Leslie Feinberg
1949-2014
Leslie Feinberg was an American butch lesbian, transgender activist, communist, and author. Hir* writing, notably Stone Butch Blues and hir pioneering non-fiction book, 1996’s Transgender Warriors, laid the groundwork for much of the terminology and gender studies. Feinberg described hirself as “an anti-racist white, workingclass, secular Jewish, transgender, lesbian, female, revolutionary communist.”
Feinberg was born in Kansas City and raised in Buffalo, New York in a workingclass, Jewish family. Ze dropped out of high school and began frequenting gay bars in Buffalo while working in low-wage jobs. When Feinberg was in hir twenties, ze met members of the Workers World Party and joined the Buffalo branch of the party. After moving to New York City, Feinberg took part in anti-war, anti-racist, and pro-labor demonstrations. Feinberg began writing in the 1970s. Ze was the editor of the political prisoners page of the Workers World newspaper eventually became the
managing editor. Feinberg’s first novel, 1993’s Stone Butch Blues, won the Lambda Literary Award and the 1994 American Library Association Gay & Lesbian Book Award. Hir second novel, Drag King Dreams, was released in 2006.
Hir nonfiction work included the books Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue in 1992 and Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman in 1996. In 2009 ze released Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba. In Transgender Warriors, Feinberg defines “transgender” as a very broad umbrella, including all “people who cross the cultural boundaries of gender.”
Feinberg’s writings on LGBT history, “Lavender & Red,” frequently appeared in the Workers World newspaper. Feinberg was awarded an honorary doctorate from Starr King School for the Ministry for transgender and social justice work. In June 2019 Feinberg was one of the inaugural fifty American “pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes” inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument in New York City’s Stonewall Inn.
In 2008, Feinberg was diagnosed with Lyme disease and tick-borne disease. Ze believed the infections first came about in the 1970s but ze felt hesitant to deal with medical professionals for many years due to hir transgender identity. In the 2000s, Feinberg created art and blogged about hir illnesses. Feinberg died of complications due to tick-borne infections, Feinberg’s last words were reported to be, “Hasten the revolution! Remember me as a revolutionary communist.”
* “I like the gender neutral pronoun ‘ze/hir’,” Feinberg said.