Episode Four - Interview with Elliot Wade | Music by Kei Slaughter | Special Guest Host Nathalie Nia Foulk

Full Episode Trans script

Sophie Ziegler: Ladies and gentlemen, and all of us who are neither and/or both, welcome to Trans Louisiane, the podcast of the Louisiana Trans Oral HIstory Project. 

This podcast features selections from the oral histories gathered by the Louisiana Trans Oral History Project, which aims to gather, share and preserve the voices of Louisiana’s trans and gender non-conforming communities. You can learn more about us at Louisiana Trans Oral History dot ORG, and by finding us facebook, twitter and instagram. 

This podcast also aims to lift up members of our communities in other ways, including our song of the month selection, in which we feature trans musicians. So be sure to stick around till the end of the show to hear our song this month. 

 My name is Sophia Ziegler, and I’m so happy to be here today with you. And I’m particularly happy to say that this time I’m not here alone. 

I am joined by my friend and oral history hero, Nathalie Nia Faulk. Hello Nia, thank you for joining us!

Nathalie": Hey, Sophie! Thank you so much for having me. Hey, y’all, my name is Nathalie Nia Faulk I use they/them and she/her pronouns. I am the co-director of Last Call Oral History, a huge partner of LaTOHP, we have the mission of collecting and creatively interpreting the oral histories of Black and Brown trans and gender non-conforming folks. We’re based in New Orleans and do oral histories all across the South.

We’re so happy to be partnering with LaTOPH in this series, because as we know collaboration expands your capacity to build power and increases the mixture of magic.

So y’all this episode particularly features sections of our interview with Elliot Wade. Elliot is a Black   binary trans-masc man and uses he/him pronouns, and this interview is part of a special series devoted to documenting the struggle against a wave of anti-trans bills in the 2021 legislative session. 

Here in Louisiana, and about 20 states across the country, we saw multiple anti-trans bills introduced in the state senate and house. Unlike many other states, however, we also saw a strong and coordinated resistance to these bills. Because of  this resistance, every single bill failed. 

Sophie: There are, of course, many reasons why we were successful in Louisiana when so many of our neighboring states were not. And the reason we focus on for this series is the activism of our trans and gender nonconforming communities within the state. And we also know that this is the reason most likely to be ignored by other political analysis, and eventually forgotten by dominant narratives. And so, we’re here to gather the stories of these activists and ensure this part is not forgotten.  

You’ll hear reference in this segment to the LTA, which is the Louisiana Trans Advocates, a state-wide collection of wonderful trans and gender nonconforming folks who have been central to so many of the great things happening here.

Nia: Yea, it’s truly truly special. I think I just wanted to uplift is that Elliot is an organizer who lives outside of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, they live in the Lafayette Parish area. It’s really important, as you’re listening to this to be reminded that there’s power from all across the region from Cajun country to north Louisiana.

Elliot truly is one of those people who mixes joy and severity which is something that’s important for folks navigating multiple oppressions, and you see it very often in our community. It’s really fun, and funnily done.

The other things that I wanted to lift up was that, when he talks about the work that happened ten years before him, it feels really important and it reminder me why this type of podcast is so important. There is so much history that we don’t get to see or hear about but it’s important for it to be noted because it got us to where we are and we’re able to defeat these bills.

The last two things I’ll say is that Elliot also reminds us that it’s okay to divest. We’re doing this legislative work, but there is so much other work happening, from community organizing to healing and wellness work, to creating new systems. And I just want to lift up how awesome Elliot is, and he’s doing amazing work around name changes and as a board member of Louisiana Trans Advocates.

I know that was a mouthful, but I think listening to them really brought up a lot for me.

Sophie: There are so many great things about this interview. We begin here with Elliot answering a question about how he first got into the activism and advocating for himself and others. 

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Elliot Wade: Let’s see... I started getting involved in activism and organizing, apparently kind of young, I didn’t figure that out until I started to get into this work, but I was 17. I finally had came out after a few years of figuring out, am I trans? Am I nonbinary? Am I genderqueer? And I felt most at home with the identity of transmasc binary man. I had a year of trying to figure out, one,  how do I change my name? 

So, I started getting radicalized at that point, like I was coming to my political consciousness, and really started to see the cracks in the American imperialist system, and I was getting more disappointed by the day. I, of course, I had to self-advocate, and I was more well-received than I thought I was. At least to my face

Nia: I’m interested in...there’s been this historic legislation where all across the South we’re seeing this anti-trans legislation, and you being on the board of LTA, are very instrumental in a lot of the things that can potentially happen across the South, particularly in Louisiana, in terms of resistance. I am wondering, what was it like behind the scenes in LTA organizing meetings whenever y’all first found out about this? How did y’all know we have to pull a coalition together? What was y’all’s initial reaction and response to all the announcements of these anti-trans bills?

Elliot : I think that we saw it coming from a mile away; where there’s smoke there’s fire. 

We kept seeing a lot of this pop up across the country.  I think we were kind of gearing up for this for some time, especially post-the-bathroom-bills in North Carolina. We knew it’s a matter of time. 

And at this point, I mean...at least from my perspective, in pulling together a coalition, it’s been years in the making. There’s been a decade of work that I’m not... that I haven’t been here for that entire time, but we’ve been slowly making these connections and putting these feelers out for these folks and it really was just.. I felt like it was the perfect storm, right? Everyone was in a place where they could handle doing that heavy lift. 

But if I was still in school or if I was taking a summer class or anything like that, or if I had to work the jobs that I was working before - I’m now in a position where I work part-time but I can work from home - I would not have been nearly as involved. And, of course, that’s part of it. That’s part of the power and manipulation that they have in these sessions. 

I would love to see how these sessions would go if they started after 5 pm, if they did them on weekends, if people could tune in, if people could sit in. We would have a very different outcome in these sessions I think.

I’ve learned a lot. I’ll start with that: there’s a lot that I’ve learned throughout this session and I’ve gone and I’ve been in different sessions before. 

my experience there was just kind of sitting back and watching and supporting and soft clap. This was a lot more active. This was  a lot more involved. And it was daunting until I started to listen to some of these people talk. 

 And I…[laughs] This has changed me in the sense that I am not nearly as intimidated by the legislative session or these representatives or these senators. These are some of the most asinine, quite frankly, idiotic people I have had the displeasure of being in the same room with. That changed me. That changed me. If these people can be elected, then hell! I need to go get me a seat! I need to go find a way to get myself in that room. And I should never, ever, ever be afraid of saying my piece. Because they say their piece all the time, and it’s nothing of nothing.

Nia: I wonder, Elliot, speaking of speaking your piece and getting a piece of that power, that power pie [laughs]... This coalition and this resistance really centered around young folks and there was also a lot of presence of Black trans folks there. And I’m wondering if you can talk a little bit about that and can you tell us why it’s important to have Black trans folks at the center of these movements for trans liberation, in your opinion? 

Elliot : Oh yeah, well, first of all, we started this shit.

Nia: Thank you.

Elliot : So, we can start right there. People forget all the time that Pride was a riot started by Black trans women, we can start right there. I feel like, first of all, we know that Black trans women, or trans women of color, or trans people, Black trans people, are the most marginalized people in the U.S. Well, you know, not to say that we’re playing oppression olympics, but we have those intersections of identities that are disrespected, that are victims of violence, that are cannon fodder for white supremacists and the fear mongering that they like to do. So, we do need to have them at the forefront.  

I do think it’s important to have these people at the forefront of the movement because these are the people most impacted by the movement.

I think that the fight isn’t over yet. I think that we’ll be seeing more of these people. I think that we have to stay on guard, but also, I’m ok with divesting from putting a lot of energy into the legislative session. I mean, it was necessary right now, and we really have just been on defense in that sense, but I want to invest in community. I want to invest in mutual aid.

The legislative session is great, and we got a big win. Arkansas was not as lucky, many other states were not as lucky. it’s a small world in Louisiana activism and organizing. So, we’ve all gotten to know each other quite well. So, I’ll say in that regard, we did something special here, and that was really investing in community and leaning on community, and being genuine in creating those relationships.

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Ziegler: And that’s all we have for today. I think this is a great place to end it. Let me just thank Elliot again for being part of our project. Let me thank you, Nia, for being with us today, it’s always such a joy.

Foulk: I’m really thankful for this, Sophie. I’m really thankful to be doing this with you.

Ziegler: And now, everybody, I’m so happy to say that it is time for song of the month. Please enjoy with us Kei Slaughter’s song, “Land Loss”