Interview Of Octavia Kohner

NYC Trans Oral History Project

Octavia Leona Kohner was active in the successful unionization campaign at Babeland, a NYC sex toy shop. Here, she recounts her upbringing in a working-class family in Staten Island, and describes social isolation, friendships, and sexual encounters during adolescence. She relates her experience coming out as a trans woman while attending Hunter College, and her struggle with depression. She also discusses her own political journey, participating in advocacy and activism during high school and college, listening and learning at Occupy Wall Street, and her affiliation with anarchism. She shares stories of organizing at Babeland, recounting workplace grievances, anti-union efforts by management, the bargaining process, and details of their first contract. She places the victory by Babeland workers in the context of the broader labor movement. (Summary by Justine Ambrose.)