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What does it mean that until relatively recently, the center of queer/trans culture was the underground – a metaphorical space of illegality – and what are the political possibilities of such illegality? This seminar will consider how Black/trans fugitivity and interracial sex, trans identity theft and forgery, black market hormones and silicone injections, sex work, and mood-altering drugs defined same-sex desiring and gender-variant cultures during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Far from being a lawless place, we will analyze how life in the underground, including stints in prison, concretely shaped gender and sexual possibilities, subcultural codes of conduct, and practices of community-making.