Farewell to Transgender Activist Leslie Feinberg, 1949-2014
By Nicole Matte
A well-known warrior of the transgender and lesbian movements and author of Stone Butch Blues, Leslie Feinberg, died Saturday. She was 65. According to The Advocate, Feinberg died from multiple tick-borne co-infections at her home in Syracuse, NY with her wife of 22 years, Minnie Bruce Pratt, by her side.
Feinberg was a transgender activist and author who authored the LGBT classic Stone Butch Blues, her first novel, in 1993. She won the Lambda Literary Award for that book, as well as the 1994 American Library Association Gay and Lesbian Book Award. Feinberg wrote two nonfiction books, Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue and Transgender Warriors: Making History; she also wrote the novel Drag King Dreams, and a compilation of 25 articles entitled Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba.…show more content… As an activist/author, she was one of the first true butch lesbian voices in the world of literature. Stone Butch Blues is considered one of the most important works about lesbians ever written, and along with her other writings Feinberg touched LGBT people all over the world. As a lesbian and transgender person, she dealt with discrimination her whole life, and through her writing and advocacy provided a voice and inspiration for people dealing with the same bigotry.
A pioneer in the movement for freedom of self-identification, Feinberg once said, "More exists among human beings than can be answered by the simplistic question I'm hit with every day of my life: 'Are you a man or a woman?'" She was a powerful supporter of those on the outskirts of society, especially lesbian, transgender, and gender non-conforming