Oral History Interview with Jay Botsford, May 26, 2011

Jay Botsford (b. 1982) identifies as genderqueer and trans. Botsford describes zir experiences coming out and transitioning, and zir role as coordinator of Project Q, the youth development program of the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center. Zie discusses the murder of Dana A. "Chanel" Larkin, a young transgender woman of color, and the issues facing trans and gender nonconforming youth in Milwaukee. Botsford underscores the benefits of greater intergenerational interaction among trans people, and criticizes the unexamined social privilege of white and middle-class individuals in the trans population.Milwaukee Transgender Oral History Project University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries Milwaukee, Wisconsin Jay Botsford Interviewed by Brice Smith May 26, 2011 at Botsford’s home Transcribed by Nicholas Roche Copyright © 2011 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. All rights reserved. Brice Smith – BS Jay Botsford – JS BS: Will you please introduce yourself. JS: Sure. My name is Jay Botsford. Not sure what else you want as an introduction, actually. BS: That is fine; that is good. And thank you very much for participating in the Milwaukee Transgender Oral History Project. For starters, what are your preferred gender pronouns? JB: The pronouns that I prefer to use are “zie,” “zir” and “zirs.” BS: Okay. JB: So z-i-e, z-i-r and z-i-r-s. BS: So you prefer the gender neutral pronouns. JB: That particular set of gender neutral pronouns is really my preference. I think that. I was using “Sie” “hir” and “hirs” for a while and I think that to