On Being the Object of Compromise

The 2014 National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) conference specifically solicited trans-feminist academic work through a call for proposals subtheme entitled "Trans-Feminisms." This subtheme called for work exploring how "trans-feminist analyses help us redefine feminist politics" and discussing "opportunities for coalitions and convergences among trans-feminisms without co-opting self-chosen trans*/gender identifications and/or objectifying trans* people." Yet when trans attendees arrived at the conference, they encountered a bathroom implementation that reflected negative cultural attitudes about trans people and subjected them to gender policing and potential violence. Below, I analyze the NWSA's bathroom "compromise" as a failed strategy that compromised the safety of all conference attendees while raising serious questions about the current viability of political trans-feminist coalition.