Trans-Focused 
Nightlife Ethnography

Trans people have spent the majority of our Western existence caught in the mire of unembodied visibility, where our lives and bodies are discussed without much attention given our personal experience. Our public image is constantly twisted politically to deem us responsible for a multitude of American ills, which has led to an exponential spike in anti-trans legislation in the last decade, with an 2500% increase in proposed anti-trans bills between 2015 and 2024. Deemed undesirable, and more presently too derisive or political, to celebrate ourselves in public spaces, nuanced trans identity has blossomed in the dark - particularly in nightlife spaces. We evade the traps of visibility through circumventing the state-sanctioned violence, showing “there is power in coming together in ways that don’t replicate the state’s moral imperatives.” (Trap Door, p.xvi)  

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I want to gain insight into the way trans people talk about and express ourselves when cis people aren’t watching, particularly investigating how we build our identities and interact with each other, our history, and the world outside our community. I will be recording the subtle patterns of behavior trans people exhibit on a night out, including fashion choices, bodily design (such as tattoos and piercings)  , conversation topics, performance themes, flirting habits, and more. My ethnographic study focuses in on various Brooklyn-based trans drag/poetry/variety nights due to the personal relationships I have already built through my work as a zinester and trans theory academic.