CAPITAL COVERAGE NEWS SERVICE
media in the public interest
Gender Diversity has Always Existed, Says Activist Feinberg
By John Zeh
Gay People's Chronicle
Cincinnati (April 15) --A second tornado swept through the area April 8 when a prominent gender rights activist challenged over 250 students at the University of Cincinnati to build broader coalitions to combat right-wing violence and revisit reforms such as enhanced hate-crime laws.
In the wake of fatal storms in the Cincinnati area, transgender "warrior" and author Leslie Feinberg said Cincinnati should also be seen as the "ground zero" of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender activism and alliance-building. The term was used for the Blue Ash and Montgomery areas hardest hit by a tornado.
It was the novelist-historian's first visit, but Feinberg is aware of the Issue 3 anti-gay charter amendment and proposed changes to the existing hate-crimes law.
"I'm fully aware," s/he grimaced, "that this town is a cauldron of struggle." (Feinberg prefers to be described by the pronouns s/he and hir.)
Feinberg applauded activists for fighting back against Issue 3, America's only law barring municipal protections based on sexual orientation.
"Just because the U.S. Supreme Court said the city [may] discriminate, it's not over," Feinberg told the eclectic crowd hugging the stage.
The high court's decision Oct. 13 not to review Issue 3 "sends us all back to the table to strategize, here at the epicenter of conservatism," said Feinberg, the only one present wearing a coat and tie. Working against Issue 3 and building links with other oppressed people is critical, s/he said.
"Every battle against the right wing that's won, is a victory for us all, and each one lost is a loss for all."
Feinberg's analysis of the hate crime debate was unique. "I call hate crime 'right-wing violence,' because that's what it is." But adding sexuality to laws is not necessarily correct, she insisted.
Studies show that gays and lesbians are more likely to be sentenced to death, she said. "Giving the state . . . stiffer penalties [and] more power is . . . empowering the politicians, cops, and the Pentagon to defend our lives."
She fired another salvo, saying, "If they so deplore violence, how about removing all laws that crunch our lives. Witchhunts and every [anti-gay] law form the legal basis on which gay bashers stand."
Feinberg, who is "almost 50," came of age as a butch lesbian in Buffalo's factories and gay bars of the '60s and since then has worked as a Marxist activist and journalist. Hir 1993 novel Stone Butch Blues won an American Library Association award. Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to RuPaul excavates transgender oppression's roots.
To get autographed copies, several college-age gender-benders trekked to Crazy Ladies Center, a 20-year-old feminist hub in nearby Northside. They'll be first in line when Feinberg's lover, poet-professor Minnie Bruce Pratt, signs her latest opus there April 30.
Opening the evening on campus, University of Cincinnati LGBT Alliance president Becca Hammond called Feinberg "the most inspiring and energized activist in our community right now." The U.C. Feminist Coalition and U.C. Women's Programs and Services co-sponsored the event with the alliance.
Feinberg's talk was in effect a graduate-level seminar in "trans liberation," a tribute to those who blur or bridge the boundaries of gender assigned at birth. S/he saluted cross-dressers, transsexuals, intersex people (hermaphrodites), masculine females, feminine males, drag kings and drag queens.
Gender variance and diversity, s/he insisted, has always existed. As a young gender outlaw, Feinberg found evidence of folks who crossed gender's cultural boundaries throughout time. Her research unearthed a long tradition of revolts against injustice--from Joan of Arc to Welsh peasants who cross-dressed to protest taxes, to black and Latina transvestites who led the Stonewall rebellion.
On stage, Feinberg vividly chronicled the 1969 uprising, saying "centuries of rage exploded" as solidarity with the United Farm Workers, the Young Lords, Vietnam War opponents and Black Panthers peaked.
"Who would have thought that we helped begin a mass movement that changed the world?" s/he asked.
Hir mission now is to "open up room for you all to be yourselves." After asking people who are personally bending their genders to stand, at least 15 people enjoyed applause.
"There are so many burning issues for us who don't fit the 'Ozzie and Harriet' model--restroom access, jobs, dressing rooms, abuse," Feinberg said. "All have a lot of meaning for any movement as we begin to explode the confines."
S/he noted the similarities between progressives' battles and GLBT struggles to open closet doors of shame and silence. "Working together does not subsume our separate identities," she said. "We feel enriched, and learn from each other. When we unite, we are stronger."
S/he urged people to help the pro-choice movement when picketers try to close clinics April 18, saying, "One victory by the right wing will set us all back. Go make history in Philadelphia April 24 to get journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal off death row."
Life's lessons ring out, she concluded. "If you don't
fight for change, you'll be next."
===============
To see the Gay People's Chronicle's front page with the pape's
"new 'do, go to: http://www.cleveland.com/community/gay
For a free sample of a hard copy, call 800/ 426-5947 or e-maildistribution@chronohio.com
Please mention correspondent John Zeh's article on GayCincinnati.com
