Archival care: 1970s transfeminist pasts and futures

Often, trans social history centers medical records in telling stories of transgender history. My research highlights how this narrow evidentiary focus eclipses records of how trans people built social worlds. Retelling 1970s popular and countercultures, I ask: how do we care for the trans past? Drawing from personal writings, archiving practices, and collected oral histories from preeminent trans archivists, I consider three notable trans women whose recollections fundamentally change how we know 1970s cultural history.