Interview with Shawn Demmons

An interview with Shawn Demmons, MPH, a Black trans man, community organizer, public health and HIV/AIDS advocate, and trans health activist based in Oakland, California. At the time of this interview, he worked for the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies providing technical assistance to AIDS service organizations, and with the UCSF Center of Excellence for Transgender Health. Prior to his work with UCSF, he served as Board Chair of the Transgender Law Center, and with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, LA Gay and Lesbian Center, and California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP.) In this oral history interview, Demmons discusses his upbringing in south Los Angeles County and his entry as a young adult into the Los Angeles Black lesbian scene, his move to San Francisco and experiences of transition, his work with the LA Gay and Lesbian Center, CCWP, and UCSF Center of Excellence, his thoughts on anti-Black racism, white supremacy, and false meritocracy in white-dominated LGBT activist and public health spaces and organizations, and the origins of trans medicine and American medicine generally in slavery and colonization. Additionally, he discusses his time at the Transgender Law Center as its leadership shifted, the influence of his mother and San Francisco State's Black Studies program on his politics, and the Decolonizing Trans Medicine panel he served on at the 2019 USPATH conference.

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View At: https://umedia.lib.umn.edu/item/p16022coll97:235
Citation: Cite

Item Information:

Identifier: c821gk074
Collection: Oral Histories with People of Color
Institution: Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection, University of Minnesota
Creator(s): Demmons, Shawn
Contributor(s): Beam, Myrl
Billund-Phibbs, Myra
Brenner-Adam, Katherine
Publisher: University of Minnesota Minneapolis Libraries
Date Created: Apr. 23, 2021
Genre: Oral Histories
Transcriptions
Subject(s): California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP)
Center of Excellence for Transgender Health (CoE)
LA Gay and Lesbian Center
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
Transgender Law Center (TLC)
Places: California > San Francisco County > San Francisco
California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles
California > Alameda County > Oakland
Topic(s): AIDS activists
BIPOC
Black transgender people
LGBTQ+ people of color
Trans men
Transgender activism
Resource Type: Moving image
Text
Language: English
Rights: Copyright undetermined
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