Amina Massey and Wendi Cooper on LGBT Rights, Culture, Policing, and Louisiana's "Crime Against Nature" Law Artwork

The Next World

Produced by Partners for Dignity & Rights, we explore and celebrate the work of poor people's movements, particularly in the US. We highlight innovative and powerful organizing campaigns and community building led by women, LGBTQ folks, Black communities and other people of color, that are pushing the boundaries and have the potential to transform this society.Hosted by Max Rameau, a Haitian-born Pan-African theorist, campaign strategist, organizer, author and member of Pan-African Community Action.

All Episodes

The Next World

Amina Massey and Wendi Cooper on LGBT Rights, Culture, Policing, and Louisiana's "Crime Against Nature" Law

August 01, 2019 • National Economic and Social Rights Initiative • Season 1 • Episode 5

This month, Amina Massey joins host Puck Lo and guest Wendi Cooper for a conversation on on LGBT Rights, Police, and Louisiana's "Crime Against Nature" Law.

Amina Massey is a medical sociologist, health educator, researcher, interviewer, photographer, writer, musician and artist. Her work as a medical sociologist looks at social determinants of health, chronic illness and systemic disenfranchisement.

Wendi Cooper is a transgender woman of color and a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. She is program coordinator for TRANScending Women and CANScantSTAND at Operation Restoration. She has been a healthcare provider and mental health professional for over a decade, with a B.S. in biology from Southern University at New Orleans, and an Executive Masters of Criminal Justice with a concentration of juvenile justice from Southern University. Because of her connections with the transgender community, Wendi was appointed to Mayor Latoya Cantrell’s transition team. She was a community organizer for the NO Justice Project in New Orleans, where she provided key testimony in the federal lawsuit that successfully challenged Louisiana’s Crime Against Nature by Solicitation (CANS) law, securing the removal of more than 700 women from the sex offender registry. Wendi has been featured in MSNBC, ColorLines, and other outlets. Wendi’s goal is to help all women, particularly transgender women, to overcome their fears. She is also organizing a march for justice on August 31 at 1pm in New Orleans.

Thank you to Jesse Strauss for Audio Mixing and Editing.

Music for this episode from https://filmmusic.io:"Too Cool" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

You can read more about the issues we explore on our podcast and much more on the website of the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, nesri.org.