Assigned Sex

Assigned Sex

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Society & Culture

Black trans and genderqueer voices on identity, bodies, faith, and the systems designed to silence us.

May 29

Spicy Work

In this episode of Assigned Sex, Unarchived, Shaun sits down with an anonymous guest who goes by Lady, a Black trans woman who came to escorting at twenty-nine, after years of religious shame and romantic disappointment Lady breaks down what it takes to do this work safely: how she reads a text message to assess threat level, why she has clients stand outside a building she can see from her window before she ever opens a door, what she keeps nearby in case that's not enough. The conversation gets honest about shame and the difference between survival sex work and chosen sex work. Lady makes the argument that in a world where intimacy gets extracted from women for free every day, getting paid for it is not degradation. In the history segment, Shaun centers CeCe McDonald, the Black trans woman who survived a white supremacist hate crime in Minneapolis in 2011, took a plea deal for defending herself, and was sent to a men's prison by a state that refused to recognize her gender until it was time to punish her. If you're searching for honest conversations about sex work and the trans experience, Black trans women and survival, escorting safety and emotional labor, or the connection between gender, criminalization, and bodily autonomy, this episode is for you. Follow Assigned Sex on Facebook and Instagram at @assignedsex, and subscribe to the Assigned Sex newsletter on Substack for episode updates and extended conversations. Credits: Host: Shaun Dawson · Audio Engineer: Aaron Freeman · Producers: Shaun Dawson & Nandikayyy · Sound Design: Nandikayyy · Music: "Soul of Orleans" by John Lopke; "Street Gospel Hip Hop Piano – 75bpm – Bbmaj" by nnaudio (licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). Sources:— "Black Trans Bodies Are Under Attack": Activist CeCe McDonald, Actress Laverne Cox Speak Out. Democracy Now! Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOuH43-_4Yo&t=493s — "I Use My Love to Guide Me": Surviving and Thriving in the Face of Impossible Situations. Barnard Center for Research on Women. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AorudSjIhEk&t=1332s — Free CeCe. University of California Television (UCTV). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4WDdM-4geQ — Laverne Cox At The LA Film Festival with Her Film FREE CECE. Rich Girl Network.tv. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ynPXo1rzME&t=3s

31 min
May 16

PREA, Paulina Poe v. DOJ and Dee Farmer

Shaun pulls up the case files and sits with two women separated by thirty-one years who made the exact same argument to the exact same government: you knew what would happen to me, and you put me there anyway. In this episode of Assigned Sex, Unarchived, Shaun traces the legal history behind Poe v. DOJ, the federal lawsuit filed on May 6, 2026 by a transgender woman incarcerated in a men's prison who is identified in court documents only as Paulina Poe. The case challenges a December 2025 Department of Justice memo that instructed PREA auditors to stop evaluating whether facilities were complying with protections for transgender and LGBTQ prisoners, without going through any public rulemaking process. PREA was not repealed. The regulations did not change. A memo was enough. Shaun centers Dee Farmer, the Black transgender woman who was raped in a men's federal penitentiary in 1989, sued the United States government, lost twice, and won a Supreme Court ruling in 1994 that established the deliberate indifference standard under the Eighth Amendment. That ruling became the foundation for the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which passed the Senate 99 to zero in 2003 under George W. Bush, and was built into enforceable federal regulations under the Obama administration in 2012. The episode closes with the numbers behind Poe v. DOJ: 2,198 transgender people in federal custody, 22 of them housed in facilities matching their gender identity, and a federal government that restructured its entire enforcement apparatus over those 22 women. If you are searching for information about the Paulina Poe lawsuit, PREA transgender protections, or the deliberate indifference standard as it applies to transgender women in federal prison, this episode is for you. Follow Assigned Sex on Facebook and Instagram at @assignedsex, and subscribe to the Assigned Sex newsletter on Substack for episode updates and extended conversations. Credits: Host: Shaun Dawson · Audio Engineer: Aaron Freeman · Producers: Shaun Dawson & Nandikayyy · Sound Design: Nandikayyy · Music: "Soul of Orleans" by John Lopke; "Street Gospel Hip Hop Piano – 75bpm – Bbmaj" by nnaudio (licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). Sources:— Farmer v. Brennan, Oral Argument (Jan. 12, 1994). Oyez. Available at: https://www.oyez.org/cases/1993/92-7247— “Two Decades After the Prison Rape Elimination Act.” U.S. Senate Hearing. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUsBIyrB4sc— Minter, Shannon. National Center for LGBTQ Rights interview on CNN. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22mukg85YVU— “Dee Farmer Deliberately Resisted.” Just Detention International. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5BHgJlUXlM— “President Obama Speaks Out Against Prisoner Rape.” Just Detention International. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0BqGHISAOY— Bloomberg News. “Trump Signs Order to Ban Transgender Women.” Available at: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iAwJPzdIjCk— Poe v. DOJ, filed May 6, 2026, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Coverage via National Center for LGBTQ Rights (NCLR): https://www.nclrights.org/about-us/press-release/lawsuit-filed-against-trump-administration-doj-for-ignoring-federal-protections-against-sexual-abuse-in-prison/

17 min
Apr 29

Credit Where It's Due

Shaun pulls up a chair with the ancestors, Sylvia Rivera, Bayard Rustin, Marsha P. Johnson, and Stormé DeLarverie, and asks the question that needs to be asked: whose names stay in rotation, and whose work gets acted like it never existed? In this episode of Assigned Sex, Unarchived, Shaun traces the pattern of how movement history gets sanitized , who gets put on the poster and who gets pushed to the margins to keep the story comfortable. Using archival footage of Sylvia Rivera being booed off her own stage at the 1973 Christopher Street Liberation Day Rally, and Bayard Rustin reading the demands of the 1963 March on Washington to a quarter of a million people, Shaun makes the case that erasure isn't an accident. Shaun also centers Stormé DeLarverie, the mixed-race drag king, Jewel Box Revue performer, and self-appointed guardian of Greenwich Village, whose archival voice runs through this episode. Shaun traces what it means that her legacy keeps getting reduced to a single disputed moment while her years of mutual aid and community protection quietly disappear underneath it. The episode closes with a look at pinkwashing, corporations and governments leaning on LGBTQ+ imagery to appear progressive while the people who did the original work get pushed to the back, and with Shaun's four-part framework for actually honoring Black trans and gender-nonconforming labor: say where you got things from, put money behind it, change who you center, and stop pretending the proof isn't there. Follow Assigned Sex on Facebook and Instagram at @assignedsex, and subscribe to the Assigned Sex newsletter on Substack for episode updates and extended conversations. Credits: Host: Shaun Dawson · Audio Engineer: Aaron Freeman · Producers: Shaun Dawson & Nandikayyy · Sound Design: Nandikayyy · Music: "Soul of Orleans" by John Lopke; "Street Gospel Hip Hop Piano – 75bpm – Bbmaj" by nnaudio (licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). Sources for archival audio: — Sylvia Rivera, "Y'all Better Quiet Down," 1973 Christopher Street Liberation Day Rally NYC. LoveTapesCollective (Original Authorized Video). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb-JIOWUw1o — also archived at: https://archive.org/details/l020asylviariverayallbetterquietdownoriginalauthorizedvideo1973gaypriderallynycjbjiowuw1o — Bayard Rustin reads the demands of the March on Washington, August 28, 1963. American Archive of Public Broadcasting / WGBH. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbGWhBhOBog — full broadcast record at: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-9707wn83 — Stormé: The Lady of the Jewel Box (1987), dir. Michelle Parkerson. Available free via Internet Archive at: https://archive.org/details/storme— A Stormé Life. ITL Media. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgCVNEiOwLs

22 min
Apr 15

Black Trans Joy

Shaun sits back down with Nandikayyy to talk about Black trans joy, what it looks and feels like, how it lives next to grief, and what they wish they could've seen when they were younger, framed by a lesson on Audre Lorde. In this episode of Assigned Sex, Unarchived, Shaun and Nandikayyy get into Black trans joy. The kind that looks like finally feeling at home in your body, music that comes back to you after loss, and a Black trans person at the grocery store, unbothered. They also talk about the projects and creators keeping them going, from The Okra Project to Angelica Ross, and what they wish someone had told them when they were young. Shaun also shares a brief lesson on Audre Lorde, the Harlem-born poet, essayist, and self-described "Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet" who grew up memorizing poems because no one had words for what she felt. Her life and work became a blueprint for survival, intersectionality, and speaking truth even when the world wasn't ready. Credits:Host: Shaun Dawson · Guest: Nandikayyy · Audio Engineer: Aaron Freeman · Producers: Shaun Dawson & Nandikayyy · Sound Design: Nandikayyy · Music: “Soul of Orleans” by John Lopke; “Street Gospel Hip Hop Piano – 75bpm – Bbmaj” by nnaudio (licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). Sources for archival audio on Audre Lord:- "Audre Lorde interviewed by Blanche Cook, 1982," LoveTapesCollective. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4rDL-xZ8N0 – - "Audre Lorde interviewed by Judy Simmons, WBAI New York, 1979," WBAI. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_-XhFKn-f0 – "Audre Lorde reading at the San Francisco State Poetry Center, 1974." Available at: https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/poetrycenter/bundles/238555

38 min
Apr 1

It Be Your Own People

In this episode of Assigned Sex, Unarchived, Shaun moves from the murder of Islan Nettles and the “real woman” trope to Lil Duval, Boosie Badazz, Dave Chappelle, and the Black church, breaking down how toxic masculinity and bioessentialism push Black trans folks to the edge while still expecting them to ride for “the culture.” Shaun also shares a history lesson on Monica Roberts, the Houston‑born journalist and creator of TransGriot, whose reporting shifted how media covers Black trans women’s lives and deaths, and whose insistence that “Black trans women are Black women” offers a different way to imagine Black community. Follow Assigned Sex on Facebook and Instagram at @assignedsex, and subscribe to the Assigned Sex newsletter on Substack for episode updates and extended conversations. Credits:Host: Shaun Dawson · Audio Engineer: Aaron Freeman · Producers: Shaun Dawson & Nandikayyy · Sound Design: Nandikayyy · Music: “Soul of Orleans” by John Lopke; “Street Gospel Hip Hop Piano – 75bpm – Bbmaj” by nnaudio (licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). Sources for archival audio on Monica Roberts:– Monica Roberts “Call of Service” Lecture & “Courage to Act” Panel, PBHAserves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ap2jzha7CA&t=631s– “Prominent trans rights activist and journalist Monica Roberts dies at 58,” KPRC 2 Click2Houston: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-qafUZ5Yu0– “Monica Roberts accepts a Special Recognition Award at the 2016 GLAAD Media Awards,” GLAAD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s81wzwM_Qa4&t=247s– TransGriot Weekly with Monica Roberts: https://www.youtube.com/@transgriotweeklywithmonica915– “Monica Roberts HERO Testimony April 30 2014,” Houston Equal Rights Ordinance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKOCv0Di4K4 Additional sources for archival audio:– “Diamond Stylz on Why Black Trans Rights Are Civil Rights,” The Root: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw6psXYXw6- "Candace Owens Compares Being Trans to Rachel Dolezal Being Transracial," Hollywood Unlocked:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8vaVEe2Aww- "Dave Chappelle on Transgender for 25 Minutes straight," Laugh Up Club: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUERjJCw0tE&t- "Boosie Praises Trump for Blocking Transgenders from Women's Sports: No More Juwanna Manns! (Part 25)," Djvlad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuT-2tvnh_0 - "Lil Duval & The Breakfast Club Roast The Real Sidechicks of Charlotte," Breakfast Club Power 105.1 FM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lItBaZ3jc_E&t=485s

32 min
Mar 25

Pay It No Mind

In this episode of Assigned Sex, Unarchived, Shaun reunites with Jade, an original Assigned Sex documentary cast member, to talk about where she is now, the community and chosen family keeping her grounded, and the work of protecting your mind in a world determined to misread you. Shaun also shares a brief lesson on Marsha P. Johnson, the Jersey-born street queen and co‑founder of STAR whose life held mental illness, sex work, HIV, and world-shifting activism all at once, underscoring how Black trans and gender-nonconforming people have always been central to our history. Jade closes by talking about where she finds her trans joy now: making music as her alter ego Fox Sinclair, teaching herself Unreal Engine, and creating the kind of thoughtful, less hypersexual music she wants to hear. Follow Assigned Sex on Facebook and Instagram at @assignedsex, and subscribe to the Assigned Sex newsletter on Substack for episode updates and extended conversations. Credits:Host: Shaun Dawson · Guest: Jade Cervantes · Guest Host: Aurora Jonez · Audio Engineer: Aaron Freeman · Producers: Shaun Dawson & Nandikayyy · Sound Design: Nandikayyy · Music: “Soul of Orleans” by John Lopke; “Street Gospel Hip Hop Piano – 75bpm – Bbmaj” by nnaudio (licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). Sources for archival audio on Marsha P. Johnson:– “L002A Intro 475: Marsha P. Johnson interviewed by Betty Brown, April 27, 1973,” LoveTapesCollective. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvW-Fif4KFE– “Marsha P. Johnson | Artifacts | The 1979 Stonewall Interview,” Artifacts. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC0YX_bIq8U– “Pay It No Mind: The Life & Times of Marsha P. Johnson,” PROUDVISION TV – LGBTQ Public Media Network. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeRejL0sMpQ

34 min
Mar 18

Origin Story

Shaun Dawson looks back on returning to Assigned Sex years after the 2019 short film, talking about what’s shifted since their first time directing and how their relationship to work, money, and being visible as a Black genderqueer storyteller has changed. They get into why the original film centered Black church, gender roles, and a preacher’s kid named Angel, and how watching Paris Is Burning for the first time cracked something open around seeing Black and Latinx queer and trans life on screen. In this episode of Assigned Sex, Unarchived, Shaun breaks down why the project is coming back now as a podcast instead of a film, what it means to “unarchive” work they’d been hiding for years, and how a recurring written history segment plus a companion Substack turn the show into a kind of altar for Black trans and genderqueer lives instead of just more trauma spectacle. The episode also weaves in the story of Octavia St. Laurent, a Brooklyn‑born Black trans legend of the ballroom scene, whose life stretched from Harlem houses like St. Laurent and Mizrahi to Paris Is Burning, indie films, and HIV and AIDS advocacy. Through Octavia’s story, Shaun sits with how she opened up more room for Black queer and trans people to see themselves as worthy of the close‑up, not just a tragic headline. Follow Assigned Sex on Facebook and Instagram at @assignedsex, and subscribe to the Assigned Sex newsletter on Substack for episode updates and extended conversations. Credits: Host: Shaun Dawson · Engineer: Aaron Freeman · Producers: Shaun Dawson & Nandikayyy · Music: “Soul of Orleans” by John Lopke; Street Gospel Hip Hop Piano – 75bpm – Bbmaj by nnaudio (licensed under Creative Commons)

20 min
Mar 11

Polyam, Black and Still Best Friends

Shaun sits down with agender, polyamorous producer and creative director Nandi K. to talk about eight years of choosing each other, from OKCupid to a Barcade stare down to building a life where friendship, creativity, and non monogamy actually work. They get into why “we gotta be friends first” is the foundation, what it feels like to be more yourself in a relationship instead of smaller, and how polyamory became language for loving honestly instead of trying to prove anything to anybody. The episode also weaves in the story of Black trans elder Miss Major Griffin-Gracy as a model for turning survival into strategy, from hustling and prison time to starting the House of gg as a space for Black trans women and trans folks of color to rest, heal, and get politicized. Shaun talks about Miss Major as a movement mother, someone whose life proves that care work, chosen family, and “we look after our girls” are the actual blueprint for how Black trans people keep each other alive. Follow Assigned Sex on Facebook and Instagram at @assignedsex, and subscribe to the Assigned Sex newsletter on Substack for episode updates and extended conversations. Credits:Host: Shaun Dawson · Guest: Nandi K · Engineer: Aaron Freeman · Producers: Shaun Dawson & Nandi K · Music: “Soul of Orleans” by John Lopke; “Street Gospel Hip Hop Piano – 75bpm – Bbmaj” by nnaudio (licensed under Creative Commons).

26 min
Mar 4

Bralettes and Bust Downs

Shaun talks with Southern‑raised nonbinary barber and techie Chris about growing up “both boy and girl” in a Black church home, navigating pronouns in a “queer‑straight” barbershop, and figuring out how to live beyond a gender binary that keeps knocking people “between the washer and the dryer.” In this episode of Assigned Sex, Unarchived, they dig into how family, church, and a “queer‑straight” barbershop shaped Chris’s sense of gender, why labels like “stud” no longer fit, and how words like “bulldagger” land differently across generations and online. Chris talks about studs, dykes, and transmasculine folks arguing over who’s allowed to wear what, the pressure to pick a side, and why gender feels “Barbie‑smooth” with room to accessorize. The episode also weaves in the story of Sweet Evening Breeze, a Black trans trailblazer in early‑20th‑century Kentucky, as a blueprint for living loudly, strategically, and publicly queer in hostile worlds. Chris closes by offering some love to their younger self in Griffeys and overalls, talking about shaving their head, staying weird and tender, and trusting that both‑and has always been who they are Follow Assigned Sex on Facebook and Instagram at @assignedsex, and subscribe to the Assigned Sex newsletter on Substack for episode updates and extended conversations. Credits:Host: Shaun Dawson · Guest: Chris · Engineer: Aaron Freeman · Producers: Shaun Dawson & Nandikayyy · Music: “Soul of Orleans” by John Lopke; Street Gospel Hip Hop Piano – 75bpm – Bbmaj by nnaudio (licensed under Creative Commons)

25 min
Feb 25

They Wouldn’t Support Us, So We Figured It Out

In this episode of Assigned Sex, Unarchived, Shaun sits down with TomKola, a Black Nigerian intersex trans man, activist, and founder of Trans Nigerian Support, for an honest conversation about growing up in a deeply religious, gendered household where everything was “boys do this, girls do that,” and finding the language and community to name himself. Tomkola shares how dissociation became a survival tool in childhood, how culture and Christianity shaped the gender rules he was expected to follow, and what shifted when he finally decided to stop fighting himself and claim his manhood. He and Shaun talk about the loneliness of realizing you are the person no one around you has words for, the power of trans men seeing each other online, and the difference between comparison and motivation when it comes to transition timelines and bodies. He also traces the origin story of Trans Nigerian Support and offers a word to younger trans guys about keeping sight of joy when the future feels impossible. Shaun also shares a brief lesson on Georgia Black, a Black trans woman in mid‑century Florida whose community chose love and protection over spectacle, reminding us that Black trans and genderqueer people have always been part of our history. Follow Assigned Sex on Facebook and Instagram at @assignedsex, and subscribe to the Assigned Sex newsletter on Substack for episode updates and extended conversations. Credits:Host: Shaun Dawson · Guest: TomKola · Engineer: Aaron Freeman · Producers: Shaun Dawson & Nandikayyy · Music: “Soul of Orleans” by John Lopke; Street Gospel Hip Hop Piano – 75bpm – Bbmaj by nnaudio (licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.)

28 min
Feb 18

What Makes the Man?

In this episode of Assigned Sex, Unarchived, Shaun sits down with Kyrie, an original cast member from the Assigned Sex documentary, for an honest conversation about Black masculinity, passability, and self-definition as a Black trans masc person. Kyrie opens up about the challenges of performing masculinity in cis-masc spaces—from the early days of transitioning and losing access to community through sports, to navigating dating, fetishization, and loneliness while “blending in.” Together, Shaun and Kyrie explore what it takes to build a version of manhood that feels authentic, grounded, and free. Shaun also shares a brief lesson on Jim McCarris, a Black trans man living in 1950s Mississippi, underscoring how Black trans and genderqueer people have always been part of our history. Follow Assigned Sex on Facebook and Instagram at @assignedsex, and subscribe to the Assigned Sex newsletter on Substack for episode updates and extended conversations. Credits: Host: Shaun Dawson · Guest: Kyrie · Engineer: Aaron Freeman · Producers: Shaun Dawson & Nandikayyy · Music: “Soul of Orleans” by John Lopke; Street Gospel Hip Hop Piano – 75bpm – Bbmaj by nnaudio (licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.)

22 min
Feb 11

Deliver Us From Gender

On the first episode of Assigned Sex, Unarchived, Shaun is joined by TJ Chester, Nandikayyy, and an anonymous guest we’re calling “Lady” to unpack spirituality, religion, and faith through the eyes of Black trans and genderqueer folks who grew up in church. TJ and Lady are preacher’s kids, Nandi’s mom was the minister of music, and together they revisit long Sundays in the pews, the joy of choir stands, and the quiet negotiations you learn to make just to survive in “God’s house.” They talk about being culturally Christian without being believers, agnosticism that still loves a good praise break, and what it feels like when ministers focus on your hair, your hemlines, and your body instead of your humanity. Lady shares what it meant to come into herself as an MTF t-girl in a “come as you are” church that still had plenty to say about what she wore, while TJ reflects on being the questioning kid who wrote notes to their pastor dad and ultimately had to walk away after a transphobic sermon. Nandi brings in hoodoo, conjure, and the idea that Black survival itself is divine, reminding us that churches do not own the copyright on the sacred. Follow Assigned Sex on Facebook and Instagram at @assignedsex, and subscribe to the Assigned Sex newsletter on Substack for episode updates and extended conversations. Credits:Host: Shaun Dawson · Guest: TJ Chester, Nandikayyy · Engineer: Aaron Freeman · Producers: Shaun Dawson & Nandikayyy · Music: “Soul of Orleans” by John Lopke; Street Gospel Hip Hop Piano – 75bpm – Bbmaj by nnaudio (licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.)

31 min

12 Episodes

Black trans and genderqueer voices on identity, bodies, faith, and the systems designed to silence us.

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Assigned Sex
Years Active

2K
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12
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Explicit
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Assigned Sex