Trans* Success

Leslie Feinberg (born September 1, 1949, in Kansas City, Missouri) is a secular Jew, 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.

Leslie Feinberg is a transgender queer and communist activist, speaker, and author. Zir first novel Stone Butch Blues (1993) is widely considered a groundbreaking work about gender. Stone Butch Blues won the Lambda Literary Award, and 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. It is not a work of autobiography.

Leslie has written two non-fiction books, Transliberation: Beyond Pink or Blue and Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman. Ze wrote another novel Drag King Dreams and published 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 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.