{ "id": "p16022coll97:71", "object": "https://cdm16022.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getthumbnail/collection/p16022coll97/id/71", "set_spec": "p16022coll97", "collection_name": "Tretter Transgender Oral History Project", "collection_name_s": "Tretter Transgender Oral History Project", "collection_description": "
The Tretter Transgender Oral History Project (TTOHP) collects, preserves, and makes accessible oral histories of gender transgression, especially as theyintersect with race, age, sexuality, citizenship, class, and ability. The project seeks to document the power and vision of trans movements for justice through the stories of activists working to imagine another world.
\n\nThe first phase of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project was led by poet and activist Andrea Jenkins—who became the first Black transgender woman to serve in office in the US after she was elected, in 2017, to the Minneapolis City Council. This phase of the project sought to document the life stories and experiences of transgender and gender non-conforming people, with a focus on people living in the upper Midwest as well as those often excluded from the historical record, including trans people of color and trans elders.
\n\nThe second phase of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project is led by trans studies scholar Myrl Beam. This phase of work seeks to document histories of trans activist movements and politics in the US, and is grounded in the belief that trans movements for justice are about more than rights: they are about survival, and about creating a new, more fabulous, more livable, and more expansive world––one not structured by racialized gender norms. The oral histories collected during this phase document the transformative power of trans movements, and the stories of trans activists who are building them.
\n\nFor more about the project, visit: https://www.lib.umn.edu/tretter/transgender-oral-history-project.
", "title": "Interview with Micky Bradford", "title_s": "Interview with Micky Bradford", "title_t": "Interview with Micky Bradford", "title_search": "Interview with Micky Bradford", "title_sort": "interviewwithmickybradford", "description": "Micky Bradford is a Black queer non-binary trans woman based in Atlanta who co-founded and organized the Southern Fried Queer Pride Festival. At the time of this interview, she was an organizer with Southerners on New Ground and the Transgender Law Center. ln this oral history, Bradford discusses the important of art in culture change, her experiences as a Black trans woman in movements for social justice, relationships with family, and her hopes for the future of gender justice movements.", "date_created": [ "2017-10-04" ], "date_created_ss": [ "2017-10-04" ], "date_created_sort": "2017", "creator": [ "Bradford, Micky" ], "creator_ss": [ "Bradford, Micky" ], "creator_sort": "bradfordmicky", "contributor": [ "Jenkins, Andrea (Interviewer)" ], "contributor_ss": [ "Jenkins, Andrea (Interviewer)" ], "notes": "Forms part of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project, Phase 1.", "types": [ "Moving Image" ], "format": [ "Oral histories | http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300202595" ], "format_name": [ "Oral histories" ], "dimensions": "0:47:55", "subject": [ "South (United States)", "Art and Creative Work", "Activism, Social Movements", "Family Relationships", "Black", "Gender Affirming Care", "Tretter Transgender Oral History Project Phase 1" ], "subject_ss": [ "South (United States)", "Art and Creative Work", "Activism, Social Movements", "Family Relationships", "Black", "Gender Affirming Care", "Tretter Transgender Oral History Project Phase 1" ], "language": [ "English" ], "city": [ "New York City" ], "state": [ "New York" ], "country": [ "United States" ], "continent": [ "North America" ], "geonames": [ "http://sws.geonames.org/5128581/" ], "parent_collection": "Tretter Transgender Oral History Project", "parent_collection_name": "Tretter Transgender Oral History Project", "contributing_organization": "University of Minnesota Libraries, Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies.", "contributing_organization_name": "University of Minnesota Libraries, Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies.", "contributing_organization_name_s": "University of Minnesota Libraries, Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies.", "contact_information": "University of Minnesota Libraries, Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies. 111 Elmer L. Andersen Library, 222 - 21st Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455; https://www.lib.umn.edu/tretter", "fiscal_sponsor": "This project is funded through the generous support of The TAWANI Foundation, Headwaters Foundation and many individual donors.", "local_identifier": [ "tretter414_tohp062" ], "dls_identifier": [ "tretter414_tohp062" ], "rights_statement_uri": "http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/", "kaltura_audio": "1_6wuo3slt", "kaltura_video": "1_0cx3awzq", "kaltura_combo_playlist": "0_spvtp75k", "page_count": 0, "record_type": "primary", "first_viewer_type": "kaltura_combo_playlist", "viewer_type": "kaltura_combo_playlist", "attachment": "82.pdf", "attachment_format": "pdf", "document_type": "item", "featured_collection_order": 999, "date_added": "2018-09-24T00:00:00Z", "date_added_sort": "2018-09-24T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2020-05-22T00:00:00Z", "transcription": "Micky Bradford\nNarrator\nAndrea Jenkins\nInterviewer\nThe Transgender Oral History Project\nTretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nOctober 4, 2017\nThe Transgender Oral History Project of the Upper Midwest will empower individuals to tell their story,\nwhile providing students, historians, and the public with a more rich foundation of primary source\nmaterial about the transgender community. The project is part of the Tretter Collection at the\nUniversity of Minnesota. The archive provides a record of GLBT thought, knowledge and culture for\ncurrent and future generations and is available to students, researchers and members of the public.\nThe Transgender Oral History Project will collect up to 400 hours of oral histories involving 200 to 300\nindividuals over the next three years. Major efforts will be the recruitment of individuals of all ages and\nexperiences, and documenting the work of The Program in Human Sexuality. This project will be led by\nAndrea Jenkins, poet, writer, and trans-activist. Andrea brings years of experience working in\ngovernment, non-profits and LGBT organizations. If you are interested in being involved in this exciting\nproject, please contact Andrea.\nAndrea Jenkins\njenki120@umn.edu\n(612) 625-4379\nMicky Bradford Interview 3\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\n1 Andrea Jenkins -AJ\n2 Micky Bradford -MB\n3\n4 AJ: So hello.\n5\n6 MB: Hey Andrea, how are you?\n7\n8 AJ: I’m doing good. My name is Andrea Jenkins, and I am the oral historian for The Transgender Oral\n9 History Project at the Tretter Collection at the University of Minnesota, uhm, Libraries. And\n10 today is September…\n11\n12 MB: October.\n13\n14 AJ: Oh, my goodness. It is not September.\n15\n16 MB: [Laughs].\n17\n18 AJ: Today is October 4th.\n19\n20 MB: Yes.\n21\n22 AJ: [Laughs]. 2017. Wow, time is really flying.\n23\n24 MB: Yeah.\n25\n26 AJ: Uhm, I am in New York City.\n27\n28 MB: Mhm.\n29\n30 AJ: Uh, and more specifically we are Uptown in Harlem, and I am here today with Micky Bradford.\n31\n32 MB: Hey. [Snaps fingers].\n33\n34 AJ: Micky, how are you doing?\n35\n36 MB: I’m good, I’m good. I’m doing great. It’s great to be here.\n37\n38 AJ: Yeah, thank you so much for participating. Uh, so I’m gonna ask you to state your name, spell\n39 your name, just so we make sure we have it all spelled correctly, uhm, tell me your gender\n40 identity as you define it today, as you proclaim it today. And your gender assigned at birth. And\n41 pronouns that you use.\n42\n43 MB: Okay. My name is Micky Bradford. It’s spelled M.I.C.K.Y. B.R.A.D.F.O.R.D. uhm, actually I have a\n44 funny story about that I’ll tell you about later about naming myself.\n45\n46 AJ: Okay. I’m gonna ask you about that so yes.\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 4\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nMB: Uhm, I use she/her, they/them pronouns. I identify as non-binary, trans 1 feminine, uhm, was\n2 assigned male at birth and was like that’s not me.\n3\n4 AJ: Right.\n5\n6 MB: Uhm, and yeah, I navigate this world as a feminine person.\n7\n8 AJ: You live in the world as a feminine person?\n9\n10 MB: Yeah.\n11\n12 AJ: Yeah. Wow. Well, thank you Micky. Uhm, you know, I wanna name that we are here together as\n13 a part of the Sojourner Truth Leadership Circle...\n14\n15 MB: Yes.\n16\n17 AJ: … which is a project of the, uhm, Auburn Seminary.\n18\n19 MB: Mhm.\n20\n21 AJ: And it’s specifically for black trans women. We have been at it for nine months now. We started\n22 in February. What a ride, huh?\n23\n24 MB: Wow, it’s been a while.\n25\n26 AJ: Yes. And, uhm, yourself and eight other cohorts…\n27\n28 MB: Mhm.\n29\n30 AJ: … uh, have been through self-care leadership, uh, retreat. So I’m gonna ask you to speak on that\n31 a little bit and reflect on how have these past nine months been for you, uhm, has it been, in\n32 any way, transformative or what are some of the transformative moments that you recognize\n33 and appreciate and whatever else you would like to say about the, the, I think historic, uhm,\n34 opportunity to come together as black trans women.\n35\n36 MB: Mhm.\n37\n38 AJ: Uhm, cause one of the things that attracted me to this work is that, you know, and nothing\n39 against my POC sisters or white sisters but this is all black trans space so what are you’re\n40 thoughts Micky?\n41\n42 MB: Yeah, well I’m glad you said it that way. It’s a special thing when black folks come together.\n43\n44 AJ: Mhm.\n45\n46 MB: Especially black trans girls.\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 5\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\n1 AJ: Right.\n2\n3 MB: Uhm, I definitely did not have a whole lot of black trans magic…\n4\n5 AJ: Mhm.\n6\n7 MB: ... uhm, growing up, even just being back, uhm, in Atlanta, uhm, until I came in to organizing…\n8\n9 AJ: Right.\n10\n11 MB: … uhm, I just didn’t have that so I’m just super grateful for this experience…\n12\n13 AJ: Mhm.\n14\n15 MB: … and being a part of the cohort. The girls are amazing. Everyone is brilliant…\n16\n17 AJ: [Laughs].\n18\n19 MB: … and beautiful and powerful.\n20\n21 AJ: Right.\n22\n23 MB: Uhm, and they make me feel all of those things as well.\n24\n25 AJ: Well, you are all of those things. [Laughs].\n26\n27 MB: Thank you. [Laughs].\n28\n29 AJ: Especially the beautiful and brilliant part.\n30\n31 MB: Oh, stop!\n32\n33 AJ: Uhm, but, uhm, yeah, I mean, we, we spent two retreats sessions in Madison, Georgia…\n34\n35 MB: Mhm.\n36\n37 AJ: … in the Deep South. And you’re actually from the south, and we’ll talk about that in a little bit\n38 but, uhm, just how, how is it morphed for you over time from our first time together until now?\n39\n40 MB: Oh wow.\n41\n42 AJ: And graduation was last night.\n43\n44 MB: Right.\n45\nMicky Bradford Interview 6\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nAJ: And there was a big celebration, and I had a conversation with Melissa Harris-1 Perry which was\n2 very fascinating. Uh, [laughs], but how, how has things, you know, from the first day you\n3 showed up until now?\n4\n5 MB: I think I have definitely improved some of my self-care practices.\n6\n7 AJ: Mhm.\n8\n9 MB: I, and by improved I mean there are actually self-care practices now. [Laughs].\n10\n11 AJ: Okay. Right.\n12\n13 MB: … where there weren’t.\n14\n15 AJ: Where there weren’t, yes. [Laughs]. Same here.\n16\n17 MB: Okay. You know, uhm, we’re not often equipped with those and we’re not often given access to\n18 spaces to even like explore…\n19\n20 AJ: Right.\n21\n22 MB: … what those options look like in a group setting. Yeah, figure out what works, what doesn’t\n23 work.\n24\n25 AJ: Right.\n26\n27 MB: Uhm, so I’ve started more meditation and censoring and, uhm, I’ve just really tried to figure out\n28 what are the things that I need. I started therapy this year…\n29\n30 AJ: Wow.\n31\n32 MB: … with a black woman.\n33\n34 AJ: Uhuh.\n35\n36 MB: Uhm, yeah, there have been a number of changes so I’m super happy about being able to be\n37 slowly transformed into [laughs] a woman.\n38\n39 AJ: Cause it’s a process, right?\n40\n41 MB: Yeah.\n42\n43 AJ: It is a process, I mean, these things don’t happen overnight, you know?\n44\n45 MB: Right.\n46\nMicky Bradford Interview 7\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nAJ: There are lifestyle changes and, uhm, and, and the whole point of the leadership 1 self-care work\n2 is to be able to do our work more effectively and more holistically…\n3\n4 MB: Mh.\n5\n6 AJ: … uhm, I think, anyway, and so, uhm…\n7\n8 MB: Absolutely.\n9\n10 AJ: You know, I’m just thrilled to be a part of it to say that at least now I know that there are eight\n11 more healthier women…\n12\n13 MB: [Laughs].\n14\n15 AJ: … you know, I won’t say healthy but healthier, uhm, trans women out here lifting up trans\n16 voices, uhm, doing all of the amazing work that people are doing in their different lanes. Uhm,\n17 and, and what’s your work?\n18\n19 MB: My work, uh, is varied. I’m a cultural organizer…\n20\n21 AJ: Mhm.\n22\n23 MB: …. So I try to bring together both the arts and like how do we actually take our power back as a\n24 people, as a community.\n25\n26 AJ: Right. Right.\n27\n28 MB: Uhm…\n29\n30 AJ: I’m, I’m, you mentioned the arts and I’m just feeling this whole Grace Jones Strange vib…\n31\n32 MB: [Laughs]. Yeah.\n33\n34 AJ: … what you’re featuring. Thank you.\n35\n36 MB: Thank you.\n37\n38 AJ: Yes. [Laughs].\n39\n40 MB: Grace Jones is a huge inspiration for me.\n41\n42 AJ: Is that right?\n43\n44 MB: Oh god, yes. I have every single movie she’s ever been in. I’ve seen every single movie she’s ever\n45 been in.\n46\n47 AJ: Okay. Alright.\nMicky Bradford Interview 8\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\n1\n2 MB: I have her autobiography.\n3\n4 AJ: So you caught the Strange reference then.\n5\n6 MB: Oh, yes.\n7\n8 AJ: Yes.\n9\n10 MB: I know me some Strange.\n11\n12 AJ: Yes. [Laughs].\n13\n14 MB: We can talk more about that too.\n15\n16 AJ: Okay.\n17\n18 MB: But yeah, I’m, uhm…\n19\n20 AJ: But Grace was sort of this iconic androgynous sex positive…\n21\n22 MB: Yes.\n23\n24 AJ: Uhm, all up in her blackness.\n25\n26 MB: Unapologetically black.\n27\n28 AJ: Unapologetically black. Uhm…\n29\n30 MB: Her and Nina Simone are like dark skinned black women goals for me, like just unapologetic and\n31 beautiful and, uh…\n32\n33 AJ: But I think the most fascinating thing to me was her play with gender.\n34\n35 MB: Hm. And sexuality.\n36\n37 AJ: And sexuality.\n38\n39 MB: She would bring like these little white boys like up on stage.\n40\n41 AJ: Uhuh.\n42\n43 MB: And like basically like top them in front of the fucking audience.\n44\n45 AJ: Right. Exactly.\n46\nMicky Bradford Interview 9\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nMB: And people got into it. I was like, ooo. You can be a masculine woman. Oh, okay, 1 alright. You can\n2 be masculine and feminine.\n3\n4 AJ: Mhm.\n5\n6 MB: Oh my.\n7\n8 AJ: Yeah. She made space for all of that.\n9\n10 MB: She paved the way for that for sure.\n11\n12 AJ: Yeah. Where are you from?\n13\n14 MB: Uh, so that’s a hard question to answer.\n15\n16 AJ: Okay.\n17\n18 MB: I was born in Nuremberg, Germany on a military base.\n19\n20 AJ: Nuremberg, okay.\n21\n22 MB: My dad was in the army at the time.\n23\n24 AJ: Uhuh.\n25\n26 MB: Uh, but both of my parents are from Albany, Georgia.\n27\n28 AJ: Okay.\n29\n30 MB: So Southwest Georgia.\n31\n32 AJ: Uhuh. [Laughs].\n33\n34 MB: Mhm. And I spent every summer there.\n35\n36 AJ: Really? Did you have any… you were born in Nuremberg. Did you have any of your… growing up\n37 there or?\n38\n39 MB: We left pretty early after I was born, maybe about two, three years so I don’t remember any of\n40 it.\n41\n42 AJ: Yeah.\n43\n44 MB: Uhm, we went from there to South Korea. And I remember Christmas in Korea.\n45\n46 AJ: Oh wow. Okay.\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 10\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nMB: There was no Santa Claus. 1 There were no angels.\n2\n3 AJ: No trees.\n4\n5 MB: No trees, well… there were some trees. It was just presents. It was mostly just presents.\n6\n7 AJ: Okay.\n8\n9 MB: Like the entire Christian thing was removed and it was just a Capitalist kind of gift giving thing.\n10\n11 AJ: Right. Exactly.\n12\n13 MB: And I was like hey, that’s cool by me.\n14\n15 AJ: That’s cool, right. You’re like a baby basically right?\n16\n17 MB: Right.\n18\n19 AJ: [Laughs].\n20\n21 MB: I think we left when I was maybe about like nine, I think…\n22\n23 AJ: Uhuh.\n24\n25 MB: … in Korea.\n26\n27 AJ: In South Korea? Wow, okay, so you went to school there for a while.\n28\n29 MB: Yeah, for a little bit.\n30\n31 AJ: Uhuh. On base or in…\n32\n33 MB: On base.\n34\n35 AJ: On base.\n36\n37 MB: Always. I’ve lived on military bases almost my entire life.\n38\n39 AJ: Okay.\n40\n41 MB: Until I would move to Georgia, uhm, and then we moved to another military base, North\n42 Carolina Fayetteville.\n43\n44 AJ: Mhm.\n45\n46 MB: Another military base Fort Knox, Kentucky, past the goal vault every morning on my way to\n47 school.\nMicky Bradford Interview 11\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\n1\n2 AJ: Oh wow.\n3\n4 MB: Mhm.\n5\n6 AJ: [Laughs].\n7\n8 MB: And then we moved, uh, back to Atlanta, and that’s where I’ve been for the last…\n9\n10 AJ: So your father must have been like an officer or something. I mean, clearly career, military.\n11\n12 MB: Yes.\n13\n14 AJ: Was he ranked or?\n15\n16 MB: Oh, josh, you gonna have me lie. I don’t know what that man’s rank was. Military was never very\n17 interested in me.\n18\n19 AJ: Okay.\n20\n21 MB: All I know is that he trained in the National Guard.\n22\n23 AJ: Uhuh.\n24\n25 MB: Uhm, and he was some kind of, oh god, I wanna say I know the name. I know lieutenant was in\n26 the title. That’s what I know.\n27\n28 AJ: Right. Okay.\n29\n30 MB: I hope he’s not going to watch this and be like, “You don’t know my fucking title?” [Laughs].\n31\n32 AJ: Oh wow. Uhm, so growing up, what was it like? Were you… well, let me ask you this question.\n33 When did you first recognize your gender was not like…\n34\n35 MB: Other kids.\n36\n37 AJ: … other kids.\n38\n39 MB: Uhm, I wanna say it was…\n40\n41 AJ: And I should say other kids assigned male at birth.\n42\n43 MB: Yeah.\n44\n45 AJ: Yeah.\n46\n47 MB: I wanna say it was probably really early on like…\nMicky Bradford Interview 12\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\n1\n2 AJ: Really?\n3\n4 MB: … Kindergarten, first grade, uhm, I remember always being singled out for being more feminine.\n5\n6 AJ: Mhm.\n7\n8 MB: Uhm, but other kids of, uhm, girls, boys, adults, uhm, would comment on my femininity to my\n9 parents.\n10\n11 AJ: Really?\n12\n13 MB: Mhm.\n14\n15 AJ: Did you have problems in schools and in the neighborhoods and all of that kind of stuff?\n16\n17 MB: No, no one like tried to beat me up or anything.\n18\n19 AJ: Okay. That’s good.\n20\n21 MB: That was, yeah, uhm, but it did kind of make me a little distant from folks.\n22\n23 AJ: Right. Mhm.\n24\n25 MB: And remember we’re like moving around like every couple of years. [Snaps fingers].\n26\n27 AJ: Right.\n28\n29 MB: Keep making new friends.\n30\n31 AJ: Mhm.\n32\n33 MB: Uhm, but that was a constant theme everywhere I went.\n34\n35 AJ: Uh, what about siblings. Did you have siblings?\n36\n37 MB: Yeah! Oh my god, we have a big family. So I have an older half-brother…\n38\n39 AJ: Uhuh.\n40\n41 MB: … who I grew up with until I was about ten. He moved out. Uhm, he’s about ten years older than\n42 me.\n43\n44 AJ: Okay.\n45\n46 MB: Uhm, and I’m twenty-six.\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 13\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\n1 AJ: Right, okay.\n2\n3 MB: So he’s thirty-six. Uhm, I have an older half-sister. Same dad. Different mom.\n4\n5 AJ: Mhm.\n6\n7 MB: Uhm, she’s married, lives in Georgia. Another older half-sister. Same dad. Different mom.\n8\n9 AJ: Okay.\n10\n11 MB: From…\n12\n13 AJ: Different mom from the other half-sister with the different mom.\n14\n15 MB: And different mom from my older brother.\n16\n17 AJ: Oh wow. Okay.\n18\n19 MB: And then there’s my little sister.\n20\n21 AJ: Oh, it’s kind of a rolling stone, huh? [Laughs].\n22\n23 MB: You caught that?\n24\n25 AJ: [Laughs].\n26\n27 MB: He got around.\n28\n29 AJ: Yeah.\n30\n31 MB: My dad’s pretty cute. I don’t know.\n32\n33 AJ: Okay.\n34\n35 MB: We’ve got good looks in our family.\n36\n37 AJ: Right. Right.\n38\n39 MB: [Laughs].\n40\n41 AJ: [Laughs].\n42\n43 MB: I think he took advantage of that.\n44\n45 AJ: Yeah, no shame, no shame. Uhm…\n46\nMicky Bradford Interview 14\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nMB: But that’s my family. My parents have been married, uhm, gosh, how long 1 has it been now?\n2 Twenty-three years, I think?\n3\n4 AJ: Mh.\n5\n6 MB: Twenty-three. Something like that.\n7\n8 AJ: So were your siblings… mean, accepting, like were they protective of you or were they just\n9 grown and gone? [Laughs].\n10\n11 MB: Here’s the thing about southern folks. They’re never, well, I shouldn’t say never right? Rarely\n12 have I experienced folks being, uhm, sort of just mean, right?\n13\n14 AJ: Mhm.\n15\n16 MB: It’s always kind of more like a, a pulling back.\n17\n18 AJ: Hm.\n19\n20 MB: It’s more of a, uh, we just won’t talk about that. Very Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell type of policy.\n21\n22 AJ: Mhm, mhm. Yeah.\n23\n24 MB: Uhm, and sometimes that can be even more hurtful.\n25\n26 AJ: That can be painful. Yeah. Absolutely.\n27\n28 MB: I would love a clash. Let’s clash. Let’s talk it out.\n29\n30 AJ: Right? And then just get it over with, right? [Laughs].\n31\n32 MB: Done. Have the drama be done.\n33\n34 AJ: Yeah.\n35\n36 MB: But, no, they’re not people who do that but I am, uhm, out to all of my family as trans.\n37\n38 AJ: Really?\n39\n40 MB: Yeah.\n41\n42 AJ: How does that, how does that go over?\n43\n44 MB: Ha! Oh my gosh, so, uhm, quick story, so I was hanging out with my parents in New Orleans…\n45\n46 AJ: Mhm.\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 15\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nMB: They just happened to be visiting for Essence Festival. I was 1 there for work.\n2\n3 AJ: Right.\n4\n5 MB: We were there with some family friends. We were hanging out or whatever. It was all going\n6 great.\n7\n8 AJ: Mhm.\n9\n10 MB: And later my mom was like, “Yeah, you know, we want to spend Thanksgiving with them too\n11 and want to go to a cabin.” And I was like, “Oh, cool, well, you know, I don’t want to go to a\n12 cabin and be stuck in that space with folks who are gonna be calling me he/him/him…\n13\n14 AJ: Right. Uhuh.\n15\n16 MB: … all the time. Uhm, and so I was like, “You know, if you— I think y’all should have a\n17 conversation with them or I can have a conversation with them, but I think we should talk about\n18 it cause I’m not gonna… I just don’t do that.”\n19\n20 AJ: Right. Uhuh.\n21\n22 MB: And my mom was just, she sat with it for a little bit…\n23\n24 AJ: Yeah.\n25\n26 MB: She got quiet. And then she said, and I will never forget, “Well, I just don’t want Thanksgiving to\n27 be a downer.”\n28\n29 AJ: Uhuh.\n30\n31 MB: And I said, “Oh, okay. My gender makes Thanksgiving a downer.”\n32\n33 AJ: Oh boy.\n34\n35 MB: So I was just like, “Okay, that’s…” So my family is trying but…\n36\n37 AJ: So this is, this upcoming, this upcoming…\n38\n39 MB: This upcoming.\n40\n41 AJ: … Thanksgiving. This was not a Thanksgiving past.\n42\n43 MB: No. This, this upcoming Thanksgiving…\n44\n45 AJ: Hm.\n46\nMicky Bradford Interview 16\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nMB: … which I will not be spending with them because I’m not gonna have 1 somebody call out my\n2 name.\n3\n4 AJ: No, yeah. Absolutely.\n5\n6 MB: I worked hard.\n7\n8 AJ: Uhm, wow.\n9\n10 MB: Besides that, though, my family is pretty good around trying to work and understand…\n11\n12 AJ: Mhm.\n13\n14 MB: … uhm, my gender transition.\n15\n16 AJ: Sure.\n17\n18 MB: They’ve come to drag shows back when I was [laughs], you know, tearing up the stage. [Laughs].\n19 My dad would have a camera and be like, “That’s my son, my daughter, I mean, uh, you go girl.”\n20\n21 AJ: I mean, uhm, [Laughs].\n22\n23 MB: His little camcorder. I used to steal my mom’s clothes and go and go and perform. Her little\n24 wigs, her little afro wigs, it was everything.\n25\n26 AJ: Cause I think you mentioned to me that you’re, you’re gonna go back home for a little bit.\n27\n28 MB: Yeah.\n29\n30 AJ: Mhm.\n31\n32 MB: Yeah.\n33\n34 AJ: So…\n35\n36 MB: It should be interesting.\n37\n38 AJ: Yeah.\n39\n40 MB: They call me she and her now so that’s a good change.\n41\n42 AJ: Yeah. So it’s gonna work out.\n43\n44 MB: I think it will work out for the time being. I don’t try to stay there more than I need to.\n45\n46 AJ: Right. Exactly.\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 17\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nMB: But they’ve had an evolution, and my parents have, uhm, really tried to, I think, 1 increase their\n2 knowledge of LGBTQ folks…\n3\n4 AJ: Wow.\n5\n6 MB: … since I’ve come out multiple times to them. [Laughs].\n7\n8 AJ: Okay. [Laughs].\n9\n10 MB: Gender, sexuality, all of that.\n11\n12 AJ: How many times have you come out?\n13\n14 MB: Oh god, uhm…\n15\n16 AJ: And as what?\n17\n18 MB: [Laughs]. Uhm, first I came out as bisexual.\n19\n20 AJ: Mhm.\n21\n22 MB: Then I came out as gay.\n23\n24 AJ: Mhm.\n25\n26 MB: And then I came out as queer.\n27\n28 AJ: Yeah.\n29\n30 MB: And then I came out as non-binary.\n31\n32 AJ: Wow.\n33\n34 MB: Then I came out as a woman. And then came out as a queer trans woman, uhm…\n35\n36 AJ: Wow.\n37\n38 MB: Yeah, and that’s where we are right now…\n39\n40 AJ: [Laughs].\n41\n42 MB: … six coming outs. [Laughs].\n43\n44 AJ: [Laughs]. Trans woman, then queer trans woman right?\n45\n46 MB: Yeah. And I don’t think… I haven’t come out to my parents as a queer trans woman yet.\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 18\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\n1 AJ: Okay.\n2\n3 MB: They’ve met— uhm, uh, this girl that I dated but they didn’t know that we were dating.\n4\n5 AJ: Okay. So what does queer trans woman mean to you?\n6\n7 MB: It just means that my sexuality isn’t limited to whatever somebody’s body is like… [Laughs]. My\n8 sexuality is like if you are a top we got, we have business.\n9\n10 AJ: We good, we good.\n11\n12 MB: Okay, we good. I don’t care what the gender is.\n13\n14 AJ: So are you dating a cis woman now or the woman, I don’t know if I should use that frame.\n15\n16 MB: No. No, she identifies as a cis or I would say she more GNC but anyway, no we’re not dating\n17 anymore.\n18\n19 AJ: Okay.\n20\n21 MB: I’m single as a pringle.\n22\n23 AJ: Alrighty. [Laughs]. Very good. Uh, wow, that is a lot of coming out.\n24\n25 MB: Yeah. [Laughs]. The spectrum of gender and sexuality.\n26\n27 AJ: I’ve come out multiple, multiple times to my family so I can relate.\n28\n29 MB: [Laughs].\n30\n31 AJ: Uhm, so you went to high school in Albany then?\n32\n33 MB: No, I went to high school in Lawrenceville which is about an hour in the suburbs outside of\n34 Atlanta.\n35\n36 AJ: Okay.\n37\n38 MB: And that’s been my last two, three years there.\n39\n40 AJ: Yeah.\n41\n42 MB: Transferred in, had to make friends and all of that. It was cute.\n43\n44 AJ: What about college?\n45\n46 MB: College I went to Georgia State University.\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 19\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\n1 AJ: Alright.\n2\n3 MB: And that when I started organizing in Atlanta.\n4\n5 AJ: Okay. And that’s when you started organizing. So talk, talk to me a little bit about this arts\n6 organizing that you do.\n7\n8 MB: I am the cofounder and organizer of Southern Fried Queer Pride Festival.\n9\n10 AJ: Uhuh.\n11\n12 MB: I’m super excited because we started…\n13\n14 AJ: Southern Fried Queer Pride Festival?\n15\n16 MB: Yes.\n17\n18 AJ: Okay. [Laughs].\n19\n20 MB: Yes. You gotta have your southern pride.\n21\n22 AJ: When is the happening?\n23\n24 MB: It’s, uhm, it changes. It’s usually around Stonewall every year.\n25\n26 AJ: Okay.\n27\n28 MB: For the last three years.\n29\n30 AJ: So Pride-ish kind of time of the year?\n31\n32 MB: Yeah. But we try to really center art and culture.\n33\n34 AJ: Right.\n35\n36 MB: Uhm, and try to actually like move a more radical politic cause we need to see that happenin’.\n37\n38 AJ: Right. Right. Uhm, so it’s, it’s music, it’s dance, it’s performance, and visual art.\n39\n40 MB: Mhm. Art galleries. We do, uh, gallery submission.\n41\n42 AJ: Mhm.\n43\n44 MB: Uhm, there’s puppetry [laughs], comedians, uh, variety show, workshops.\n45\n46 AJ: Is it a multiple day event?\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 20\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\n1 MB: Oh yeah.\n2\n3 AJ: Mhm.\n4\n5 MB: It’s a weeklong thing.\n6\n7 AJ: Oh, it’s a week long.\n8\n9 MB: It’s a weeklong thing. It takes a lot of energy, a lot of people.\n10\n11 AJ: Right. Wow. Yeah. That is organizing.\n12\n13 MB: [Laughs].\n14\n15 AJ: Uhm, what’s the importance for organizing around art in your opinion?\n16\n17 MB: It’s necessary. I, I don’t think that we can have actual movements without art. I don’t think that\n18 we can have conversations, uhm, about actually how these issues affect us.\n19\n20 AJ: Mhm.\n21\n22 MB: Like, in our bodies, in our hearts, in our families, in our emotions, in our spirits. Like we can’t\n23 have those conversations…\n24\n25 AJ: Right.\n26\n27 MB: … as deeply without art as a medium to actually bare the soul and actually be vulnerable.\n28\n29 AJ: Mhm. Wow, that’s beautiful. Uhm…\n30\n31 MB: Otherwise everything is so surface level and theory and nah.\n32\n33 AJ: And so what’s your artistic expression?\n34\n35 MB: I’m a performance artist.\n36\n37 AJ: Yeah. [Laughs].\n38\n39 MB: I did this one performance, uhm, it was in like drag, uhm, where I had this film playing on the\n40 screen in the back of me…\n41\n42 AJ: Mhm, mhm.\n43\n44 MB: … while I’m dancin’.\n45\n46 AJ: Right.\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 21\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nMB: Sade’s Is it a 1 Crime is playing.\n2\n3 AJ: [Singing] Is it a crime?\n4\n5 MB: Yes, exactly. And it’s a whole piece around, uhm, the fetishization and criminalization of black\n6 queer folks, black trans folks.\n7\n8 AJ: Right.\n9\n10 MB: Uhm, and so I have white people come up and lick chocolate off of me.\n11\n12 AJ: Oh. Oh, interesting.\n13\n14 MB: Yes. And at a certain point in the performance they realize, “Oh, this is bad. I’m not supposed,\n15 this is racist. Oh, my god, I’m participating in racism.” And I’m just living it up, of course.\n16\n17 AJ: Right.\n18\n19 MB: And then the black people are getting like, “Oh, my god I love this.” [Laughs]. You’re\n20 embarrassing all of them.\n21\n22 AJ: Wow. Exactly.\n23\n24 MB: So that’s my work.\n25\n26 AJ: You’re a little sticky but it was worth it I would take it.\n27\n28 MB: Oh absolutely. I love to be naked.\n29\n30 AJ: [Laughs].\n31\n32 MB: And fucking have things all over my body, oh my god yes.\n33\n34 AJ: Wow. That’s incredible.\n35\n36 MB: [Laughs].\n37\n38 AJ: Uhm…\n39\n40 MB: Thank you.\n41\n42 AJ: So, uhm, what kind of challenges have you personally faced since you’ve come out as a trans…?\n43\n44 MB: Oh, god.\n45\n46 AJ: … a queer trans woman?\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 22\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nMB: Right. You know, [laughs], it ain’t easy being a trans woman out 1 here, you know?\n2\n3 AJ: Mhm.\n4\n5 MB: Uhm…\n6\n7 AJ: I mean you talked about you’re probably gonna have to miss Thanksgiving this year.\n8\n9 MB: Mmm.\n10\n11 AJ: That’s, that’s a challenge even though you understand and respect and, you know, I’m sure\n12 mom is gonna cook you a turkey before they go to camp or [laughs] after they get back or\n13 something but…\n14\n15 MB: Hopefully I get something.\n16\n17 AJ: Yeah.\n18\n19 MB: A little tofu loaf, I don’t know.\n20\n21 AJ: [Laughs].\n22\n23 MB: Uhm, I don’t know, [sighs], I think it’s just extremely isolating.\n24\n25 AJ: Mmm.\n26\n27 MB: That’s just what I have to say…\n28\n29 AJ: Yeah.\n30\n31 MB: … in terms of challenges. It’s just the, the anxiety, the depression, all of it, uhm, I think has been\n32 real isolating, and it makes it hard to, to speak sometimes. It makes it hard to believe in your\n33 voice and the power of your voice and the validity of, of your voice, uhm, of my voice.\n34\n35 AJ: Right.\n36\n37 MB: Yeah. I think it’s been hard to, to love myself. To actually be like, “Oh, this body is fine. This body\n38 is lovely.”\n39\n40 AJ: Are you getting closer to that?\n41\n42 MB: Absolutely. Everyday. [Laughs]. I mean, honestly, I used to be that kid that was just like super,\n43 super angry all the time…\n44\n45 AJ: Right.\n46\nMicky Bradford Interview 23\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nMB: Uhm, did not know what to do with that shit. I was slamming doors, oh my 1 god, I don’t know\n2 how my parents live with me.\n3\n4 AJ: Yes. [Laughs].\n5\n6 MB: Uhm, and I don’t have…\n7\n8 AJ: And now you’re like the most joyful person ever.\n9\n10 MB: [Laughs]. I’m not the most joyful person ever.\n11\n12 AJ: Maybe not the most joyful person ever but I’ve experienced you as joyful in our interactions\n13 together. Thoughtful and, uhm, certainly sort of like appropriately in whatever the situation is,\n14 whether it’s a deep serious conversation or just with the children, I mean, but there’s always a\n15 joyfulness, and maybe, maybe it’s your youthfulness that, uh…\n16\n17 MB: [Laughs].\n18\n19 AJ: … that sort of facilitates some of that but, uhm…\n20\n21 MB: [Laughs]. Fifty, fifty.\n22\n23 AJ: … it’s a beautiful thing to be around you and, and it comes off on other people…\n24\n25 MB: Cute.\n26\n27 AJ: … or at least me anyways. Yeah, so, uhm…\n28\n29 MB: That’s my work though is to bring joy…\n30\n31 AJ: Mhm.\n32\n33 MB: … is just to always try to see things better than they are. I mean that’s the social justice work.\n34 That shit is depressing and thankless.\n35\n36 AJ: It’s hard. It’s very hard work. It’s thankless as, as fuck.\n37\n38 MB: [Laughs].\n39\n40 AJ: It’s thankless as fuck. Like, nobody sees you, uh, ever.\n41\n42 MB: And we are not getting paid.\n43\n44 AJ: Unless you are superbly, beautifully, uh, [laughs], trans.\n45\n46 MB: Mm.\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 24\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nAJ: [Laughs]. And, you know, and not to say that we aren’t beautiful but we, I don’t 1 meet the sort of\n2 standards of beauty that others have deemed acceptable.\n3\n4 MB: Or as like to be lifted up as an example of black transness.\n5\n6 AJ: Right. Exactly. And so consequently, uhm, that’s a thing. But speaking of joy what are the joys\n7 that you’ve experienced since coming out as QTW.\n8\n9 MB: QTW. Queer trans woman. [Laughs]. I’m gonna take that down. Put that on my HER account.\n10 [Laughs].\n11\n12 AJ: Right.\n13\n14 MB: [Laughs].\n15\n16 AJ: Which account?\n17\n18 MB: HER. The lesbian dating app.\n19\n20 AJ: Oh, okay.\n21\n22 MB: It’s where to find lesbians. [Laughs]. I’ll put that in there. Uhm, shit, the joy, the fucking joy is\n23 being in this damn community.\n24\n25 AJ: Mhm.\n26\n27 MB: Like I have never not been grateful for the fucking people that I have met in these years, uhm…\n28\n29 AJ: Wow.\n30\n31 MB: I wish, sorry [Tearing up].\n32\n33 AJ: It’s okay.\n34\n35 MB: Uhm, yeah, people have really showed up for me…\n36\n37 AJ: Yeah?\n38\n39 MB: … across the years, people have really fucking showed up for me from the time when I... Before I\n40 even knew…\n41\n42 AJ: Uhuh.\n43\n44 MB: … about my gender or my sexuality or was even kinda going through…\n45\n46 AJ: Right.\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 25\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nMB: … exploring 1 those, uhm…\n2\n3 AJ: Mhm.\n4\n5 MB: I mean, my fucking [laughs] non-black tiq uando instructors were like some of the first people\n6 to…\n7\n8 AJ: Really.\n9\n10 MB: … actually just be like, “You’re okay, you little weirdo.”\n11\n12 AJ: Awe. [Laughs].\n13\n14 MB: “We gonna take you to Dragoncon and we’re gonna talk to you about some gay shit.”\n15\n16 AJ: [Laughs]. Wow.\n17\n18 MB: “Even though you haven’t told us, but we’re gonna talk to you about this cause we know you\n19 wanna talk about gay shit.”\n20\n21 AJ: Right.\n22\n23 MB: They were so fucking cool.\n24\n25 AJ: Ah.\n26\n27 MB: And from like, that was me, god, fifteen, sixteen…\n28\n29 AJ: Mhm, mhm.\n30\n31 MB: … I was taking tiquando.\n32\n33 AJ: Right.\n34\n35 MB: Uhm, up until, I’m twenty-six now, and folks are still showing up for me just in the most amazing\n36 ways.\n37\n38 AJ: Wow.\n39\n40 MB: And just, yeah. So I’m super grateful to my community…\n41\n42 AJ: Mhm.\n43\n44 MB: … all the time.\n45\n46 AJ: Yeah. Have you, uhm, and, you know, please answer this question to the extent that you feel\n47 comfortable.\nMicky Bradford Interview 26\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\n1\n2 MB: Okay.\n3\n4 AJ: If you don’t feel comfortable at all you don’t have to answer it whatsoever but have you\n5 pursued or do you think you plan to pursue any medical, uhm, interventions as a part of your\n6 gender journey.\n7\n8 MB: Uhm, it’s been a thought for sure.\n9\n10 AJ: Mhm.\n11\n12 MB: Uhm, I think that there aren’t a whole lot of… I don’t know, just ways to be in the world as a\n13 femme male assigned at birth person.\n14\n15 AJ: Mhm.\n16\n17 MB: Uhm, and survive this world without some type of transitioning, I just, for me, right, that’s,\n18 that’s my narrative…\n19\n20 AJ: Mhm, mhm.\n21\n22 MB: … I just don’t think I can survive in this world not transitioning.\n23\n24 AJ: Wow. Mhm.\n25\n26 MB: And one day be able to somewhat pass. [Laughs].\n27\n28 AJ: I don’t think that’s your problem but… [Laughs].\n29\n30 MB: Yeah, no I’m, yeah. It’s, it’s definitely in the near future for me as well.\n31\n32 AJ: Hormones or...\n33\n34 MB: Absolutely. I love hormones.\n35\n36 AJ: Okay.\n37\n38 MB: I love hormones.\n39\n40 AJ: But you’re on hormones then?\n41\n42 MB: Yes.\n43\n44 AJ: Okay. Alright. Cool. And they’re giving you the desired effects? [Laughs].\n45\n46 MB: Yeah, yeah, yeah, they’re coming through.\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 27\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nAJ: Yeah, it’s coming through 1 this moment. [Laughs].\n2\n3 MB: [Laughs]. She’s doing what she’s supposed to.\n4\n5 AJ: Do what you do, baby girl. [Laughs].\n6\n7 MB: Yeah. But I am, yeah, I’m weighing my options around surgery and things like that.\n8\n9 AJ: Uhuh.\n10\n11 MB: I don’t think right now that I want FFS, facial feminization surgery.\n12\n13 AJ: Right.\n14\n15 MB: Uhm, I just wanna, I remember there was a… I can’t remember when but it was an interview\n16 that Amiyah Scott gave…\n17\n18 AJ: Uhuh.\n19\n20 MB: … where she said, uhm…\n21\n22 AJ: Amiyah.\n23\n24 MB: Amiyah.\n25\n26 AJ: Uhuh.\n27\n28 MB: … where she said give your body five years. Like just five years on hormones.\n29\n30 AJ: Mhm.\n31\n32 MB: If you can do that and you can actually see yourself like…\n33\n34 AJ: Sure.\n35\n36 MB: … in your actual body as it is.\n37\n38 AJ: Uhuh.\n39\n40 MB: Uhm, then you can start to make more decisions about what surgical options and other things.\n41\n42 AJ: Mhm.\n43\n44 MB: And I was like that feels right for me. I just wanna be at home in my body.\n45\n46 AJ: Right.\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 28\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nMB: Uhm, and I want to see what this 1 body is capable of.\n2\n3 AJ: Mhm.\n4\n5 MB: You know, with a different balance of hormones.\n6\n7 AJ: That’s, that’s, that’s a good, uhm, good advice. I mean, you know, it’s one way of thinking about\n8 it.\n9\n10 MB: Yeah.\n11\n12 AJ: I’m sure other people have other ideas but, uhm, no, uhm, so I’m just gonna switch gears a little\n13 bit cause you talked about…\n14\n15 MB: Switch it up.\n16\n17 AJ: … Southern Fried…\n18\n19 MB: Queer Pride.\n20\n21 AJ: Queer Pride.\n22\n23 MB: Yes.\n24\n25 AJ: Uh, but I know you also do some other work too for the Transgender Law Center.\n26\n27 MB: I do. I’ve been working for the Transgender Law Center for the last… almost three years.\n28\n29 AJ: Mhm.\n30\n31 MB: Uhm.\n32\n33 AJ: In partnership with SONG?\n34\n35 MB: With Southerners on New Ground.\n36\n37 AJ: Yes. [Laughs].\n38\n39 MB: Give it to it. Twenty-five years of organizing and sass. [Laughs].\n40\n41 AJ: Wooh. Absolutely. Would a strong, queer, and trans, uh…\n42\n43 MB: Feminist.\n44\n45 AJ: … feminist analysis around the intersectional work that you guys do? So tell me a little bit about\n46 that work.\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 29\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nMB: Yeah, my work, uhm, in the last three years has mostly been, uhm, about going 1 on this listening\n2 tour at the south…\n3\n4 AJ: Mhm.\n5\n6 MB: … and really trying to understand what are the conditions, uhm, not just the conditions that\n7 people are under…\n8\n9 AJ: Mhm.\n10\n11 MB: … in different southern towns and cities but what, what are the ways in which people are\n12 practicing resilience?\n13\n14 AJ: Right.\n15\n16 MB: What are the new strategies that are emerging? What are the, the bleeding points in terms of\n17 jails, immigration, uhm, public health…\n18\n19 AJ: Mhm.\n20\n21 MB: … uhm, criminalization, right, of so many things: behavior, HIV, all the things. What are those\n22 bleeding points and where do people actually want to build power, right? Where do people\n23 want to come together and, and actually build a campaign to actually win some shit?\n24\n25 AJ: Mhm.\n26\n27 MB: Not just policy, not just a fucking reform but literally how do we want to come together to\n28 change hearts and minds…\n29\n30 AJ: Right.\n31\n32 MB: … across like all of these similar, very similar towns.\n33\n34 AJ: Mhm.\n35\n36 MB: Yeah.\n37\n38 AJ: Wow, that’s amazing.\n39\n40 MB: Yeah.\n41\n42 AJ: That’s amazing. It is draining. I would, I’m not even imagining cause I do a lot of that kind of\n43 work and so I know that it can be depleting and but by the end of the day it’s really, you know,\n44 trying to create space and trying to, uhm, create opportunities for other trans and queer\n45 communities to, to lift themselves up…\n46\n47 MB: Yeah.\nMicky Bradford Interview 30\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\n1\n2 AJ: … that’s positive and that’s powerful.\n3\n4 MB: Yeah.\n5\n6 AJ: Yeah.\n7\n8 MB: Sometimes it looks like, you know, uh, one of the only black trans women living in Fayetteville,\n9 Arkansas.\n10\n11 AJ: Right.\n12\n13 MB: You know, who’s, oh gosh, how old is she? Probably like into her sixties. She’s in her sixties.\n14\n15 AJ: Oh my goodness. Wow.\n16\n17 MB: Uhm, and then having her sit down…\n18\n19 AJ: Talk about isolation.\n20\n21 MB: Right! Right? Oh gosh, have her sit down with, you know, a twenty-five-year-old black trans\n22 woman…\n23\n24 AJ: Mhm.\n25\n26 MB: … uhm, and have them have intergenerational conversation about their organizing, about\n27 growing up, about what their state needs, what their community needs.\n28\n29 AJ: Mhm.\n30\n31 MB: That’s the type of work that makes me happy.\n32\n33 AJ: Wow.\n34\n35 MB: That’s to type of work I like to do.\n36\n37 AJ: Uhuh. Wow, that’s fascinating. Uhm, have you had any challenges in healthcare or police or\n38 school or institutions? How do you navigate institutions as a queer black trans woman?\n39\n40 MB: Oh. [Makes clicking noise with mouth]. Name some more institutions to get my mind rolling.\n41\n42 AJ: Yeah, uhm, the medical industry, uhm, the police department, the DMV, uh [laughs], you know,\n43 colleges. Were you able to get your transcripts name changed or?\n44\n45 MB: Uh, I’m real lazy with that stuff to be honest.\n46\n47 AJ: Okay.\nMicky Bradford Interview 31\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\n1\n2 MB: All my ID stuff has not been changed over yet.\n3\n4 AJ: Tell me about your name. Micky.\n5\n6 MB: [Laughs]. I chose it when I was like, what? Five, six, seven? I was seven. I was seven when I chose\n7 my name.\n8\n9 AJ: Oh wow.\n10\n11 MB: Because no one could freaking pronounce my birth name which is German.\n12\n13 AJ: Uhuh. Okay.\n14\n15 MB: I’m not going to say it.\n16\n17 AJ: Not gonna say it, okay.\n18\n19 MB: Uhm, but folks can look that up or whatever.\n20\n21 AJ: Right.\n22\n23 MB: But folks cannot pronounce it when we got over to the states.\n24\n25 AJ: Sure.\n26\n27 MB: So I was like just call me Micky.\n28\n29 AJ: Uhuh.\n30\n31 MB: And Micky has been my name ever since.\n32\n33 AJ: So literally you don’t really have to, I mean…\n34\n35 MB: Nope, I’m Micky to everybody.\n36\n37 AJ: Yeah.\n38\n39 MB: And that’s gender neutral enough for me.\n40\n41 AJ: Yeah, absolutely. Wow. So at seven you were like, “I’m going with this.”\n42\n43 MB: I knew who the fuck I was.\n44\n45 AJ: [Laughs].\n46\n47 MB: Yes. This is me.\nMicky Bradford Interview 32\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\n1\n2 AJ: Wow.\n3\n4 MB: Call me this not that.\n5\n6 AJ: That’s adorable. So you’re in the game. You’re like doing this leadership work. You’re organizing\n7 with one of the most venerable sort of queer people of color groups in the nation. SONG, I\n8 mean. People are just bow down.\n9\n10 MB: [Laughs].\n11\n12 AJ: What do you see as the future of the trans community?\n13\n14 MB: Oh wow. That’s broad.\n15\n16 AJ: The future of the trans and gender non-conforming community, I should say.\n17\n18 MB: Uhm, in terms of what? [Laughs].\n19\n20 AJ: Uhm, in terms of access. In terms of growth and development. In terms of, uhm, what are the\n21 political structures within the community that are around to support that kind of growth like,\n22 uhm, I mean, so TLC is one of those.\n23\n24 MB: Right.\n25\n26 AJ: The Transgender Law Center is one of the pillars that is sort of helping to sustain and, uhm,\n27 breathe life into the movement. [Laughs]. If you will. There’s organizations like TWOC, Trans\n28 Women of Color Collective and so, it, my question is, you know, given the fact that we’re now in\n29 an age where trans organizing and trans lib organizations are real…\n30\n31 MB: Mhm.\n32\n33 AJ: … and functioning. Uhm, what, what should our agenda be and, and where are we going in the\n34 future?\n35\n36 MB: [Sighs]. Okay, so, couple of things. I want to name that I feel like we’re moving from what I saw\n37 as a movement, uhm, of leaders, uhm, where we have a model where you are a trans leader\n38 over here. You’re a trans leader over here in this place. You’re a trans leader over. We’re gonna\n39 bring all of y’all together…\n40\n41 AJ: Mhm.\n42\n43 MB: … and then we’re going to give you resources. We’re going to train you. We’re going to send you\n44 to places, and we’re going to try to support your growth, your leadership, your organizations\n45 that you started, your community groups.\n46\n47 AJ: Right.\nMicky Bradford Interview 33\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\n1\n2 MB: Uhm, and I think that also fits in line with a particular identity politic that folks are trying to\n3 understand where they’re like, “This is my identity. I’m a trans woman, and my relationship is\n4 this to cis women. My relationship is this to GNC people, and my relationship is this to other\n5 trans women, right?”\n6\n7 AJ: Mhm, mhm.\n8\n9 MB: Uhm, and I think that’s dope. And it also doesn’t necessarily allow us to build as strong of a\n10 gender justice movement as I want. Uhm, because it’s so individualized, and it’s so like, “Well,\n11 you’re a leader so we’re gonna build you up and hopefully you’ll build up other leaders.”\n12\n13 AJ: Right.\n14\n15 MB: Versus what I feel like we’re moving into now is more having a leader-full movement, right,\n16 where everybody’s leadership is valued, where there are more people being brought to the\n17 table, where, uhm, it’s not necessarily so much about a particular, uhm, activist but it’s actually\n18 shifting to be more about organizing and base building…\n19\n20 AJ: Sure.\n21\n22 MB: … and campaigns. Uhm, and getting those specific skills and that’s a whole, it’s a whole different\n23 ball game to me, uhm, to be an activist versus an organizer. And I feel like trans movement is\n24 moving towards more organizing, more community building, more, uhm, popular education and\n25 leadership development of all of us…\n26\n27 AJ: Mhm.\n28\n29 MB: … and moving towards an analysis that’s like actually, uh, cis women, trans women, GNC folks\n30 across the spectrum actually need to all be having conversations together. We can still have\n31 autonomous discussion…\n32\n33 AJ: Right, right.\n34\n35 MB: … but we’re all trying to have like more discussions and more strategies that actually build a\n36 movement of gender justice because we can’t do it by ourselves. There’s absolutely no way.\n37\n38 AJ: There’s no way.\n39\n40 MB: Patriarchy is fucking huge, and it’s the oldest goddamn oppression in the world like…\n41\n42 AJ: Right.\n43\n44 MB: … we gotta, you know?\n45\n46 AJ: Yeah, it’s gonna take a whole group of people to bring it down. So including in coalition with cis\n47 women…\nMicky Bradford Interview 34\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\n1\n2 MB: Mhm. We gotta learn how to work with them.\n3\n4 AJ: … black women and white women, particularly white women, cause they, they got some work to\n5 do.\n6\n7 MB: Mhm. [Laughs].\n8\n9 AJ: Uhm, wow. Great, great response Micky. Let me ask you this. And this will be our last question.\n10 Uhm, how do I frame this? Well, you know, I’m just gonna give it to you.\n11\n12 MB: Sure.\n13\n14 AJ: Is there anything that I didn’t ask you that you feel compelled to be sure is a part of this\n15 conversation?\n16\n17 MB: Oh my… [Sighs].\n18\n19 AJ: You could name some names and lift up some people. You can say a prayer. You can… [Laughs].\n20 You know, I mean, whatever. There’s no, there’s no rules.\n21\n22 MB: I want to see a movement of joy.\n23\n24 AJ: Mm.\n25\n26 MB: I want to see a movement of hope. I want to see art that reminds us to look for the, the light\n27 that comes through even when you’re looking at a brick wall.\n28\n29 AJ: Uhuh.\n30\n31 MB: And you feel like there’s no way to move past this…\n32\n33 AJ: Right. [Laughs].\n34\n35 MB: … with a little bit of light shining through the cracks. How do we…\n36\n37 AJ: And there is like literally a brick wall right outside of our window. [Laughs].\n38\n39 MB: [Laughs]. I got a little bit inspired.\n40\n41 AJ: Yes.\n42\n43 MB: Uhm, but that’s what I want desperately is just a movement of joy and hope. Uhm, and the\n44 word is overused but resilience.\n45\n46 AJ: Oh, it’s, resilience is critical though.\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 35\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nMB: 1 Abso-fucking-lutely.\n2\n3 AJ: It is anti-black, anti-trans, anti-woman.\n4\n5 MB: Anti-immigrant, fucking deeply rightwing, deeply about criminalizing every goddamn thing we\n6 do.\n7\n8 AJ: Right. So I think resilience is, however overstated, it is still a, a value and a condition that we\n9 must continue to, uhm, strive for.\n10\n11 MB: Abso-fucking-lutely. But it, it needs to show up in this like, when I say that I also mean that in\n12 our, the ways in which we talk about trans movement.\n13\n14 AJ: Mhm.\n15\n16 MB: Like trans girl to trans girl…\n17\n18 AJ: Yes.\n19\n20 MB: … the joys and all of that comes through.\n21\n22 AJ: Mhm.\n23\n24 MB: Popular culture though, absolutely not. I don’t feel like there’s any type of balance, uhm,\n25 conversation around who actually trans people are or what has been our movement, where\n26 have we been in other movements, immigrant justice movements. Where have we been in the\n27 movements against criminalization and against jails and prisons.\n28\n29 AJ: Mhm. Sure.\n30\n31 MB: Uhm, and there’s a… I just think that that joy, that that hope, it seeps into everything. It, it\n32 makes you wanna [signs] shift your perspective to look for more, to look for the solution, to look\n33 for the way out, to look for solutions that actually we weren’t thinking about before, to be more\n34 creative, to be more bold and vulnerable. It just, I wanna see, and this is why I believe so much\n35 in art and the power of centering our cultural work…\n36\n37 AJ: Mhm.\n38\n39 MB: You just can’t have that without art. You can’t have folks believing in this shit deeply within their\n40 fucking spirits without singing…\n41\n42 AJ: Yes.\n43\n44 MB: … and dancing and drag queens.\n45\n46 AJ: Oh my goodness, yes.\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 36\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nMB: You literally cannot have, this is the reason why I feel so connected to 1 Sylvia and Marsha and\n2 Miss Major is because all these girls were showgirls. All of them were performers.\n3\n4 AJ: Mhm. Absolutely.\n5\n6 MB: Every single one of them was like, “I’m gonna get up in your face and change your fucking\n7 perspective.”\n8\n9 AJ: Right.\n10\n11 MB: Now go out and be happy.\n12\n13 AJ: [Laughs].\n14\n15 MB: What the hell you got to be sad about? You ain’t me bitch. [Laughs]. And look at me. I’m fucking\n16 joyous. I’m up here giving you life.\n17\n18 AJ: Yes.\n19\n20 MB: Look at how I pulled through this struggle, this sorrow.\n21\n22 AJ: Life.\n23\n24 MB: Right.\n25\n26 AJ: You give me life, [singing] Micky.\n27\n28 MB: [Laughs].\n29\n30 AJ: [Still singing]. Oh, Micky. Micky, Micky, Micky.\n31\n32 MB: Say my name, say my name.\n33\n34 AJ: [Singing]. You are a beautiful creation, a gift to the universe, Micky.\n35\n36 MB: Thank you.\n37\n38 AJ: Thank you so much for this joyous…\n39\n40 MB: [Laughs].\n41\n42 AJ: … conversation.\n43\n44 MB: It was joyous.\n45\n46 AJ: Uhm, I’m deeply humbled and honored and, uhm, until we meet again my friend.\n47\nMicky Bradford Interview 37\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nMB: Absolutely. Thank you so much 1 for having me.\n2\n3 AJ: [Kissing noise]. Peace.\n4\n5 MB: [Laughs].\n6\n7 AJ: [Laughs].\n8\n9 MB: Oh, gosh.", "_version_": 1710339101650059264, "type": "Moving Image", "collection": "p16022coll97", "is_compound": false, "parent_id": "71", "thumb_url": "https://cdnapisec.kaltura.com/p/1369852/thumbnail/entry_id/0_spvtp75k", "thumb_cdn_url": "https://dkp5i0hinw9br.cloudfront.net/cd0b06335a51d7d3f69d6a78a062ef1c41367942.png", "children": [ ] }