Celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month

Posted on October 1, 2025 by gkramer

This week in North Philly Notes, we feature our LGBTQ+ history titles.

Love in the Lav: A Social Biography of Same-Sex Desire in Ireland, 1922-1972, by Averill Earls

Love in the Lav uncovers Ireland’s queer lives of the past. Averill Earls investigates how same-sex-desiring men lived and loved in a country where their sexuality was illegal and seen as unnatural. Across seven social biographical chapters, each highlighting individuals at the nexus of these histories, Earls constructs a narrative of experiences through the larger contexts in which they are embedded.

Queering Rehoboth Beach: Beyond the Boardwalk, by James Sears

“Create A More Positive Rehoboth” was a decades-long goal for progress and inclusiveness in a charming beach town in southern Delaware. Rehoboth, which was established in the 19th century as a Methodist Church meeting camp, has, over time, become a thriving mecca for the LGBTQ+ community. In Queering Rehoboth Beach, historian and educator James Sears charts this significant evolution.

“Beyond the Law”: The Politics of Ending the Death Penalty for Sodomy in Britain, by Charles Upchurch

In nineteenth-century England, sodomy was punishable by death; even an accusation could damage a man’s reputation for life. The last executions for this private, consensual act were in 1835, but the effort to change the law that allowed for those executions was intense and precarious, and not successful until 1861. In this groundbreaking book, “Beyond the Law,” noted historian Charles Upchurch pieces together fragments from history and uses a queer history methodology to recount the untold story of the political process through which the law allowing for the death penalty for sodomy was almost ended in 1841.

The Hirschfeld Archive: Violence, Death, and Modern Queer Culture, by Heike Bauer

Influential sexologist and activist Magnus Hirschfeld founded Berlin’s Institute of Sexual Sciences in 1919 as a home and workplace to study homosexual rights activism and support transgender people. It was destroyed by the Nazis in 1933. This episode in history prompted Heike Bauer to ask, Is violence an intrinsic part of modern queer culture? The Hirschfeld Archives answers this critical question by examining the violence that shaped queer existence in the first part of the twentieth century.

Deregulating Desire: Flight Attendant Activism, Family Politics, and Workplace Justice, by Ryan Patrick Murphy

In 1975, National Airlines was shut down for 127 days when flight attendants went on strike to protest long hours and low pay. Activists at National and many other U.S. airlines sought to win political power and material resources for people who live beyond the boundary of the traditional family. In Deregulating Desire, Ryan Patrick Murphy, a former flight attendant himself, chronicles the efforts of single women, unmarried parents, lesbians and gay men, as well as same-sex couples to make the airline industry a crucible for social change in the decades after 1970.

Just Queer Folks: Gender and Sexuality in Rural America, by Colin R. Johnson

Most studies of lesbian and gay history focus on urban environments. Yet gender and sexual diversity were anything but rare in nonmetropolitan areas in the first half of the twentieth century. Just Queer Folks explores the seldom-discussed history of same-sex intimacy and gender nonconformity in rural and small-town America during a period when the now familiar concepts of heterosexuality and homosexuality were just beginning to take shape. Eschewing the notion that identity is always the best measure of what can be known about gender and sexuality, Colin R. Johnson argues instead for a queer historicist approach.

Making Modern Love: Sexual Narratives and Identities in Interwar Britain, by Lisa Z. Sigel

After the Great War, British men and women grappled with their ignorance about sexuality and desire. Seeking advice and information from doctors, magazines, and each other, they wrote tens of thousands of letters about themselves as sexual subjects. In these letters, they disclosed their uncertainties, their behaviors, and the role of sexuality in their lives. Their fascinating narratives tell how people sought to unleash their imaginations and fashion new identities.

Public City/Public Sex: Homosexuality, Prostitution, and Urban Culture in Nineteenth-Century Paris, by Andrew Israel Ross

In the 1800s, urban development efforts modernized Paris and encouraged the creation of brothels, boulevards, cafés, dancehalls, and even public urinals. However, complaints also arose regarding an apparent increase in public sexual activity, and the appearance of “individuals of both sexes with depraved morals” in these spaces. Andrew Israel Ross’s illuminating study, Public City/Public Sex, chronicles the tension between the embourgeoisement and democratization of urban culture in nineteenth-century Paris and the commercialization and commodification of a public sexual culture, the emergence of new sex districts, as well as the development of gay and lesbian subcultures.

Sex and the Founding Fathers: The American Quest for a Relatable Past, by Thomas A. Foster

Biographers, journalists, and satirists have long used the subject of sex to define the masculine character and political authority of America’s Founding Fathers. Tracing these commentaries on the Revolutionary Era’s major political figures in Sex and the Founding Fathers, Thomas Foster shows how continual attempts to reveal the true character of these men instead exposes much more about Americans and American culture than about the Founders themselves.

Sexology and Translation: Cultural and Scientific Encounters across the Modern World, edited by Heike Bauer

Sexology and Translation is the first study of the contemporaneous emergence of sexology in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Heike Bauer and her contributors—historians, literary and cultural critics, and translation scholars—address the intersections between sexuality and modernity in a range of contexts during the period from the 1880s to the 1930s.

Talk about Sex: How Sex Ed Battles Helped Ignite the Right, 20th Anniversary Edition, by Janice M. Irvine

Talk about Sex is a rich social history about the political transformations, cultural dynamics, and emotional rhetorical strategies that helped the right wing manufacture controversies on the local and national levels in the United States. Although the emergence of a politicized Christian Right is commonly dated at the mid-seventies, with the founding of groups like the Moral Majority, Talk about Sex tells the story of a powerful right-wing Christian presence in politics a full decade earlier. These activists used inflammatory sexual rhetoric—oftentimes deceptive and provocative—to capture the terms of public debate, galvanize voters, and reshape the culture according to their own vision.

This 20th Anniversary Edition includes a new preface and epilogue by the author that examines current controversies over public education on sexuality, gender, and race.

Action = Vie: A History of AIDS Activism and Gay Politics in France, by Christophe Broqua with a Foreword by David M. Halperin

Act Up–Paris became one of the most notable protest groups in France in the mid-1990s. Founded in 1989, and following the New York model, it became a confrontational voice representing the interests of those affected by HIV through openly political activism. Action = Vie, the English-language translation of Christophe Broqua’s study of the grassroots activist branch, explains the reasons for the French group’s success and sheds light on Act Up’s defining features—such as its unique articulation between AIDS and gay activism.

City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves: Lesbian and Gay Philadelphia, 1945-1972, by Marc Stein

Marc Stein’s City of Sisterly and Brotherly Loves is refreshing for at least two reasons: it centers on a city that is not generally associated with a vibrant gay and lesbian culture, and it shows that a community was forming long before the Stonewall rebellion. In this lively and well received book, Marc Stein brings to life the neighborhood bars and clubs where people gathered and the political issues that rallied the community. He reminds us that Philadelphians were leaders in the national gay and lesbian movement and, in doing so, suggests that New York and San Francisco have for too long obscured the contributions of other cities to gay culture.

Mapping Gay L.A.: The Intersection of Place and Politics, by Moira Rachel Kenney

In this book, Moira Kenney makes the case that Los Angeles better represents the spectrum of gay and lesbian community activism and culture than cities with a higher gay profile. Owing to its sprawling geography and fragmented politics, Los Angeles lacks a single enclave like the Castro in San Francisco or landmarks as prominent as the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, but it has a long and instructive history of community building.

Modern American Queer History, edited by Allida M. Black

In the twentieth century, countless Americans claimed gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender identities, forming a movement to secure social as well as political equality. This collection of essays considers the history as well as the historiography of the queer identities and struggles that developed in the United States in the midst of widespread upheaval and change.

Out in the Union: A Labor History of Queer America, by Miriam Frank

Out in the Union tells the continuous story of queer American workers from the mid-1960s through 2013. Miriam Frank shrewdly chronicles the evolution of labor politics with queer activism and identity formation, showing how unions began affirming the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender workers in the 1970s and 1980s. She documents coming out on the job and in the union as well as issues of discrimination and harassment, and the creation of alliances between unions and LGBT communities.

Filed under: american studies, civil rights, cultural studies, Disability Studies, gender studies, health, History, Jewish, Labor Studies, Latin American studies, law & criminology, LGBT studies, literature, Mass Media and Communications, Philadelphia, philosophy, political science, race and ethnicity, racism, sexuality, sociology, Urban Studies, women's studies | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Books celebrating Pride

Posted on June 4, 2025 by gkramer

This week in North Philly Notes, we showcase our LGBTQ titles in honor of Pride Month.

Sodomy’s Solicitations: A Right to Queerness, by Joseph J. Fischel

Joseph Fischel’s provocative book, Sodomy’s Solicitations, builds out a politics of sexual justice that challenges state sex exceptionalism. By tracing several twenty-first century contestations around Louisiana anti-sodomy laws, Fischel examines patterns and practices of sexual injustice that are too easily eclipsed by our collective focus on marginalized identities. The political stories narrated in Sodomy’s Solicitations are undoubtedly stories of racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia, but they are also stories of other political problems—and political possibilities.

Love in the Lav: A Social Biography of Same-Sex Desire in Ireland, 1922-1972, by Averill Earls

Love in the Lav uncovers Ireland’s queer lives of the past. Averill Earls investigates how same-sex-desiring men lived and loved in a country where their sexuality was illegal and seen as unnatural. Across seven social biographical chapters, each highlighting individuals at the nexus of these histories, Earls constructs a narrative of experiences through the larger contexts in which they are embedded. She uses courtroom testimonies, police records, and family history archives as well as “educated speculation” to show how structures governing male same-sex desire in Ireland played out on the bodies of the men who desired men, the teen boys who sold sex to men, and the way the Catholic-nationalist ethos shaped the Gardaí who policed them.

Queering Rehoboth Beach: Beyond the Boardwalk, by James T. Sears

In Queering Rehoboth Beach, historian and educator James Sears draws upon extensive oral history accounts, archival material, and personal narratives to chronicle “the Battle for Rehoboth,” which unfolded in the late 20th century, as conservative town leaders and homeowners opposed progressive entrepreneurs and gay activists. He recounts not just the emergence of the gay and lesbian bars, dance clubs, and organizations that drew the queer community to the region, but also the efforts of local politicians and homeowners, among other groups who fought to develop and protect the traditional identity of this beach town. Moreover, issues of race, class, and gender and sexuality informed opinions as residents and visitors struggled with the AIDS crisis and the legacy of Jim Crow. 

Yes Gawd! How Faith Shapes LGBT Identity and Politics in the United States, by Royal G. Cravens III

Yes Gawd! explores the effects of religious belief and practice on political behavior among the LGBT community, a population long persecuted by religious institutions and generally considered to be non-religious. Royal Cravens deftly shows how faith impacts the politics of LGBT people. He details how the queer community creates, defines, and experiences spirituality and spiritual affirmation as well as the consequences this has for their identity, socialization, and political development. 

Words like Water: Queer Mobilization and Social Change in China,by Caterina Fugazzola

Words like Water explores the nonconfrontational strategies the tongzhi movement uses in contemporary China. Caterina Fugazzola analyzes tongzhi organizers’ conceptualizations of, and approaches to, social change, explaining how they avoid the backlash that meets Western tactics, such as protests, confrontation, and language about individual freedoms. In contrast, the groups’ intentional use of community and family-oriented narratives, discourses, and understandings of sexual identity are more effective, especially in situations where direct political engagement is not possible.

Are You Two Sisters? The Journey of a Lesbian Couple,by Susan Krieger

Are You Two Sisters? is Susan Krieger’s candid, revealing, and engrossing memoir about the intimacies of a lesbian couple. Krieger explores how she and her partner confront both the inner challenges of their relationship and the invisibility of lesbian identity in the larger world. 

Disruptive Situations: Fractal Orientalism and Queer Strategies in Beirut,by Ghassan Moussawi

Disruptive Situations challenges representations of contemporary Beirut as an exceptional space for LGBTQ people by highlighting everyday life in a city where violence is the norm. Ghassan Moussawi, a Beirut native, seeks to uncover the underlying processes of what he calls “fractal orientalism,” a relational understanding of modernity and cosmopolitanism that illustrates how transnational discourses of national and sexual exceptionalism operate on multiple scales in the Arab world. 

“Beyond the Law”:The Politics of Ending the Death Penalty for Sodomy in Britain, by Charles Upchurch

In nineteenth-century England, sodomy was punishable by death; even an accusation could damage a man’s reputation for life. The last executions for this private, consensual act were in 1835, but the effort to change the law that allowed for those executions was intense and precarious, and not successful until 1861. In this groundbreaking book, “Beyond the Law,” noted historian Charles Upchurch pieces together fragments from history and uses a queer history methodology to recount the untold story of the political process through which the law allowing for the death penalty for sodomy was almost ended in 1841. 

Q&A: Voices from Queer Asian North America, edited by Martin F. Manalansan IV, Alice Y. Hom, and Kale Bantigue Fajardo. Preface by David L. Eng.

First published in 1998, Q & A: Queer in Asian America, edited by David L. Eng and Alice Y. Hom, became a canonical work in Asian American studies and queer studies. This new edition of Q & A is neither a sequel nor an update, but an entirely new work borne out of the progressive political and cultural advances of the queer experiences of Asian North American communities. 

Just Queer Folks: Gender and Sexuality in Rural America, by Colin R. Johnson

Most studies of lesbian and gay history focus on urban environments. Yet gender and sexual diversity were anything but rare in nonmetropolitan areas in the first half of the twentieth century. Just Queer Folks explores the seldom-discussed history of same-sex intimacy and gender nonconformity in rural and small-town America during a period when the now familiar concepts of heterosexuality and homosexuality were just beginning to take shape. Eschewing the notion that identity is always the best measure of what can be known about gender and sexuality, Colin R. Johnson argues instead for a queer historicist approach. 

Filed under: african american studies, american studies, Anthropology, asian american studies, cultural studies, gender studies, History, Labor Studies, law & criminology, LGBT studies, literature, philosophy, political science, race and ethnicity, Religion, sexuality, sociology, transnational politics, Urban Studies, women's studies | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Sentencing Reform without Sentencing Guidelines

Posted on October 10, 2024 by gkramer

This week in North Philly Notes, Rhys Hester, author of Sentencing without Guidelines, writes about how one state addressed punishment without sentencing guidelines.

 

Unlike many areas of contemporary law and policy, American crime and punishment largely rests at the state and local level. Well over 90% of crime is handled at the state level, and states retain the authority to adopt a wide variety of approaches to crime and punishment. Some states have sentencing guidelines although a majority do not; most states utilize parole but some have abolished it; some states aggressively prosecute drug activity while others have legalized or decriminalized some drugs; and states differ dramatically on how lenient or punitive they are toward similar offenses. As a result, states also vary widely on important outcome measures, such as their respective per capita imprisonment rates and the level of racial disparities in prisons. At the low end, some states imprison around 100 individuals per 100,000 residents in their state population. At the high end are states that imprison over 500 individuals per 100,000 residents, and in the not-so-distant past some states had imprisonment rates as high as 1,000.

Because there is so much variation in states’ approaches to crime and punishment, scholars are keenly interested in what we can learn about effective sentencing policy by comparing jurisdictions. One obstacle to leveraging the differences has been in obtaining data. A wave of reform in the 1980s and 1990s led to about 20 states (and the federal system) establishing sentencing commissions and adopting sentencing guidelines. Guidelines were a blessing and a curse from a scholarship perspective. On the one hand, commissions collected and disseminated comprehensive data that theretofore had been unattainable. On the other hand, while guidelines-based research proliferated, non-guidelines states (which, again, continue to make up the majority of states and include many of the largest jurisdictions, e.g., California, New York, and Texas) were neglected.

My book, Sentencing Without Guidelines, takes advantage of a historical serendipity to closely examine sentencing policies and practices, and their impacts, in South Carolina. Though it remains a non-guidelines state, judges and legislators explored the idea of guidelines for the better part of two decades, and as part of those efforts established a now-defunct sentencing commission which collected statewide data. I investigated sentencing policy in the state with the use of that data, supplemented by interviews of the state’s trial judges. The results provide a surprising sketch.

One surprise was that even though judges are not bound by guidelines, sentencing decisions throughout the state and across judges were relatively uniform. For most crimes judges have an enormous amount of discretion. For example, the penalty for Second Degree Burglary can range from 0 to 15 years in prison. Much of the academic research on sentencing finds significant variation across judges, and also across geographic locations, giving rise to a key concept of “local legal culture”—the idea that local court communities create their own working norms that lead to punishment outcomes differing significantly from place to place within the same state. These local variations persist even in states with norm-centering sentencing guidelines, so to see less variation in a state without guidelines was a puzzle.

I investigated further by launching a second phase of the research, this one based on qualitative interviews with state trial court judges. These interviews uncovered important answers, and also provided punishment reform insights that could be transferrable to other jurisdictions.

A key theme to emerge from the judge interviews was the impact of a court system practice of “judicial rotation.” Under this outdated ractice of “riding circuit,” South Carolina trial court judges continued to rotate from county to county, often holding terms of court in a dozen or more different counties throughout the year. Traditionally, circuit riding was necessary as, for example, judges from a colonial town might periodically travel to an emerging town that had no judge in order to facilitate the rule of law in new territories. As time went on most states dropped the practice, but it remains a feature of the state constitution in South Carolina.

The practice of judicial rotation led to a more statewide rather than county-based development of legal norms. Judges floated in and out, cross-pollinating ideas and approaches to other counties, and each county was influenced by a rotating cast of judges. Another fascinating and unintended consequence of rotation was the emergence of “plea judges,” an informal title judges used to refer to a small minority of judges who were known for their lenient sentencing.

According to the interviews, parties throughout the state knew the reputations of these plea judges. Because over 98% of cases in South Carolina are resolved by guilty pleas rather than jury trials, sentencing outcomes are dominated by these plea decisions. Circuit rotation leads to a virtual marketplace for judge shopping. When a harsh judge is in town holding court, a defendant can usually find a way to avoid entering a plea, holding out for a week when a more favorable plea judge might be rotating into town. During plea-judge weeks, court business is bustling as many defendants are willing to have their cases pled to and sentenced in front of a plea judge.

Based on the interview data, it appears that judges fall into one of three categories, which I labeled “plea judges,” “pragmatic judges,” and “hanging judges.” Although a minority, the plea judges create a marketplace of sentencing that influences many other judges who end up taking a pragmatic approach to sentencing that accepts the realities of plea judges in the system of rotation. These pragmatic judges might prefer to impose a harsher sentence, but they understand that time is a premium in the criminal justice system and acknowledge that defendants can maneuver for a more favorable judge. Accordingly, they will often accede to more lenient sentences reflective of the plea-judge norms to keep dockets moving. According to the judges, even prosecutors are often accepting of these plea-judge norms, preferring the sure conviction of a guilty plea and the steady movement of cases. There were, however, a handful of “hanging judges” who refused to abide by the plea-judge norms. These judges often end up being assigned to preside over jury trials rather than terms of plea court because of the reluctance of defendants to plead guilty in front of them.

There’s a well-known Aristotelean maxim that continues to define our pursuit of justice in punishment: like cases should be treated alike, and different cases should be treated differently. Guidelines are one way of attempting to sway this balance between uniformity and discretion in sentencing. Policymakers should also be aware of the powerful influences of culture and informal norms.

Filed under: american studies, civil rights, law & criminology, political science, racism, sociology | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Celebrating Pride Month

Posted on June 5, 2024 by gkramer

This week in North Philly Notes, we celebrate Pride Month with a sampling of our LGBTQ books.

.

Queering Rehoboth Beach: Beyond the Boardwalk, by James T. Sears 

Sears draws upon extensive oral history accounts, archival material, and personal narratives to chronicle “the Battle for Rehoboth,” which unfolded in the late 20th century, as conservative town leaders and homeowners opposed progressive entrepreneurs and gay activists. He recounts not just the emergence of the gay and lesbian bars, dance clubs, and organizations that drew the queer community to the region, but also the efforts of local politicians and homeowners, among other groups who fought to develop and protect the traditional identity of this beach town. Moreover, issues of race, class, and gender and sexuality informed opinions as residents and visitors struggled with the AIDS crisis and the legacy of Jim Crow. 

Yes Gawd! How Faith Shapes LGBT Identity and Politics in the United States, by Royal G. Cravens III 

Yes Gawd! explores the effects of religious belief and practice on political behavior among the LGBT community, a population long persecuted by religious institutions and generally considered to be non-religious. Royal Cravens deftly shows how faith impacts the politics of LGBT people. He details how the queer community creates, defines, and experiences spirituality and spiritual affirmation as well as the consequences this has for their identity, socialization, and political development. 

Words like Water: Queer Mobilization and Social Change in China, by Caterina Fugazzola 

Words like Water explores the nonconfrontational strategies the tongzhi movement uses in contemporary China. Caterina Fugazzola analyzes tongzhi organizers’ conceptualizations of, and approaches to, social change, explaining how they avoid the backlash that meets Western tactics, such as protests, confrontation, and language about individual freedoms. In contrast, the groups’ intentional use of community and family-oriented narratives, discourses, and understandings of sexual identity are more effective, especially in situations where direct political engagement is not possible

. 

Are You Two Sisters? The Journey of a Lesbian Couple, by Susan Krieger 

Are You Two Sisters? is Susan Krieger’s candid, revealing, and engrossing memoir about the intimacies of a lesbian couple. Krieger explores how she and her partner confront both the inner challenges of their relationship and the invisibility of lesbian identity in the larger world. 

Disruptive Situations: Fractal Orientalism and Queer Strategies in Beirut, by Ghassan Moussawi 

Disruptive Situations challenges representations of contemporary Beirut as an exceptional space for LGBTQ people by highlighting everyday life in a city where violence is the norm. Ghassan Moussawi, a Beirut native, seeks to uncover the underlying processes of what he calls “fractal orientalism,” a relational understanding of modernity and cosmopolitanism that illustrates how transnational discourses of national and sexual exceptionalism operate on multiple scales in the Arab world. 

“Beyond the Law”:The Politics of Ending the Death Penalty for Sodomy in Britain, by Charles Upchurch 

In nineteenth-century England, sodomy was punishable by death; even an accusation could damage a man’s reputation for life. The last executions for this private, consensual act were in 1835, but the effort to change the law that allowed for those executions was intense and precarious, and not successful until 1861. In this groundbreaking book, “Beyond the Law,” noted historian Charles Upchurch pieces together fragments from history and uses a queer history methodology to recount the untold story of the political process through which the law allowing for the death penalty for sodomy was almost ended in 1841. 

Q&A: Voices from Queer Asian North America, edited by Martin F. Manalansan IV, Alice Y. Hom, and Kale Bantigue Fajardo. Preface by David L. Eng. 

First published in 1998, Q & A: Queer in Asian America, edited by David L. Eng and Alice Y. Hom, became a canonical work in Asian American studies and queer studies. This new edition of Q & A is neither a sequel nor an update, but an entirely new work borne out of the progressive political and cultural advances of the queer experiences of Asian North American communities. 

Just Queer Folks: Gender and Sexuality in Rural America, by Colin R. Johnson 

Most studies of lesbian and gay history focus on urban environments. Yet gender and sexual diversity were anything but rare in nonmetropolitan areas in the first half of the twentieth century. Just Queer Folks explores the seldom-discussed history of same-sex intimacy and gender nonconformity in rural and small-town America during a period when the now familiar concepts of heterosexuality and homosexuality were just beginning to take shape. Eschewing the notion that identity is always the best measure of what can be known about gender and sexuality, Colin R. Johnson argues instead for a queer historicist approach. 

Out in the Union: A Labor History of Queer America, by Miriam Frank 

Out in the Union tells the continuous story of queer American workers from the mid-1960s through 2013. Miriam Frank shrewdly chronicles the evolution of labor politics with queer activism and identity formation, showing how unions began affirming the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender workers in the 1970s and 1980s. She documents coming out on the job and in the union as well as issues of discrimination and harassment, and the creation of alliances between unions and LGBT communities. 

Filed under: american studies, asian american studies, civil rights, cultural studies, Education, ethics, gender studies, History, immigration, law & criminology, LGBT studies, literature, Mass Media and Communications, Philadelphia, philosophy, political science, race and ethnicity, racism, Religion, sexuality, sociology, transnational politics, Urban Studies, women's studies | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

The problem with prostitution problem solving

Posted on September 26, 2023 by gkramer

This week in North Philly Notes, Corey Shdaimah, Chrysanthi Leon and Shelly Wiechelt, coauthors of The Compassionate Court?, provide their observations about studying prostitution diversion programs. (Part 2 of 2)

For many years we have been studying court-affiliated prostitution diversion programs (PDPs) at various stages of their inception and implementation. As Corey’ previous blog suggests, we find ourselves caught between the critical reflection of our academic training and deep empathy for all of the stakeholders. What is often missing from policy debates is an accurate portrayal of workday conditions of under-resourced agencies that struggle to provide the assistance or the efforts to survive in a city that lacks much of a social safety net. By the same token, a lot of joy, humor, and love is also missing from these debates. Criminal legal system actors and women arrested for street-based sex work are a savvy, thoughtful bunch and they often help each other with advice and material resources.

One of the main reasons we wanted to write The Compassionate Court? was to provide the broader public with a picture of the complicated reality that we see when we spend time in courtrooms, probation offices, people’s homes, and treatment programs. A book provides an opportunity to share the three-dimensional understanding that we have championed, and one goal of our book is to provide what Nancy Fraser referred to as “everyday world policy analysis,” a walk through policy as it would happen on the ground in real time. It also allowed us to provide fuller stories for some of our study participants. In addition to formal observations and interviews, our conversations and embeddedness in a variety of locations creates a familiarity that often feels truncated by the traditional article format built from decontextualized fragments. Each chapter in The Compassionate Court? contains an expanded vignette drawing on multiple interviews and interactions with a different participant, which we hope provides our readers with some of the familiarity that we have developed with the interviews. We imagine that, as Project Dawn Court participant “Amy” suggested, knowing a person’s story will open readers’ minds.

Many of our readers will be empathetic toward the women who participate in Project Dawn Court and the Specialized Prostitution Diversion Program. We imagine that readers may be less empathetic toward professional stakeholders, especially given the critiques that we have shared (often quoting these very same professional stakeholders!). We hope that our extended vignettes and weaving of perspectives will allow our readers to recognize the binds faced by these professionals, most of whom are women—just like the overwhelming majority of people arrested for sex work. That they act from a place of urgency and love does not negate problematic saviorism that some grapple with. But to view them only through such a critical lens obscures the larger capitalistic patriarchal narrative that too often serves up the street-level service providers for critique. We should also be asking who benefits from the entrenched inequality and privileging of criminal legal spaces as the last-stop safety net. It is no wonder that PDP participants’ say the primary positive aspect of PDPs is that they are treated like human beings. This low bar for a positive rating shows how people arrested for sex work, especially those who use drugs, are treated. We ask the question, does this need be the case? What would happen if all systems treated people like human beings? We doubt that PDPs would be as welcome in the criminal legal system landscape by participants or by professional stakeholders and welcome readers to let us know what you think.

Filed under: american studies, ethics, gender studies, health, Labor Studies, law & criminology, race and ethnicity, sexuality, sociology, Urban Studies, women's studies | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Visiting Project Dawn Court

Posted on September 13, 2023 by gkramer

This week in North Philly Notes, Corey Shdaimah, coauthor of The Compassionate Court?, with Chrysanthi Leon and Shelly Wiechelt, provides observations from her research on prostitution diversion programs. (Part one of two entries).

In December 2021 I visited Project Dawn Court (PDC). It was the first time I had seen anyone in person since the start of the COVID pandemic. Fresh in my mind were the interviews I had been conducting with program participants and other stakeholders, many of whom were no longer engaged with Dawn Court, and who hold wildly divergent assessments of whether PDC is good or bad, and in what ways. I was struck by how good it felt for me to be in this space, and the warmth that is there. There was a genuine feeling of camaraderie among many of the women in the program and care emanating from the program staff. As someone who sat on the benches with program participants monthly for three years, and in subsequent visits, this was familiar, and I was eager (COVID-caution to the winds) to share hugs. There was also a sense of sadness and nostalgia that something is ending. This court meeting was also a farewell party for the retiring judge and a longtime therapist who is leaving for new career options. The program is small, with participants who have been in Project Dawn for years. The “spigot” has literally been turned off by self-proclaimed progressive District Attorney Larry Krasner, who will not bring charges for prostitution against those who sell sex, and who is the target of dismay and anger. Although there may have been folks in the room who think this is good, none shared this publicly. Program graduates and participants and the professional stakeholders were vehemently opposed and broke into diatribes in conversation and in their prepared farewell messages in open court. Most saw this as abandonment: The concerns of women who need help will once again go unheeded. They viewed Larry Krasner and his progressive vision as part of a larger, ongoing “discourse of disposal” (Lowman, 2000).

This narrative of abandonment shows both how important Prostitution Diversion Programs (PDPs) are, and how they are also doomed to failure. This group of program participants and most program stakeholders—nearly all women—have created a space where (some of them) find a semblance of common ground. Even those who most decried the program, and women who were removed from the program, made meaningful personal connections. They found mutual hope, concrete assistance, and in some cases friendship. But few of the women were left better off. There are still insufficient resources for assistance that would help people who would prefer not to sell sex on the streets of Philadelphia or Baltimore to leave this option behind. There are also insufficient resources to help most of those who have stopped selling sex, either by choice or by mandate, to thrive. I was upset with myself for being nostalgic, and upset by how easily I could be lulled by the familiarity, warmth, and kindness of individual women to blunt and suspend my own critical stance. What does this say about the mutual eagerness to make connections among people whom I imagine do not usually connect—across class, race, and stigma? Is that the real purpose of this court? To make everyone here feel just a little bit better about an overall lack of empathy and isolation? And where is the line between a prurient curiosity and a desire for connection, especially in this space where sex and suffering are the main topics of conversation? What are the systems that place these women, myself included, into this space of longing and desire? How are visions of mothering and other forms of women’s work implicated in this peculiar blend of maternalistic rescue that focuses on nurturing while tasked with a mission of preparation for the world? This role largely involves making sure that those in our charge are ready—ostensibly for their own safety but also for the “good” of a larger society—to conform to normative conceptions of how, where, and with whom, women can present and use their bodies and their sexuality. Is one of the reasons that we cannot imagine large large-scale change somehow built on this fear of abandoning and being abandoned?

Filed under: american studies, ethics, gender studies, health, Labor Studies, law & criminology, race and ethnicity, sexuality, sociology, Urban Studies, women's studies | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

A Q&A with Alexandre Baril

Posted on May 31, 2023 by gkramer

This week in North Philly Notes, an interview with Alexandre Baril, author of Undoing Suicidism, conducted by Ally Day during his recent online book launch.

 

Can you tell us about what brought you to this topic?

My desire to write a book on suicide and assisted suicide comes from both a personal and academic interest. I have been a suicidal person since the age of 12. Even though there are periods in my life when I feel better, suicidality never really disappears. Much of my work, such as my work in trans, disability/crip and Mad studies, is anchored in my marginalized identities. My writing and research help me to better understand my lived experience and to connect it to a broader sociopolitical context. My interest in suicide comes from this need to understand my own subjective experience of suicidality and to situate it in a larger sociopolitical context. In terms of my academic interests, I was astonished to learn that no concept existed to name the oppression of suicidal people until I coined the term suicidism. I was disappointed about this lack, and that was the spark for this book.

You have coined the term suicidism. Can you tell us more about suicidism?

Suicidism refers to an oppressive system functioning at the normative, medical, legal, social, political, economic, and epistemic levels, a system in which suicidal people experience forms of injustice and violence, such as discrimination, stigmatization, exclusion, pathologization, and incarceration. Many suicidal individuals face violent and inhumane treatments after revealing their suicidality. Indeed, some are hospitalized without their consent, drugged against their will, experience mistreatments by police officers, have difficulty to find new jobs or lose their current jobs or housing, have their parental rights revoked, to name only a few. Because of these suicidist consequences, suicidal people remain silent and complete their suicides without reaching out to anyone. As I always say, every single completed suicide is the proof that what we are doing currently is not working, because each of those people didn’t call for help before completing their suicides.

These stories illustrate that, despite the supportive discourses surrounding suicidality, suicidal people who call for help do not find the promised support. Worse, I contend that suicide prevention does more harm than good. This is particularly true for marginalized suicidal individuals, such as racialized, Indigenous, homeless, 2SLGBTQIA+, disabled/Mad or neurodiverse individuals, who often experience, through suicide prevention interventions, increased forms of colonialism, racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism and sanism.

You are proposing some radical ideas in this book, notably a suicide-affirmative approach. Can you tell us what this approach entails?

First, I want to say that my approach to suicide and assisted suicide is not intended to encourage suicide. Second, you are right: the most controversial argument of my book is to conceptualize suicide as a positive right. This implies accompanying suicidal individuals in their possible journey toward death. This accompaniment would be provided through what I call a suicide-affirmative approach. My approach is inspired by trans-affirmative perspectives. A suicide-affirmative approach does not mean pushing suicidal people to suicide, just as the goal of the trans-affirmative approach is not to push a person to transition. Rather, it means that instead of trying to cure trans people of their transness or suicidal people of their suicidality, we develop safer spaces in which we can examine their suicidality with them and discuss a variety of options. My approach proposes to shift from a preventionist logic to a logic of accompaniment to help suicidal people to make the best-informed decision, a support that could be life-affirming and death-affirming.

Most importantly, my suicide-affirmative approach has the potential to prevent more deaths by suicide than existing prevention interventions. Indeed, rather than being forced to die in secrecy by completing their suicide without consulting anyone due to fear of experiencing suicidist consequences, suicidal people would have the chance to speak freely and to benefit from an accompaniment process to reach an informed decision.

What distinguishes your position from the extension of assisted death to people with mental/psychological suffering?

I argue that suicidism makes some people’s desire for death abnormal. In contrast, we legitimize assisted death for those cast as “unproductive” and “undesirable,” based on dominant norms, such as disabled/sick/ill/old people. In their case, their desire for death is considered normal. However, suicidal people’s desire for death is cast as “irrational,” “crazy,” “mad,” “insane,” or “alienated,” and they are stripped of their decision-making capacity. In other words, from an ableist, sanist, ageist and capitalist perspective, people who are seen as “unproductive” are supported to die, while suicidal people, who are seen as having productive futures, are excluded from these laws and forced to stay alive. My work questions why are we offering assistance in dying to disabled/sick/ill/old people who, in the vast majority of cases, don’t want to die but ask for better living conditions, while those who do want to die, such as suicidal people, are denied any assistance?

In all national contexts that allow assisted death, suicidal people are excluded; only people who are physically, or sometimes mentally, ill can have access to these procedures, and these laws specify that no suicidal person should be supported in their desire to die. My approach is therefore radically distinct from that of offering assisted death for people for whom mental illness is the sole condition of their request. I advocate for the abolition of these discriminatory laws that allow assisted suicide only for “special populations” based on dominant norms of who should live or die. I would like to see the creation of new laws and policies surrounding assisted suicide for all adults who have a stable desire to die, including suicidal people. In other words, my approach is not based on a physical/mental illness or disability diagnosis.

What would you say are the three most important messages and take-aways of your book?

I would first say that it’s important to understand that suicidal people, like all other marginalized groups, experience structural oppression. Second, it’s important to start listening to suicidal people and realize that prevention discourses and interventions, despite their best intentions, often make things worse for suicidal people, particularly those who belong to marginalized communities. A third key message is that giving positive rights to suicidal people, that is, providing them the support they need and facilitating access to a renewed form of assisted suicide, might be a much more effective way to prevent unnecessary deaths by suicide.

Regarding the concrete take-aways of my book, the first one is that if we are committed to helping suicidal people, particularly those most determined to die and who currently complete their suicide, we need to acknowledge that we do almost everything wrong. The second take-away is that suicidal people have important messages to convey. We should start paying attention to what they have to say and consider them experts regarding their needs. The last take-away is that despite multiple prevention strategies, decade after decade, despite a few ebbs and flows in suicide statistics, we don’t see a significant decrease in suicide rates. What we have been doing so far doesn’t work, and it might be time to try solutions outside the box, like the one I am proposing in this book.

Filed under: american studies, Disability Studies, economics/business, ethics, gender studies, health, law & criminology, LGBT studies, philosophy, political science, race and ethnicity, racism, sexuality, sociology | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Gangs on Trial: From the Corner to the Court

Posted on February 9, 2022 by gkramer

This week in North Philly Notes, John Hagedorn, author of Gangs on Trial, writes about why and how gang members are stereotyped and demonized in the courtroom.

I have spent more time in courtrooms the last few decades than I have on street corners or playgrounds. Over the same period, I have written many more court reports as an expert witness than I have journal articles as an academic. Why? Turning my attention to “gangs in court” was a conscious choice based on some fundamental beliefs I have on the uses of research and on my determination to challenge injustice.

First, the question raised by sociologist Alfred McClung Lee, “Sociology for whom?” has long streamed through my head on a continuous loop. Lee’s 1976 presidential address to the American Sociological Association attacked careerism in sociology. My mentor, Joan Moore, as well as my role model, Kenneth Clark, both argued that research should consciously benefit the community or it would be used by elites for their own interests. Clark’s haunting question, “What is the value of a soulless truth?” became my credo, accompanying my slogan, “Research not stereotypes.” From my first study on gangs in Milwaukee, I was conscious of the implications of my research. In the 1980s I told my People & Folks respondents—the “top dogs” of gangs in Milwaukee—that the purpose of my research was to provide evidence that “jobs not jails” was a better solution to Milwaukee’s gang problem.     

In other words, I believe research needs to be understood outside of “truth for its own sake,” and deliberately designed to benefit those in powerless communities, especially those who are stigmatized and demonized. If social scientists will not defend the powerless, what values do we have? Did we understand sociologist C. Wright Mills when he called on social scientists to challenge the rationalization of society?  

Second, I realized frustration/aggression theories of violence are not only applicable to the streets. Just go to any trial of a gang member and listen to the angry tone of the prosecutor saying the community is “fed up” with gang violence and wants… well, prosecutors often say “justice” when they mean “revenge.”

Social psychologist Craig Haney teaches us that sentencing is not based so much on the criminal acts of flawed human beings, but on the belief the accused has an evil character—“unstoppable evil” was what one of my defendants was called. Evidence of the criminal act is secondary to what prosecutors believe is the less than human nature of the accused. Demonization was taken literally in one of my first cases, when the defendants were labeled “Followers of Our Lord King Satan”, a law enforcement make-believe acronym for Georgia’s FOLKS gang.

Violence is hard, sociologist Randall Collins concluded, and in order to justify it and overcome our deeply embedded inhibitions. Philosopher David Livingston Smith argues the victim needs first to be dehumanized. On the streets rival gang members are called “Slobs” or “Crabs” or some other non-human appellation. You are killing an “it” not a “he” or “she.” I found that is precisely how it works in the courtroom, with a predictable racist tinge. Gang members, typically Black or Hispanic, are dehumanized—another of my defendants was called a “mad dog.” What do you do with a mad dog? If you can’t kill it, you lock it up and throw away the key. What better description is there of today’s sentencing policy? 

I began my expert witness work in 1996 opposing a possible death penalty for Keith Harbin, who was then on trial. At that time, there were few academics willing to consult with the defense, and hesitant to risk the ire of law enforcement. There clearly was an unmet need. From the start, I saw my expert witness work as an extension of my social responsibility to confront racism and dehumanizing policies and practices. 

So, it is as simple as that. My “life in court”—and this book—are the results of my particular circumstances, the general punitive nature of today’s mass incarceration society, and my belief in the social responsibility of research.

Watch a video of John Hagedorn talking about his book here.

Filed under: african american studies, american studies, Anthropology, civil rights, cultural studies, Education, ethics, History, Latin American studies, latinos, law & criminology, philosophy, political science, race and ethnicity, racism, sociology, Urban Studies | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Moving Beyond Schoolhouse Rock and Understanding Regulatory Processes

Posted on October 13, 2021 by gkramer

This week in North Philly Notes, Sara Rinfret, editor of Who Really Makes Environmental Policy?, writes about why regulations do matter.

Former President Trump often used slogans on the campaign trail to “end bad regulations” or to halt the “war on coal.” These soundbites assisted the Trump administration’s efforts to rollback more than 100 environmental regulations in the United States during his presidency. But, why? Are regulations bad?

Teaching courses on U.S. government to high school or college students often only covers the Schoolhouse Rock‘s version of “How a Bill Becomes a Law.” Unfortunately, we do not spend enough time examining in our curriculum what occurs after a piece of legislation becomes law.

Who Really Makes Environmental Policy?, urges that we must increase our understanding of regulatory processes to document policymaking in the United States less complex, with a myriad of access points for public participation. The book uses illustrative environmental policy case studies to guide the reader through the stages of administrative rulemaking. Unpacking these regulatory stages moves us beyond our Schoolhouse Rock mindset and illustrates how and why Congress delegates its decision-making authority to administrative agencies.

Congress delegates the implementation of policy to administrative agencies because it does not have the time or expertise to do so. This delegation of authority provides administrative agencies the ability to create law through the administrative rulemaking process. The stages of this process can be best understood by learning from the case studies that examine each of the distinct steps, such as rule development, public comment, to post-rulemaking activities. Our regulatory adventure does not stop after the stages of the rulemaking, but it is monitored and carried out by state environmental inspectors who ensure compliance with environmental law. These individuals, for example, ensure a nearby company is not improperly disposing of waste.

Unfortunately, the regulatory process is not discussed enough and often depicted as detrimental to business. Who Really Makes Environmental Policy? dispels this myth by inviting and encouraging the opportunity for students, practitioners and the general public to engage in a clear, step-by-step guide about the stages of the process. Specifically, we argue environmental policymaking is not made in a black hole. Instead, taking the time to understand regulatory processes is another access point for the American public to directly engage in providing input by using electronic platforms such as Regulations.gov.  

Regulations are not bad in general; they protect the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink. The heavy lifters of environmental policy are career civil servants, your next-door neighbor who works for agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, Fish and Wildlife Service, or the National Park Service, to name a few. We just need to do a better job of understanding the process, which is the goal of Who Really Makes Environmental Policy? As Regulations.gov clearly states, “Make a difference. Submit your comments, and let your voice be heard!”

Filed under: american studies, civil rights, economics/business, Education, environment, ethics, law & criminology, political science, sociology, Urban Studies | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Listen Up! Temple University Press Podcast Episode 3

Posted on September 8, 2021 by gkramer

This week in North Philly Notes, we debut the latest episode of the Temple University Press Podcast, which features host Sam Cohn interviewing author Stephen Feldman about his book Pack the Court!

The Temple University Press Podcast is where you can hear about all the books you’ll want to read next.

Click here to listen

The Temple University Press Podcast is available wherever you find your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Overcast, among other outlets.

About this episode

Should Democrats add justices to the Supreme Court if given the chance, whether in 2021 or afterward? Or would Democratic court packing destroy the Court as an apolitical judicial institution? In his new book, Pack the Court!, Feldman has written a defense of Supreme Court expansion—a topic that is very much in the news right now with Democrats looking to pass the Judiciary Act of 2021, a bill that proposes to increase the number of Justices and change the ideological balance of the conservative majority. 

One criticism of court packing is that it will destroy the legitimacy of the Supreme Court as a judicial institution. According to this view, the Court’s legitimacy is based on a law-politics dichotomy: The idea that law and politics must remain separate and independent. The justices must decide cases by neutrally applying the rule of law. If politics infects the Court and its decision making, then Court decisions are tainted. But as Feldman’s insightful book shows, law and politics are forever connected in judicial interpretation and decision making. Pack the Court! insists that court packing is not the threat to the Supreme Court’s institutional legitimacy that many fear.

Temple University Press podcast host Sam Cohn spoke with Stephen Feldman about his new book and expanding the Supreme Court.

Filed under: american studies, Education, ethics, History, law & criminology, Mass Media and Communications, political science, sociology | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

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