Kiara St. James Oral History

Kiara St. James is the CEO and a co-founder of New York Transgender Advocacy Group (NYTAG). Here, she recalls the experiences throughout her life that inform her activism and advocacy today as a trans woman of color. She recounts her early upbringing in an evangelical Christian community in Beaumont, Texas and her adolescence spent with a foster family in Heidelberg, Germany. She details many of the scenes and spaces she inhabited as a femme queen in nineties-era New York City, and reflects on both care and conflict within the trans community during that time. She describes her evolution as a community activist, and considers the opportunities and challenges of trans-led advocacy to secure civil and political rights, economic empowerment, and personal dignity.

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View At: https://nyctransoralhistory.org/interview/kiara-st-james/
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Item Information:

Identifier: cc08hf81q
Collection: Oral Histories with People of Color
Institution: NYC Trans Oral History Project
Creator(s): O'Brien, Michelle Esther
St. James, Kiara
Contributor(s): Ambrose, Justine
Publisher: New York Public Library
Date Issued: Mar. 6, 2017
Dates Covered: 1975 to 2017
Genre: Oral Histories
Subject(s): Housing Works
Kiara St. James
New York Transgender Advocacy Group (NYTAG)
Places: New York
Georgia > Fulton County > Atlanta
Texas > Jefferson County > Beaumont
Baden-Württemberg > Karlsruhe Region > Stadtkreis Heidelberg > Heidelberg
Topic(s): Acceptance
Activists
Black people
Childhood
Christianity
Civil rights
Drag queens
Education
Families
Femmes
Foster families
Gender identity
Health care
HIV/AIDS
Homelessness
Hormones
Intimate partner violence
LGBTQ+ sex workers
MtFs
Night life
Organisations
Politics
Poverty
Racism
Transgender community
Transgender rights
Transitioning (Gender)
Transphobia
Resource Type: Audio
Digital Format: duration: 1 hour 52 minutes 12 seconds
Language: English
Rights: Copyright undetermined
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