Digital Transgender Archive

Stella Dance Oral History

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Stella Dance is an educator, tarot-card reader, and professional dungeon monitor who currently works at the recently unionized Babeland sex toy boutique in New York City. In this interview they describe their experience dealing with bullying, physical disability, and mental illness while growing up in a working-class family around Park Slope in Brooklyn, and later attending college in the south. Their experience spans such topics as physical disability, schizophrenia, hospitalization, the play party scene in New York, relationships, economic and class struggles, and finding a community of support while grappling with a continually fluctuating gender identity. (Summary by Boyda Johnstone.)

Item Information:

Identifier
5h73pw30w
Collection
Audio and Video Clips and Transcripts
Institution
NYC Trans Oral History Project
Creator(s)
O'Brien, Michelle Esther
Dance, Stella
Contributor(s)
Johnstone, Boyda
Publisher
New York Public Library
Date Created
Mar. 29, 2017
Dates Covered
1988 to 2017
Genre
Oral Histories
Subject(s)
Stella Dance
Places
North Carolina
New York > Kings County > Brooklyn
Topic(s)
Assigned gender
Autonomy
BDSM
Bullying
Childhood
Class struggle
Colleges
Coming out
Employment discrimination
Families
Femininities
Friendships
Gender diversity
Gender identity
Harassment
Homophobia
Hospitals
Learning difficulties
LGBTQ+ relationships
Mental health
Racism
Rape
Schizophrenia
Schools
Sex parties
Sexual orientation
Sexuality
Suicide
Therapies
Trade unions
Work situation
Resource Type
Audio
Digital Format
Duration: 2 hours 25 minutes 45 seconds
Language
English
Rights
Copyright undetermined
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