Unsafe

“Unsafe brings the universality of abolition to everyone, and it does so precisely through the “issue” that many are most likely to think doesn’t concern them at all: transness. The result is an explosive illumination of the interdependence of all liberation struggles at a time when we desperately need such light. Even as the carceral state makes its deep structural investment in forced cissexuality plainer than ever, many of us have persisted too long in regarding trans matters as a mere culture war. Thank you, Lamble, for doing the work we so urgently needed. I’ve been waiting for someone to write this book for a long time.”
―Sophie Lewis, author of Enemy Feminisms: TERFs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation

“As attacks on trans people reach new, terrifying heights, activists and scholars around the world must take a careful look at what has transpired in Britain. Unsafe provides a sobering, detailed, insightful account of how anti-trans activists have influenced British politics in recent years. Lamble’s abolitionist analysis dismantles how women’s safety has been weaponized. This book is exactly what we need right now.”
―Dean Spade, author of Love in a F*cked-Up World

“Taking the anti-trans backlash that has gripped the UK as its starting point, readers are provided with a fascinating historical account of how feminists and queer people alike threw their lot in with a broken, ineffective criminal justice system. Unsafe is a challenging, rigorous, and genuinely nuanced read for those interested in a more expansive lens on both feminism and queer liberation in Britain.”
―Shon Faye, author of Love in Exile

“Through careful and compassionate analysis, Lamble makes evident that struggles for justice by and for different marginalized groups are not a zero sum game. Our goals do not exist at an atomized level; our strategies galvanize when they are collective. Unsafe is a loving act of documenting, remembering, and bringing together knowledge deeply rooted in community organizing, with a clear steer towards justice and liberation for all of us.”
―Leah Cowan, author of Why Would Feminists Trust the Police?

“Unsafe goes beyond critique to show how people are taking collective action for structural change that results in material rather than merely symbolic safety. Rooted in solidarity, care, and commitment, this book is a welcome boost in discouraging times.”
―Rachel Herzing, co-author of How to Abolish Prisons

“Counterintuitive and provocative…a contemporary political study about left- and right-wing reactions to transgender rights and the carceral approach to justice.”
―Foreword Magazine

“A fascinating, thorough dissection of deeper ideological currents behind the anti-trans backlash.”
―Publishers Weekly

Lamble is a community organizer and Professor of Criminology and Queer Theory at Birkbeck, University of London. Their work explores questions of gender, sexuality, and justice with a focus on feminist and abolitionist alternatives to prisons, police, and punishment. They are based in London.

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