#precarious lives

[marksladen]

Precarious Lives

In 2025 I produced a research report, entitled Precarious Lives, which explores financial hardship among older LGBTQ+ Londoners. There's a myth out there that older queer people are all affluent – 'double income no kids' – but the reality is very different. The truth is that older LGBTQ+ people will have faced many barriers in their lives, and that these factor into their financial health in later life.

The report reveals a thicket of issues – centring on long-term discrimination and trauma – and how these contribute to increased rates of isolation and disability, which in turn have a major impact on life opportunity. And it shows how the financial impact of discrimination and exclusion are especially pernicious for certain groups of older queer people: if you're trans or nonbinary, for example; or if you're LGBTQ+ and a person of colour.

It was my honour to manage this research and to write the report. The project started at Opening Doors, and when the latter closed it went to Tonic Housing, with the ongoing support of Trust for London. It was a crazy ride, in which I was working part-time at cash-strapped charities and non-profits, the sole person dedicated to the project, and yet helped by many brilliant people and much goodwill. Along the way we were gifted with amazing testimony from people with lived experience of the issues – stories which are eye-opening, heart-breaking and anger-inducing.

As some of you will know, I re-mixed my career a few years ago, having worked for many years solely in the arts. This project was a re-education, teaching me about people and community and resilience and some of the big fault lines in our society.

To read the report see here.

[cornellcas]

Precarious Lives: Central American families and the limits of U.S. immigration policy

In 2014, 60,000 children and mothers fled Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, seeking refuge in the U.S. because of gang threats, domestic violence, and child abuse in their countries.

The Obama administration responded by detaining these families for months in prison-like conditions, often denying them release on bond and inhibiting their ability to apply for political asylum. On Thursday, April 16, panelists will discuss a national effort being organized by lawyers and activists to end this practice of family detention. “Precarious Lives” will be held at 4:30 pm in Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall, Cornell. 

“The panelists will examine this national effort through a transnational feminist lens,” says Jane Juffer, director of undergraduate studies for the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program (FGSS) in the College of Arts and Sciences. “It’s an effort to ensure that women and children refugees are allowed to exercise their internationally recognized rights to live free from violence and persecution.” 

Panelists include Virginia Raymond, an immigration lawyer and participant in the Karnes Pro-Bono Project in Austin, TX, which represents women and children at the Karnes City detention center; Jane Juffer, Cornell professor of feminist, gender, and sexuality studies and English; and Cornell law students Yujin Chun and Carolyn Wald. Sital Kalantry will moderate the panel; she is a clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School, co-director of the Immigration Appellate Law & Advocacy Clinic, and co-founder of the Avon Global Center for Women & Justice. 

A follow-up workshop to the panel discussion will be held on Friday, April 17, at noon in 391 Uris Hall, to discuss specific actions and organizing strategies for those interested in immigration policy activism. All are welcome; lunch will be served. 

“Precarious Lives” is a project of FGSS and the Immigration Appellate Law and Advocacy Clinic of the Cornell Law School.