Janetta Johnson Oral History

This item contains potentially sensitive material related to sexual assault and transphobic language.

Janetta Johnson was born on November 12, 1964 in Tampa, Florida. Around age 11, Janetta confessed to her Auntie Thelma that she wished she could dress and look like her, so Auntie Thelma would sneak Janetta bags of clothing and jewelry. Janetta connected with a community of Black trans people in Tampa and started doing sex work to support herself. She struggled with addiction and found herself in a cycle of incarceration and recidivism. Janetta discovered her affinity for organizing while incarcerated and decided to dedicate herself to systemic work to help other Black trans people in carceral systems. Janetta met and grew close to Miss Major and began working devotedly with the Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), which she now leads.

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Item Information:

Identifier: g158bh64j
Collection: Oral Histories with People of Color
Institution: OUTWORDS
Creator(s): Johnson, Janetta
Funk, Mason
Contributor(s): Sandhu, A.K.
Date Created: Aug. 10, 2021
Dates Covered: 1964
1997
Genre: Oral Histories
Subject(s): Janetta Johnson
Miss Major
Transgender Gendervariant Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP)
Places: California > San Francisco County > San Francisco
Florida > Hillsborough County > Tampa
Topic(s): Anti-transgender discrimination
Black transgender people
LGBTQ+ imprisonment
LGBTQ+ sex workers
LGBTQ+ unhoused people
Trans women
Transmisogynoir
Resource Type: Moving image
Language: English
Rights: In copyright
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