Leslie Feinberg
Encyclopedia
Leslie Feinberg is a transgender
queer
and communist activist, speaker, and author
. Feinberg's first novel Stone Butch Blues
is widely considered a groundbreaking work about gender
.
, which won the Lambda Literary Award
, is a novel based around Jess Goldberg, a transgender individual growing up in a conservative town in New York and discovering the nascent gay community in Buffalo during the 1970s and 80s. Despite popular belief, the fictional work is not autobiographical. This book is frequently taught at colleges, universities and some high schools.
In addition to Stone Butch Blues, Feinberg has authored two non-fiction
books, Transliberation: Beyond Pink or Blue and Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman, the novel Drag King Dreams, and Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba, a compilation of 25 journalistic articles. Feinberg is also a high-ranking member of the Workers World Party
and a managing editor of Workers World newspaper.
Feinberg's writings on LGBT
history, "Lavender & Red," frequently appear in the Workers World newspaper. Feinberg has also been involved in Camp Trans
and has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Starr King School for the Ministry
for transgender and social justice work.
Feinberg began taking photographs in late 2008 after illness and resulting disability made writing difficult.
, and was assigned female at birth
. Feinberg explains: "I was born in Kansas City, Missouri
--not Buffalo, N.Y.--into a blue-collar, factory-working family." Feinberg prefers the gender-neutral pronouns "hir" and "ze", as well as s/he.
Feinberg's partner is the prominent lesbian poet
-activist Minnie Bruce Pratt
.
Feinberg has been battling the effects of Lyme Disease
, Babesiosis
, Bartonella
and other co-infections caught from a tick bite in the 1970s.
Feinberg has carried legal documents for 40 years that state clearly who is, and is not, part of Feinberg's family. Irving David Feinberg, Betty Vance Hyde and Catherine Ryan Hyde
, though biologically related to Feinberg, are legally defined as not part of Feinberg's family. These documents also define Feinberg's partner Pratt to be family; Feinberg also refers to certain other chosen people as family.
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
and communist activist, speaker, and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. Feinberg's first novel Stone Butch Blues
Stone Butch Blues
Stone Butch Blues is a novel written by transgender activist Leslie Feinberg. The novel won the 1994 Stonewall Book Award. It tells the story of the life of a butch named Jess Goldberg and the trials and tribulations she faces growing up in the pre-Stonewall era. Published in 1993, the novel...
is widely considered a groundbreaking work about gender
Gender
Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...
.
Career
Feinberg's 1993 first novel Stone Butch BluesStone Butch Blues
Stone Butch Blues is a novel written by transgender activist Leslie Feinberg. The novel won the 1994 Stonewall Book Award. It tells the story of the life of a butch named Jess Goldberg and the trials and tribulations she faces growing up in the pre-Stonewall era. Published in 1993, the novel...
, which won the Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes. Categories include Humor, Romance and Biography. To qualify, a book must have been published in the United States in the year current to the award...
, is a novel based around Jess Goldberg, a transgender individual growing up in a conservative town in New York and discovering the nascent gay community in Buffalo during the 1970s and 80s. Despite popular belief, the fictional work is not autobiographical. This book is frequently taught at colleges, universities and some high schools.
In addition to Stone Butch Blues, Feinberg has authored two non-fiction
Non-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
books, Transliberation: Beyond Pink or Blue and Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman, the novel Drag King Dreams, and Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba, a compilation of 25 journalistic articles. Feinberg is also a high-ranking member of the Workers World Party
Workers World Party
Workers World Party is a far-left political party in the United States, founded in 1959 by a group led by Sam Marcy. Marcy and his followers split from the Socialist Workers Party in 1958 over a series of long-standing differences, among them Marcy's group's support for Henry A...
and a managing editor of Workers World newspaper.
Feinberg's writings on LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
history, "Lavender & Red," frequently appear in the Workers World newspaper. Feinberg has also been involved in Camp Trans
Camp Trans
Camp Trans is an annual demonstration and event held outside the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival by trans women and their allies to protest the Festival's policy of excluding trans women from attending.-Background:...
and has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Starr King School for the Ministry
Starr King School for the Ministry
Starr King School for the Ministry is a Unitarian Universalist seminary in Berkeley, California and part of the Graduate Theological Union. Starr King School opened in 1904 as the Pacific Unitarian School for the Ministry...
for transgender and social justice work.
Feinberg began taking photographs in late 2008 after illness and resulting disability made writing difficult.
Personal life and health
Leslie Feinberg is a secular JewSecular Jewish culture
Secular Jewish culture embraces several related phenomena; above all, it is the international culture of secular communities of Jewish people, but it can also include the cultural contributions of individuals who identify as secular Jews...
, and was assigned female at birth
Trans man
A trans man, transman, trans guy, or FTM is a transgender or transsexual man: a person who was assigned female at birth, but who identifies as male....
. Feinberg explains: "I was born in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
--not Buffalo, N.Y.--into a blue-collar, factory-working family." Feinberg prefers the gender-neutral pronouns "hir" and "ze", as well as s/he.
Feinberg's partner is the prominent lesbian poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
-activist Minnie Bruce Pratt
Minnie Bruce Pratt
Minnie Bruce Pratt is an U.S. educator, activist, and award-winning poet, essayist, and theorist. Pratt was born in Selma, Alabama, grew up in Centreville,...
.
Feinberg has been battling the effects of Lyme Disease
Lyme disease
Lyme disease, or Lyme borreliosis, is an emerging infectious disease caused by at least three species of bacteria belonging to the genus Borrelia. Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto is the main cause of Lyme disease in the United States, whereas Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii cause most...
, Babesiosis
Babesiosis
Babesiosis is a malaria-like parasitic disease caused by infection with Babesia, a genus of protozoal piroplasms. After trypanosomes, Babesia are thought to be the second most common blood parasites of mammals and they can have a major impact on health of domestic animals in areas without severe...
, Bartonella
Bartonella
Bartonella is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria. Facultative intracellular parasites, Bartonella species can infect healthy people but are considered especially important as opportunistic pathogens. Bartonella are transmitted by insect vectors such as ticks, fleas, sand flies and mosquitoes...
and other co-infections caught from a tick bite in the 1970s.
Feinberg has carried legal documents for 40 years that state clearly who is, and is not, part of Feinberg's family. Irving David Feinberg, Betty Vance Hyde and Catherine Ryan Hyde
Catherine Ryan Hyde
Catherine Ryan Hyde is an American novelist and short story writer. Her novels have enjoyed bestseller status in both the U.S. and U.K., and her short stories have won many awards and honors...
, though biologically related to Feinberg, are legally defined as not part of Feinberg's family. These documents also define Feinberg's partner Pratt to be family; Feinberg also refers to certain other chosen people as family.
Books by Leslie Feinberg
- Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time Has Come, World View Forum, 1992. ISBN 0-89567-105-0
- Stone Butch BluesStone Butch BluesStone Butch Blues is a novel written by transgender activist Leslie Feinberg. The novel won the 1994 Stonewall Book Award. It tells the story of the life of a butch named Jess Goldberg and the trials and tribulations she faces growing up in the pre-Stonewall era. Published in 1993, the novel...
, San Francisco: Firebrand Books, 1993. ISBN 1-55583-853-7 - Träume in den erwachenden Morgen: Stone Butch Blues, Berlin: Verlag Krug & Schadenberg, 2008. ISBN 978-3-930041-35-0
- Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8070-7941-3
- Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue. Beacon Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8070-7951-0
- Drag King Dreams. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2006. ISBN 0-7867-1763-7
- Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba. New York: World View Forum. ISBN 0895671506
External links
- Leslie Feinberg's homepage
- Lavender & Red, Feinberg's columns in Worker's World
- Feinberg's photostream
- http://www.pageflakes.com/transgenderwarrior