Love in a F*cked-Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell Together

From celebrated trans activist and author of Mutual Aid Dean Spade comes a practical manifesto for how to live out your radical political values in your intimate relationships Around the globe, people are faced with a spiraling succession of crises, from the pandemic and climate change-induced disasters to the ongoing horrors of mass incarceration, racist policing, endemic gender violence, and severe wealth inequality. Many of us feel mobilized to organize and collectively combat these issues on both a personal and political level, often dedicating our lives to the forwarding of progressive ideas and the daunting goal of trying to bend the world toward justice. But too often we think of our political values as outward-facing positions again dominant systems of power. Rarely, if ever, do we pursue the same kind of justice close to home, in our relationships to ourselves and to those closest to us. No matter how ardently we want to see the world change, our lives and connections will continue to stagnate unless we liberate ourselves from the cultural scripts that too often dictate our behavior toward others. How do we become intentional about our levels of connection? How do we separate our expectations of love from the baggage left to us by our parents? How do we divest from the idea that one romantic partner will be the solution to all our problems? This book offers a roadmap for how to bring our best thinking about freedom and justice into step with our desires for healing and connection. Lifelong activist and educator Dean Spade dares us to decide that our interpersonal actions are not separate from our politics of liberation and resistance. Love in a F*cked-Up World is a resounding call to action and a practical manifesto for how to combat cultural scripts and take our relationships into our own hands, preparing us for the work of changing the world.