1. DEFINITION OF COMMUNITY CARE

H: Broadly what is your personal vision on Community Care ?

J: Yeah! Thanks for having me! I mean there's so many elements about it. I've been thinking a lot about that question lately in a lot of the work that I've been doing. You know it's so much of like THIS. It’s what you're doing here. You doing “Full Femme” and a lot of the other projects you work on. It's just ways of bringing people together to talk about all sorts of complex things so that you’re able to do the work together. I guess kind of a very broad definition of community would be “a web of relations and relationalities” but one that is intentional. I think that you have to choose to be in community together. It is a commitment. It is not just something you can assume. There are ways that you may be born into, by default of culture or faith or whatever you belong to but I still hear “community” in my mind as like a very intentional thing. And, in my experience, it has to be intentional to be meaningful. So, I guess my vision has shifted lots and will continue shifting. But it is a space where we can hold each other in the work and where everyone is met according to need and ability. But, yeah, all sorts of pieces to it.

2. SHARED IDENTITY ISN'T COMMUNITY

H : Just to go a little bit more into the definition of Community... You said that sometimes we are born into community by default. Do you think that shared identities are enough to constitute a community?

J:I mean…

H: I wasn’t even finished with the question and you were like “ Uh-huh! Cut it off!”.

J: I'm dancing around a lot. It’s funny. I think it’s a complexe thing. I think yes and no. In some ways, you are! In some ways you are built into these categories that are going to be politicised in a lot of the same ways. And, in other ways no. Identity is not enough. So, I think it's yes and no. I would think that because community, to me, it's such an intentional process that it cannot be assumed. That it stands outside of something like say nationhood. There are things you are born into like race, class, sometimes ability (that can shift). There are pieces that you have that are unearned but I would say community is something that you earn, something that you build on and grow into and practice.

3. WHAT COMMUNITY ISN'T

H: You’ve also kind of touched on the idea that you can define your community using a process of elimination. Can you expand on that ?

J: Yeah, that's me being kind of a cheeky old fool! I think sometimes I've learned about what community isn't more ... But I mean, that sucks! That's not what I want. That's not what I'd recommend to anyone. But, I think that sometimes it happens. It's almost like that first heartbreak. You go to space and you're like “ OK we have so much in common! Can't wait for us to give each other everything that our other family or family of origin or community of origin couldn’t do! Can’t wait for that!”. Then you get there and you realize that there is this whole nebulous galaxy of reasons why we can't hold each other. You get let down ...

Yeah. I had a few of those where being gay isn't enough, being queer is it enough or being whatever it is is not enough to guarantee that you're gonna be able to hold each other. That's a decision you have to make. That’s a practice you have to commit to and recommit to.

I know a lot about what community isn't. It's not this white liberal feminist project. It's not this neo-liberal project. It's not a professional thing. It's not funded. It's not a non-profit mission statement. Sometimes you learn by process of elimination I guess.

H: Which is fair !

4. JUDE'S COMMUNITY

H: Given all that, now we have a better context of what we mean when we say “community”. Who would you say is part of your community ?

J: I would save anyone who wants to do the work with me.

[Laughs]

H: Any volunteers ? Anybody ? Anybody ?

J: I’m like “anyone?”

Anyone we can hold each other in our screw-ups. I think it's often what it is though. I think it's that re-commitment and that mistake and that humanity of like “ Okay, but I want to listen, I want to grow. I want to keep learning. I want to keep doing better and I have enough integrity in my commitment to the work to know that I am strong enough to handle those fuck-ups”. I can keep going when I fuck up. That's how I can continue to gain humanity, to be worthy of being in relationship and being in community. So, in a general sense, anyone who wants to do the work and build solidarity across differences, I would say I want to be in community with.

Specifically, the first people that come to mind are always trans people. I would say that I have dedicated most of my life to the trans community. That's really kind of been my baby and my raison d’être for a long time. It started really young and it just keeps snowballing from there. For better or worse!

[Laughs]

5. FRIENDSHIP ISN'T COMMUNITY

H: Would you say that community and friendship are synonymous ? I think that something that people ask themselves often so I think it would be good to clear that up right now.

J: I think that there’s bits and bobs of things. For me ... I think for a lot of a lot of gay and queer people and people in the 2SLGBTQ+ community friendship IS a political project.

H: Wait! What? Say that again !? People need to hear that again.

J: Friendship is a political project! It is a political alliance. It is a commitment. I think, for us, in the community, queer and trans and gay folks, it is almost like my community of my friends are my family. They are my lovers, my co-conspirators. They’re my alibis.

H: As in “crimes” ? These are NOT Full Femme’s views! Once again, we do not condone crimes!

J: *Like a warning flashing*

So, yeah. I would say yes, in some ways, and, in other ways, it takes a little more than that. We don't have to be friends to be doing the work together. As a matter of fact, people liking me is not why I do the work and, if that is the reason you do the work, I think you have some work within yourself to do.

6. LIST OF WORKS MENTIONED

Jude came into this talk with props y'all 😂 He was periodically pulling out books to quote from and name dropped a few things:

• The late Leslie Feinberg (Jude described her as one of his trans ideological elder)
• "I Hope We Choose To Love" by Kai Cheng Thom (this author made one of Jude's students realize Brooklyn 99 was copaganda)
• Herongate Tenant Coalition
• Rainbow Bridges