 1973

is many rooms, many floors, a couple

winding staircases, new & used books

records & clothes, a chandelier with

its namesake book behind glass

a leather section, where I find

a chainmail necklace for ten dollars

a poetry section, where I find myself

Jamila & Raquel, this is for us

the oldest gay bookstore in

the country raises a trans flag

above the street, raises money

for AIDS & who better

to aid us than our own.

IF YOU ARE OVER CIS PEOPLE

after Morgan Parker

Don’t kill yourself.

Make trans friends.

Schedule an appointment at

Chicago Women’s Health Center.

Don’t watch or listen to fox news.

Search for Janet Mock’s writing

on the internet or the shelves at

Bluestockings or Unabridged.

Don’t stay at a transphobic job

or apologize when you are

misgendered or misnamed

by family or friends.

Don’t go home

for the holidays.

Cook your own feast.

Set your own table.

Use the bathroom

when you need it.

Don’t hold it in.

FAGGOT WITH FLOWERS

In the summertime

I walk to the farmers market

on my lunch break from work

most of the vendors are queer

selling tomatoes & peaches

empanadas, cider & curds

I spy brain flowers, which my mom

occasionally bought, though

she favored gladiolas

I debate whether or not

to buy flowers, they are

not food, a bit of a luxury

as I walk back to work

proudly holding

my cockscombs

a man in a grey pickup truck

blows a stop sign, presses

the gas in my path

he cracks the window

to yell faggot at me

missing my body

I go home & place

my flowers in water

on the kitchen table

trying to forget

what will die

in a few days

time.

TO ALL THOSE LISTENING

From the way the general description of the apartment has been provided me, some items may not be “suitable for viewing” by the public at-large, especially any minor children which would possibly accompany their parents.

—A. Steve Warnelis, Property Manager, XL Properties

When I found the letter

hung with blue tape

on my front door

I ran outside

My girlfriend

waiting in the car

to take me away

from my home

I couldn’t sleep

in my own bed, eat in my

own kitchen, ride the train

without thoughts of jumping

My apartment walls

said no hetero

said buttfuck the binary

said I am alive

My family said medicate

said history of depression

said this isn’t discrimination

My lawyer says illegal

My therapist says trauma

I say help & I say thanks

to all those listening

answering my calls.

AT THE DREAM JOB

after Carmen Maria Machado

I am surrounded by books

I meet my favorite authors

I listen to friends read poems

I hosted my first book launch

I started out at minimum wage

the owners call the cops

my coworkers are mostly white

men call about licking my pussy

women harass me for sex repeatedly

I am told you are erasing lesbians

I am told this is a feminist workplace

I am told your pronouns are a joke

where I am a joke, a trans person

working at a feminist bookstore.

ODE TO TERFs

you are not trans

radical or feminist.

you are exclusionary.

you say

back in my day.

back in your day

you denied our

existence.

you could read

Stryker’s Transgender History.

Research us in the ONE archives.

Visit Monica Helm’s flag in the

Smithsonian. Watch Free CeCe

Disclosure or Southern Exposure.

you cite the transsexual empire

spell women incorrectly

hijack pride parades

& mourn michfest.

we are living

in a new world.

you can join us

or become

extinct.

MEETING CHELSEA MANNING

After the Lambda Literary Awards

In manhattan, I’m bored

at an after party, the dj is bad

no one is dancing & only

the vodka is free

I notice poets sitting

in the corner: Sam &

Franny & Cam & William

tells me Chelsea is here

I don’t believe him

but it’s true

there’s a circle around her

the host Mx. Justin Vivian Bond

the lawyer Chase Strangio

the journalist from vogue

the documentary filmmaker

I introduce myself

as a writer & ask

what she read

in solitary

I don’t know this is

her first night out

since release

I already know, we’ve both

read Nevada, both lived

in Chicago & considered suicide

like most trans people, I know.

TRANS LIT

after Jamila Woods

Trans Lit is bullshit unless it is written

by trans people, unless it is written

for trans people. I want Trans Lit

that breaks linear narrative.

I want Trans Lit to bash back

against the police. I want Trans Lit

to take up an entire bookshelf

in the library. I want Trans Lit

in every classroom, in every backpack,

in every pair of hands on a long commute.

I want Trans Lit not to be a federal crime.¹

I want Trans Lit in prisons, to set my

brothers, sisters & siblings free.

1 In 2015, Chelsea Manning was facing solitary confinement, partially due to a “prohibited property” charge related to books and magazines that were confiscated from her cell, including Casey Plett’s book A Safe Girl to Love.

CITY OF TRANS LIBERATION

after Martín Espada

Where statues

of Lou & Sylvia

dance in the streets

Where no kids are

kicked out or run

away from home

Where no body

asks for ID or

our real names

Where every body

has a body

they believe in

Where we can go

outside in the daytime

without being harassed

Where we are taught

to love instead of kill

ourselves

Where Trans Day of Remembrance

celebrates those who died

of natural causes

Where there are no borders

between who we were

& who we are

Becoming.

ON TRANS STREET

on trans street

everyone knows

your chosen name

on trans street

there are bungalows

courtyard buildings

& rent control

on trans street

there are bike lanes

abundant wheelchair ramps

& prompt snow removal

on trans street

there is free STI & HIV testing

doctors prescribe hormones

& perform abortions

without a fight

on trans street

there is a school where

trans history is taught

by trans teachers

on trans street

there is a mural

of Miss Major

at Stonewall

on trans street

Juliana Huxtable

is the resident dj

on trans street

no TERFs

are allowed

on trans street

no catcalling

is allowed

on trans street

there are

no prisons

no checkpoints

no police stations

no military bases

no detention centers

on trans street

the cemetery

is always full

of visitors

on trans street

we are never

alone.

AT TRANS HOUSE

there is a garden

where berries &

sunflowers grow

in the backyard

kids learn how to swim

in suits that fit them

everyone cooks

or cleans in the

kitchen together

in the basement

there is a dungeon

& a dance floor

the neighbors are

not afraid to leave

a spare key

when a fuse blows

or the toilet overflows

we know how to fix it

light fills the living room

where comfy couches

allow us to finally relax.

TAKE ME TO THE TRANS SPA

where I can get my nails done

with my mom, without

toxic chemicals

let me change

in the locker room

soak in the jacuzzi tub

cool down in the pool

with a strawberry daiquiri

let me sweat in the sauna

& in the back room where

glory holes are filled

with fingers

let there be deep tissue

massages, drag bingo

on mondays, clothing

swaps on tuesdays

let there be a hair salon

sliding scale electrolysis

& lavender shampoo

let there be eyeliner tutorials

tips on beard trimming

& preventing hair loss

let there be an abundance

of ferns, aloe plants for

soothing scars &

a weeping willow

outside our doors

let us be beautiful

on our own terms.

CAMP TRANS

At camp trans

no cis children

are allowed

cabins aren’t separated

by gender, instead

they are named

after riots:

Stonewall

Compton

& Dewey

the dining hall serves

Cooper’s Donuts

for dessert

Jennicet Gutiérrez leads

a workshop on making

protest signs

Chris Mosier guides

campers on bike rides

through the woods

Kye Allums coaches

basketball drills

on dribbling

& defense

Jiz Lee reads

Sex Is a Funny Word

aloud as the crowd

roasts marshmallows

Laura Jane Grace

plays guitar around

the campfire & lulls

everyone to sleep

in the morning

the ghost of Billy Tipton

blows sweet sounds

over the intercom as

we continue to rise.

TRANS MUSEUM

At the trans museum

admission is free

for trans people

trans students rush

off the bus, excited

for their first visit

every artist on the wall

is trans, every curator

& employee is trans

the bathrooms are blessed

with good lighting & ample

period products

the cafeteria is full

of foods high in

phytoestrogens

the gift shop sells

binders, chokers

flags & gaffs

the auditorium hosts

packed readings with trans

poets from around the globe

the archive is open

to the public, ensuring

we will never disappear

EVERY DAY IS A TRANS DAY

Whether it’s raining

or snowing, midnight

or awaking from a nap

working an eight-hour shift

or watching reruns, buying

groceries or folding laundry

celebrating a birthday or

burying a friend, lighting

a candle or taking a bath

calling mom or cleaning

the kitchen, mixing paint

or cookie dough, waiting

for bread or the sun to rise

every day is a trans day.

TRANS DAY OF REVENGE

after G.L.O.S.S.

on trans day of revenge

cis people will come out as cis

use the wrong restroom, be called

by the wrong name, lose a job

for being cis, be the only cis

in the family, fail to pass as cis

never feel cis enough

on trans day of revenge

all books about cis people

will disappear, cis characters

will be played by trans actors

the news will only talk about

trans people, the train will be

crowded with trans workers

on trans day of revenge

playgrounds will be full

of trans children laughing

learning & loving

isn’t that the best

revenge.

I DON'T WANT A TRANS PRESIDENT

I want trans doctors

performing my surgery

trans journalists reporting

the news, trans historians writing

textbooks. I don’t want trans capitalists

walking on wall street or trans cops

patrolling my neighborhood. I want

trans musicians playing on my stereo

trans designers crafting my clothes

trans chefs filling my stomach

trans farmers planting my food

& trans gardeners picking

flowers for my funeral.

TRANS PEOPLE AGAINST BANS, WALLS & BORDERS

When news of the Muslim ban broke

protestors fled to airports to free

people being detained & deported

Chelsea called & I took the red line

to the blue line to O’Hare

to international arrivals

lawyers hunched over laptops

& scribbled on yellow legal pads

in the dining area of a mcdonalds

I saw cardboard signs

made out of ikea boxes

& held one reading

trans people

against bans

walls borders

we surrounded police

we sat down on the streets

we removed the american flag

& put it back upside down

I want to travel

to a world where

no one needs papers

or government approval

to visit friends & family

attend school & work

to return or build

a new home.

& AGAIN & AGAIN

The Illinois Holocaust Museum was born

after nazis tried to march in Skokie

home to more survivors than

anywhere in the country

my dad took me

to the museum

the day after 45

was elected

I saw the signs

Warsaw: 1943

Skokie: 1978

america: 2016

the agents, the cages

the camps, the curfews

the fences, the fires

the gases, the guns

protestors held signs reading

fight anti-semitism & racism

unite against fascism

smash the nazis

& never again

THE MOST DANGEROUS JEW IN GERMANY²

was gay. Magnus Hirschfeld

established the Institute for

Sexual Science in Berlin

a hybrid

health clinic

& lecture hall

library & archive

proving we exist

in 1933

nazis burned

Hirshfeld’s books

in the month of May

he fled the country

never to return for

the rest of his days

in the decades since

we’ve rebuilt what

was lost in the fire:

Affinity Affirmations

BreakOUT! Full Spectrum

On the Move Open Arms

Outreach True Colors

Youth Outlook Youth Seen

Callen-Lorde Hetrick-Martin

Lyon-Martin Thornhill Lopez

Whitman-Walker William Way

Have a Gay Day

Gay City

Magic City

Casa Ruby Proud Haven Unity House

The Attic The Living Room The Loft

We Are Family

2 This is how hitler referred to Magnus Hirschfeld.

TRANS TEMPLE

Build it & we will sing

together, rise together

sway & clap with parents

& partners & friends as

sun shines through stained

glass windows, we sip

wine & grape juice. we light

candles. we send money

in the tzedakah box

to Palestine. we skip

birthright. we cover

ourselves as we wish.

we let the torah fall

without punishment.

we repair & repair

& repair.

PRAYER FOR MY TRANS SIBLINGS

Praised are you who remember

Leelah & Blake, Greyson

& Mark, Layleen & Leslie

Praised are you who hold up

the trans universe, who

agitate & educate

migrate & radiate

Praised are you who shelter us

in libraries & nursing homes

locker rooms & train cars

prison cells & hospital beds

Praised are you who clothe us

in combat boots & leggings

button ups & chainmail

leather & pleather

faux fur & sequins

Praised are you who share

our joy in naming & renaming

screaming & dreaming

injecting & rejecting

Praised are you who soothe us

from the harms we inflict on

ourselves & each other

Let us hope for a day

when we no longer

need to pray for

our safety.

THE RIOTS MUST CONTINUE

For my 29th birthday, I went to Philadelphia

where my grandparents met at Temple University

& my great aunt was a docent at the art museum

& my great grandmother lived by Rittenhouse Square

which I visit in the rain, walking under my

purple umbrella, pausing at the fountain

reading off my phone, Philly’s first

pride parade began right here

I walk a block to Dewey’s Diner

to visit my trancestors

who were denied service

& arrested here in 1965

my nana lived so close

she could’ve heard the protests

or waved to me from her window

as River snapped a picture of me

in front of the bronze plaque

where Dewey’s previously sat

now it is a construction site

most of my relatives are gone

but the marches & the sit-ins

& the riots must continue.

AFTERWORD

Writing this book challenged me to center trans joy. I am a lot more familiar with writing about grief. Most of the trans literature I’ve read focuses on the pain, discrimination, and violence trans people experience. Which is understandable, because our realities can be bleak. I’ve written about many of those moments in my own life. It was what I needed at the time. Now, I need trans joy. I need to know trans joy exists in order to imagine myself living in the future.

I remember the first time I picked up Nan Goldin’s photography book The Other Side. It documents many of her trans and gender nonconforming friends at a drag bar in 1970s Boston. I found the book sitting on the shelf at a trans friend’s apartment in Los Angeles. When I spotted the book and pulled it down, I opened a portal to the trans past. I was moved by the introduction, which states: “the pictures in this book are not of people suffering gender dysphoria but rather expressing gender euphoria.”³ I didn’t know gender euphoria was possible. I knew that trans joy existed, but it was difficult to find. In those photographs, I recognized the deep joy of trans friendship through a historical lens.

While The Other Side gave me a glimpse at trans history, another book of photographs gifted me a vision of my future. The collection To Survive on This Shore by Jess T. Dugan and Vanessa Fabbre features portraits and interviews with trans elders from across the United States. On the cover is Mama Gloria, posing in the middle of a snowy Chicago street in a full-length fur coat. Inside the book, I found more trans elders who I recognize, know, and love. Flipping through its pages, I was able to imagine my future as a trans person for the first time. Reading To Survive on This Shore inspired me to write towards trans futures. It inspired me to organize an event with local trans elders who were featured in the book. At that event, I began to understand that I shouldn’t only mourn the queer and trans elders lost to us. It is equally important for me to honor my elders who are still here. My future was no longer unimaginable. This opened up so many possibilities in my poetry because my focus expanded beyond surviving my day-to-day life. Finally, I could dream.

Transness is inherently futuristic. It requires us to imagine ourselves anew. At the same time, gender nonconformity has a long history that is often hidden, erased, and ignored by white supremacy, colonialism, and Christianity in the United States. While it may seem contradictory, writing about trans futures encouraged me to conduct historical and familial research. This is evident in poems like “On My Way to Liberation” and “The Riots Must Continue,” where I merge my familial and trans ancestries. I am tracing my own lineage, one that embraces trans beauty, brilliance, and resistance.

There Are Trans People Here is also deeply connected to my experiences in queer and trans communities in Chicago. There are people working every day to make the world more welcoming to trans people. Many people I know are organizing to abolish the carceral state, stop deportations, defund the police, and decriminalize sex work. We are reimagining our communities one garden, march, protest, lesson plan, name change, and poster at a time. Trans people deserve to live long and fulfilling lives. We deserve a world free of prisons, police, and deportations, a world where we have universal healthcare and stable housing, and schools that affirm trans youth. Abolition and liberation are not abstract concepts. I know all of these things are possible because they are already happening.

My radical imagination was crucial in writing this book. Mariame Kaba writes in We Do This ’Til We Free Us, “My friend, scholar and activist Erica Meiners says that liberation under oppression is unthinkable by design… Our charge is to make imagining liberation under oppression completely thinkable.”⁴ I hope that my work makes trans liberation more thinkable and more of a concrete reality. In “City of Trans Liberation,” I dreamt of public art dedicated to trans elders. Other people must’ve imagined this too. A few years after writing that poem, She Built NYC announced plans to install permanent statues of Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson in New York. When I learned about this, it was a reminder that dreaming and action are both required to transform the world.

The artists, activists, and organizers around me encourage me to tap into my radical imagination, and create art relevant to social movements. They have paved the way for my own path to liberation. Art, writing, and creativity have always guided me into the future. There Are Trans People Here is my attempt to write the future I want into existence.

3 Bea Rogers, Joey Gabriel, Sunny Suits, and Nan Goldin (Photographer), The Other Side, (Göttingen: Steidl, 2019), 7.

4 Mariame Kaba, We Do This ’Til We Free Us (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2021), 92.

STUDY GUIDE

Written by Rabiya Kassam-Clay

Rabiya Kassam-Clay has a Masters of Education in Secondary Education with a focus in Social Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught middle and high school English and Social Studies in Philadelphia, Mexico City, and Los Angeles.

The full guide, with additional classroom activities, assessments, and resources, can be found online at www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1761-there-are-trans-people-here.

I. Three Big Questions

What is liberation? How do we recognize it? How do we practice it?

How does care work flourish in the context of community?

Who are our ancestors? What do our inherited and chosen ancestors teach us?

II. Analytical Projects

1.Imagine you were creating your own collage inspired by the one in the book. Locate a photograph that you would include in your collage of community. Take note of the visual elements present including: setting, objects, people. Determine the significance of the photograph: Why does it matter to you/us? What has or has not changed since the photograph was taken? What does it reveal about our past, present, or future?

2.Explore the themes of death and the future in There Are Trans People Here. In the afterword, H. Melt writes, “I need to know trans joy exists in order to imagine myself living in the future,” and “Transness is inherently futuristic. It requires us to imagine ourselves anew.” What is the relationship between death and the future?

3.How does H. Melt open up the theme of family? What are the connections and contrasts between families of origin and chosen families? How are different types of families in the book tied to sweetness?

III. Creative Projects

1.Who in your life has a story that connects to the poems in There Are Trans People Here? Listen to, watch, or read an interview from an oral history project. Examples include: the Act Up Oral History Project (and the corresponding film United in Anger), the Dragon Fruit Project, the podcast Gender Reveal, Outwords, and the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project. Record an oral history with someone in your life like a friend, a relative, or a community member. Share it with text, drawings, audio, or video.

2.Create an artifact of abolition, liberation, or community care. As H. Melt writes in the afterword, “We are reimagining our communities one garden, march, protest, lesson plan, name change, and poster at a time.” What would your poster or flag be? Consider the following resources:

Monica Helms’ transgender pride flag

Trans Day of Resilience Art Project

Aram Han Sifuentes’s the Protest Banner Lending Library

Justseeds’ Celebrate People’s History poster series

Matthew Riemer & Leighton Brown’s @lgbt_history Instagram archive

ONE Archives Foundation’s digital collection of posters

3.In the afterword, H. Melt writes,

“In ‘City of Trans Liberation,’ I dreamt of public art dedicated to trans elders. Other people must’ve imagined this too. A few years after writing that poem, She Built NYC announced plans to install permanent statues of Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson in New York. When I learned about this, it was a reminder that dreaming and action are both required to transform the world.”

What other people and events in history do you think should be commemorated and how? What event, exhibit, museum, monument, public space, organization, or public resource do you think should be created to honor them? Create your vision.

IV. PEOPLE

Howard Melton (1931-2021), grandfather of H. Melt, was born in Lithuania. He was 10 years old when World War II began. Howard and his family were sent to a labor camp in Latvia. Howard’s younger sister was sent on to Auschwitz where she was killed. His mother and older sister were both killed in Stutthof. Howard was sent to Dachau concentration camp where he survived countless human atrocities, including a death march at the end of the war. He moved to New York City in 1949, and later to Milwaukee to be near his friend Al Beder, who he formed a lifelong bond with in the camps. He was married in 1951 to Evelyn Melton. They had four children together, and eventually, many grandchildren and great grandchildren. He dedicated his life to speaking about his experiences as a Holocaust survivor. On My Way to Liberation , p. 3.

Lou Sullivan (1951-91) was an HIV+ gay trans man who grew up in Milwaukee and moved to San Francisco in the 1970s. He was an activist, writer, and organizer, known for leading support groups for trans men, writing the newsletter FTM International, and helping found the GLBT Historical Society. During his time, trans people were often denied medical services by gender clinics if they were not straight. “Trans men weren’t supposed to be gay…. In the eyes of the medical establishment, he could either be a man or attracted to men, but not both. Lou knew otherwise.” You can learn more about Sullivan from the book We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan edited by Ellis Martin and Zach Ozma. “City of Trans Liberation,” p. 26.

Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992) and Sylvia Rivera (1951-2002) were friends, part of the Stonewall Riots and co-founders of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) which provided housing and support for homeless queer and trans youth. Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson was known for her joyous flower crowns, caring personality, and ongoing activism. You can learn more about Johnson in the films Happy Birthday, Marsha! by Tourmaline and Pay It No Mind by Michael Kasino. Sylvia Rivera was a life-long organizer who worked with many organizations including the Young Lords and Gay Liberation Front. She was an outspoken advocate for trans women of color to be included in the fight for gay liberation. This can be seen in her famous speech “Y’all better quiet down” at the Christopher Street Liberation Day in 1973. Johnson & Rivera left an important legacy by resisting assimilation and focusing on housing access, fighting back against police, supporting queer youth and centering the needs of trans women of color. “City of Trans Liberation,” p. 26 & afterword, p. 52.

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy is a Black transgender elder and activist who was born in Chicago in 1940. She moved to New York City and was an active force in the Stonewall Riots. Major is a survivor of Attica State Prison and a former sex worker. Her decades of activism across the country have been focused on advocating for trans women of color who are sex workers, survivors of police brutality, and who are currently or formerly incarcerated. She worked with the Trans, Gender-Variant and Intersex Justice Project, and her legacy project is the House of GG. You can learn more about Major in the films The Personal Things by Tourmaline and MAJOR! by Annalise Ophelian. “On Trans Street,” p. 28.

Jennicet Gutiérrez is a transgender Latina from México who was born in 1986. She is an organizer with Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement. In 2015, Gutiérrez received national attention when she attended a pride event at the White House under then president Barack Obama. While he was giving a speech, she called on him from the crowd to release trans immigrants from detention centers and address the violence trans women face in detention. Reflecting on that day, she wrote, “There is no pride in how LGBTQ immigrants are treated in this country.” She continues to amplify the voices of trans women of color and works to free immigrants and people of color from the carceral system. “Camp Trans,” p. 33

V. RELATED WORK

Films

Disclosure by Sam Feder (2020)

Free CeCe by Laverne Cox and Jacques Gares (2016)

Happy Birthday, Marsha! by Tourmaline (2017)

MAJOR! by Annalise Ophelian (2015)

Paragraph 175 by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (2000)

Pay It No Mind by Michael Kasino (2012)

Screaming Queens by Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman (2005)

We’ve Been Around series by Rhys Ernst (2016)

Books

Branded by the Pink Triangle by Ken Setterington

Captive Genders edited by Nat Smith & Eric A. Stanley

Care Work by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg

To Survive on This Shore by Jess T. Dugan & Vanessa Fabbre

Trans Care by Hil Malatino

Transgender History by Susan Stryker

We Both Laughed in Pleasure: The Selected Diaries of Lou Sullivan

edited by Ellis Martin & Zach Ozma

We Do This ‘Til We Free Us by Mariame Kaba

Archives & Museums

The Digital Trans Archive

https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/

Gerber/Hart Library, Chicago, IL

https://www.gerberhart.org/

GLBT Historical Society, San Francisco, CA

https://www.glbthistory.org

Illinois Holocaust Museum, Skokie, IL

https://www.ilholocaustmuseum.org/

Leather Archives & Museum, Chicago, IL

https://leatherarchives.org/

Lesbian Herstory Archives, Brooklyn, NY

https://lesbianherstoryarchives.org/

Leslie/Lohman Museum, New York City, NY

https://www.leslielohman.org/

Museum of Transgender Hirstory & Art

www.sfmotha.org

ONE Archives, Los Angeles, CA

https://www.onearchives.org

Queer Zine Archive Project

www.archive.qzap.org

Stonewall Museum & Archive, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

https://stonewall-museum.org/

Community Organizations

Below are a few organizations whose politics, organizing, and programs have helped shape the vision of this book.

Black & Pink

https://blackandpinkpenpals.org/

Brave Space Alliance

https://www.bravespacealliance.org/

Chicago Women’s Health Center

https://www.chicagowomenshealthcenter.org/

Dyke March Chicago

https://www.facebook.com/Dyke-MarchChicago/

Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement

https://familiatqlm.org/

Gay Shame

https://gayshame.net/

Lyon-Martin Health Services

https://www.healthright360.org/agency/lyon-martin-healthservices

Masjid al-Rabia

https://masjidalrabia.org

Sylvia Rivera Law Project

https://www.srlp.org

TransLatin@ Coalition

https://www.translatinacoalition.org/

Transformative Justice Law Project

https://www.tjlp.org/

Visual AIDS

https://visualaids.org/

William Way LGBT Community Center

https://www.waygay.org/

NOTES

“City of Trans Liberation” is after Martín Espada’s poem “Imagine the Angels of Bread.”

“If You Are Over Cis People” is after Morgan Parker’s poem “If You Are Over Staying Woke.”

“At the Dream Job” is titled after Carmen Maria Machado’s book In the Dream House.

“Trans Lit” is after Jamila Woods’s poem “Blk Girl Art.”

“There are Trans People Here” is after Jamaal May’s poem “There Are Birds Here.”

“Dysphoria Is Not My Name” is after Ross Gay’s poem “Sorrow Is Not My Name.” The italicized line is from this poem.

“To Sylvie, To Frank” is after Frank O’Hara’s poem “Adieu to Norman, Bon Jour to Joan and Jean-Paul.” The italicized line is from this poem.

“Trans Day of Revenge” is after the song of the same name by G.L.O.S.S.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Some of the poems in this collection were included in the chapbook On My Way to Liberation (Haymarket Books, 2018). The following poems previously appeared in:

Chicago Reader: “At the Chicago Marathon” and “Prayer for My Trans Siblings”

Cosmonauts Avenue: “On Trans Street”

Heart Journal: “On My Way to Liberation”

Hooligan Mag: “Giovanni’s Room” and “I Don’t Want a Trans President”

Jewish Currents: “There are Trans People Here”

Lambda Literary: “City of Trans Liberation”

The Rumpus: “Trans Day of Revenge,” and “All the Missing Sweetness”

Split This Rock: “Every Day is a Trans Day”

Tinderbox: “Intensive Care”

Vida Review: “Dysphoria Is Not My Name”

GRATITUDE TO

Nate Marshall. Jamila Woods. Fatimah Asghar. Eve Ewing. Alison C. Rollins. River Kerstetter. Oli Rodriguez. Reese Kelly. Sylvie Lydon. Ydalmi Noriega. Fred Sasaki. Emily Jungmin Yoon. Sam Herschel Wein. Levi Todd. Ruby Western. Shira Erlichman. Angel Nafis. Morgan Parker. Hanif Abdurraqib. Kaveh Akbar. Cameron Awkward-Rich. Franny Choi. Danez Smith. Eloisa Amezcua. José Olivarez. Britteney Black Rose Kapri. Logan Pierce. Patrick Del Percio. Tempestt Hazel. Krista Franklin. Kris Hankins. My parents. My therapist. My doctors. The Tin House Workshop. The team at Haymarket Books. Trans writers who write for us.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

H. Melt is a poet, artist, and educator whose work celebrates trans people, history, and culture. They are the author of The Plural, The Blurring and editor of Subject to Change: Trans Poetry & Conversation. H. Melt was an artist-in-residence at the Newberry Library, researching the Chicago Protest Collection. They attended the Tin House Writer’s Workshop and received the Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging LGBTQ Writers from Lambda Literary.

ABOUT HAYMARKET BOOKS

Haymarket Books is a radical, independent, nonprofit book publisher based in Chicago. Our mission is to publish books that contribute to struggles for social and economic justice. We strive to make our books a vibrant and organic part of social movements and the education and development of a critical, engaged, international left.

We take inspiration and courage from our namesakes, the Haymarket martyrs, who gave their lives fighting for a better world. Their 1886 struggle for the eight-hour day—which gave us May Day, the international workers’ holiday—reminds workers around the world that ordinary people can organize and struggle for their own liberation. These struggles continue today across the globe—struggles against oppression, exploitation, poverty, and war.

Since our founding in 2001, Haymarket Books has published more than five hundred titles. Radically independent, we seek to drive a wedge into the risk-averse world of corporate book publishing. Our authors include Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, Rebecca Solnit, Angela Y. Davis, Howard Zinn, Amy Goodman, Wallace Shawn, Mike Davis, Winona LaDuke, Ilan Pappé, Richard Wolff, Dave Zirin, Keeanga- Yamahtta Taylor, Nick Turse, Dahr Jamail, David Barsamian, Elizabeth Laird, Amira Hass, Mark Steel, Avi Lewis, Naomi Klein, and Neil Davidson. We are also the trade publishers of the acclaimed Historical Materialism Book Series and of Dispatch Books.