Tourmaline (born 1983; formerly known as Reina Gossett) is an American

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

, and

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

. She is a

transgender woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and so ...

who identifies as

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

. Tourmaline is most notable for her work in

transgender activism The transgender rights movement is a movement to promote the legal status of transgender people and to eliminate discrimination and violence against transgender people regarding housing, employment, public accommodations, education, and health c ...

and

economic justice Justice in economics is a subcategory of welfare economics. It is a "set of moral and ethical principles for building economic institutions". Economic justice aims to create opportunities for every person to have a dignified, productive and creativ ...

, through her work with the

Sylvia Rivera Law Project The Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) is a legal aid organization based in New York City at the Miss Major-Jay Toole Building for Social Justice that serves low-income or people of color who are transgender, intersex and/or gender non-conforming. ...

Critical Resistance Critical Resistance is a U.S. based organization that works to build a mass movement to dismantle what it calls the prison-industrial complex (PIC). Critical Resistance's national office is in Oakland, California, with three additional chapters ...

and Queers for Economic Justice. In 2017, she edited the book ''Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility,'' with co-editors Eric A. Stanley and Johanna Burton. The book is part of a series called ''Critical Anthologies in Art and Culture'' by MIT Press. Tourmaline served as the 2016–2018 Activist-in-Residence at Barnard Center for Research on Women. She is based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Early life

Tourmaline was born on July 20, 1983, and grew up in a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

household in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. Her mother is a

union organizer A union organizer (or union organiser in Commonwealth spelling) is a specific type of trade union member (often elected) or an appointed union official. A majority of unions appoint rather than elect their organizers. In some unions, the orga ...

and her father is a self-defense instructor and anti-imprisonment advocate. Her sibling Che Gossett is involved in

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

activism and anti

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

criminalization work. Tourmaline and Che went to a bilingual elementary school in Roxbury where "the teachers were abusive," and later attended suburban schools where they "went from living in poverty to going to school with wealthy people like

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts f ...

's kids." Tourmaline moved to New York City for college in 2002.

Education

Tourmaline attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, and received a B.A. degree in Comparative

Ethnic Studies Ethnic studies, in the United States, is the interdisciplinary study of difference—chiefly race, ethnicity, and nation, but also sexuality, gender, and other such markings—and power, as expressed by the state, by civil society, and by indivi ...

. Through a school program called ''Island Academy'', she taught creative writing classes at

Rikers Island Rikers Island is a island in the East River between Queens and the Bronx that contains New York City's main jail complex. Named after Abraham Rycken, who took possession of the island in 1664, the island was originally under in size, but has ...

correctional institution.Stanley, Eric A., and Nat Smith. ''Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex''. Edinburgh: AK Press, 2015. p. 359. Columbia University's Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures department, is colloquially known as MEALAC. While at Columbia, she served on the President's Council on Student Affairs, amidst a MEALAC Scandal. In addition, she was also a

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

's associate and a member of Students Promoting Empowerment and Knowledge.

Activism

Tourmaline has worked at various organizations dealing with transgender activism, economic justice, and prison abolition. She served as the Membership Coordinator for Queers for Economic Justice. At the

, she served as the Director of Membership. She has been a featured speaker about transgender issues at

GLAAD GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals ...

. Along with

, Tourmaline organized a campaign with low income LGBTGNC that prevented the NYC Department of Corrections from building a $375 million jail in the Bronx.Lederman, Diane.
Hampshire College, which couldn't get Beyonce, President Obama or Bernie Sanders, replaces commencement speaker to address student gripes
" ''MassLive.com'', May 4, 2016. Tourmaline has done

prison abolition The prison abolition movement is a network of groups and activists that seek to reduce or eliminate prisons and the prison system, and replace them with systems of rehabilitation that do not place a focus on punishment and government institutiona ...

work through a video series, titled No One is Disposable: Everyday Practices of Prison Abolition, with

Dean Spade Dean Spade (born 1977) is an American lawyer, writer, trans activist, and associate professor of law at Seattle University School of Law. In 2002, he founded the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a non-profit law collective in New York City that provide ...

. Tourmaline has also performed work as a community historian for drag queens and transgender individuals around the Stonewall Inn rebellion, observing how archives and repositories rarely prioritize saving transgender artist materials. Instead, Tourmaline has stated that these materials are typically "accidentally archived." Tourmaline has combated this with contemporary trans focused projects, including

Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...

blogs, such as
The Spirit Was...
'' and podcasts. Tourmaline was featured in Brave Spaces: Perspectives on Faith and LGBT Justice (2015), which was produced by Marc Smolowitz and screened as a

Human Rights Campaign The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is an American LGBTQ advocacy group. It is the largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization within the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., the organization focuses on protecting and expanding rights for LGB ...

event. In January 2016, Tourmaline publicly supported a protest of the A Wider Bridge reception at the

National LGBTQ Task Force The National LGBTQ Task Force is an American social justice advocacy non-profit organizing the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. Also known as The Task Force, the organization supports act ...

's Creating Change conference in Chicago, which was intended to honor the leaders of

Jerusalem Open House The Jerusalem Open House for Pride and Tolerance (JOH, he, הבית הפתוח בירושלים לגאווה ולסובלנות ''HaBayit HaPatuach'', "Open House" ar, البيت المفتوح في القدس للفخر والتسامح ''Al- ...

, the

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i LGBTQ center. The protest, which turned violent, was characterized as

anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

by opponents, while the organizer stated that it was preceded by a "queer, anti-Zionist Shabbat service" and was co-organized by the group

Jewish Voice for Peace Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP; קול יהודי לשלום ''Kol Yehudi la-Shalom'') is a left-wing Jewish activist organization in the United States that supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. Founding, staff ...

Film

Tourmaline began her film career in 2010 when she worked on Kagendo Murungi’s
Taking Freedom Home
'. For this film she gathered oral histories form LGBTQ New Yorkers on the challenges faced accessing affordable housing, medical care, and social services. In 2016 she directed her first film ''The personal Things'' which features trans elder

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (born 1940s), often referred to as Miss Major, is a trans woman author, activist, and community organizer for transgender rights. She has participated in activism and community organizing for a range of causes, and serv ...

. In this film Griffin-Gracy reflects on her life as an activist who participated in the

Stonewall Riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...

. In 2017 she was awarded
Queer Art Prize
for her work in on this film. Tourmaline also worked on the

Golden Globe The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

nominated film ''Mudbound'' as an assistant director to Dee Rees. In 2017, Tourmaline’s work was featured at the

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sc ...

in New York in an exhibition titled
Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon
'. Tourmaline has made numerous films about trans activism. ''STAR People Are Beautiful People'' (2009), co-produced with Sasha Wortzel, documents the life and work of

Sylvia Rivera Sylvia Rivera (July 2, 1951 – February 19, 2002) was an American gay liberation and transgender rights activist September 21, 1995. Accessed July 24, 2015. who was also a noted community worker in New York. Rivera, who identified as a drag q ...

and STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries). Her next work, also co-produced with Wortzel,''

Happy Birthday, Marsha! ''Happy Birthday, Marsha!'' is a fictional short film that imagines the gay and transgender rights pioneers Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera in the hours that led up to the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. The film stars Mya Taylor as J ...

'', explores the life of activist

Marsha P. Johnson Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945 – July 6, 1992) also known as Malcolm Michaels Jr., was an American gay liberation''I've been involved in gay liberation ever since it first started in 1969'', 15:20 into the interview, Johnson is quoted as ...

. Trans women played every major role in the film and queer and trans activists volunteered at the event. In October 2017, Tourmaline alleged that filmmaker David France plagiarized her grant submission to the

Arcus Foundation The Arcus Foundation is an international charitable foundation focused on issues related to LGBT rights, social justice, ape conservation, and environmental preservation. The foundation's stated mission is "to ensure that LGBT people and our fello ...

to create the documentary '' The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson'', which debuted on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

on October 6. Tourmaline and collaborator Sasha Wortzel were applying for a grant for financial assistance to release their short film, ''Happy Birthday, Marsha''. This claim was supported by transgender activist

Janet Mock Janet Mock (born March 10, 1983) is an American writer, television host, director, producer and transgender rights activist. Her debut book, the memoir '' Redefining Realness'', became a ''New York Times'' bestseller. She is a contributing edit ...

. France denied the allegation. Independent investigations launched by both Jezebel and The Advocate exonerated France and concluded that Gossett's allegations against him were without merit. The debate has brought up questions of artistic integrity, who owns archival footage, and what constitutes a valid accusation. In 2020, the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

acquired her 2019 film ''Salacia'', about Mary Jones, for its permanent collection. In 2021, The

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

acquired two works, including
Summer Azure
'' by the artist for display in '' Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room.''

Honors

* 201
Queer Art Prize Finalist
*201
Stonewall Community Foundation
Honoree *

George Soros George Soros ( name written in eastern order), (born György Schwartz, August 12, 1930) is a Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist. , he had a net worth of US$8.6 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated mo ...

Justice Advocacy Fellowship * ''

'' was recognized by filmmaker

Ira Sachs Ira Sachs (born November 21, 1965) is an American filmmaker. His first film was the short ''Lady'' (1993). Biography Sachs was born in Memphis, Tennessee. His films include '' The Delta'' (1997), '' Forty Shades of Blue'' (2005), '' Married Li ...

and awarded a fellowship with Sach's Queer/Art/Mentorship program for the 2012–2013 school year. * 2020 ''Time'' 100 *2021

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

References

External links

* *
Wikipedia Edit-a-thon: Conversation with Orit Gat, Reina Gossett, Jenna Wortham, and Fiona Romeo
discussion at

MoMA Moma may refer to: People * Moma Clarke (1869–1958), British journalist * Moma Marković (1912–1992), Serbian politician * Momčilo Rajin (born 1954), Serbian art and music critic, theorist and historian, artist and publisher Places ; Ang ...

, March 5, 2016
Happy Birthday, Marsha! Directed by Reina Gossett and Sasha Wortzel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tourmaline 1983 births Living people Columbia College (New York) alumni American feminists LGBT people from Massachusetts Queer women Transgender rights activists Transgender women Transgender artists LGBT African Americans African-American activists 21st-century American women Women civil rights activists 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women Transfeminists