16
Transgender Liberation
A Movement Whose Time Has Come
LESLIE FEINBERG
LESLIE FEINBERG, WHOSE PARTICULAR STYLE OF BEING TRANSGENDER helped non-gender-speciflc
pronouns like "s/he" and "hir" achieve a limited popularity over the past decade, must be considered
a founding figure of contemporary transgender studies. Hir influential pamphlet, reproduced below,
took an older (and apolitical) term-transgender-and infused it with a radical new meaning.
Previously, "transgender" had refe
ed most frequently to biological males who lived socially as
women, but who did not undergo genital modification surgery. In Feinberg's redefinition, the term
came to refer to a "pangender" movement ofoppressed minorities-transsexuals, butch lesbians, drag
queens, cross-dressers, and others-who all were called to make common revolutionary cause with
one another in the name of social justice. The tract provided an ideological and historical framework
for the similar but more emotionally moving fictionalization of Feinberg's life, Stone Butch Blues. The
pamphlet was subsequently expanded in two book-length treatments, Transgender Wa
iors and Trans
Liberation: Beyond Pink and Blue.
-Through many examples drawn from a wide range of cultures and historical periods, Feinberg, a
Marxist, argues that transgender people in pre-capitalist tribal and agrarian societies were revered and
honored, while the widespread contemporary oppression of gender-variant people is an effect of the
capitalist mode of production. Though hir particular theory of history has not attracted Widespread
support in transgender communities, hir work has gained a devoted and grateful following for the
powerful way it calls upon transgender people to recover their historical legacy, and to harness that
knowledge to the cu
ent struggle for a more just society. It is an important foundational text of con
temporary transgender theory and activism.
This pamphlet is an attempt to trace the historic rise of an oppression that, as yet, has no commonly
agreed name. We are talking here about people who defy the "man" -made boundaries of gender.
Gender: self-expression, not anatomy.
AU our lives we've been taught that sex and gender are synonymous-men are "masculine" and
women are "feminine." Pink for girls and blue for boys. It's just "natural:' we've been told. But at the
turn of the century in this country, blue was considered a girl's color and pink was a boy's. Simplistic
and rigid gender codes are neither eternal nor natural. They are changing social concepts.
Nevertheless, there's nothing wrong with men who are considered "masculine" and women whose
self-expression falls into the range of what is considered "feminine:' The problem is that the many
people who don't fit these na
ow social constraints run a gamut of harassment and violence.
205
;
l
I
'lhlS raises the question: Who decided wh;1I t he "norm" should he t Why are some people '
for their self-expression" PUfitsht,:
Many people today would be surprised to learn that ancient communal societies held tr
dered people in high esteem. It took a bloody campaign by the emerging ruling classes toatlsgen.
what had been considered natural to be its o!'[10slle, '111;lt !'rejuclice, foisted on society by' detlaJ,
. Its ruJ.u,
elite, endures today. ~
Yet even in a society where there arc harsh social penalties f(lr not fitting, a large part of the
lation can't or won't change their nature. It is apparent that there are many ways for women anrpu·
to be; everything in nature is a continuum. men
Many of the terms used to describe us are words that cut and sear.
When I first worked in the factories of Buffalo as a teenager, women like me were called "he-sh .
Although "he-shes" in the plants were most frequently lesbians, we were recognized not by our se~
preference but by the way we expressed our gender.
There are other words used to express the wide range of "gender outlaws": transvestites, transsexu
als, drag queens and drag kings, cross-dressers, bull-daggers, stone butches, androgynes, diesel d)'kel
or berdache-a European colonialist term.
We didn't choose these words. They don't fit all of us. It's hard to fight an oppression without!
name connoting pride, a language that honors us.
In recent years a commun ity has begun to emerge that is sometimes refe
ed to as the gender or
transgender community. Within our community is a diverse group of people who define ourselves In
many different ways. Transgendered people are demanding the right to choose our own self-definitions
The language used in this pamphlet may quickly become outdated as the gender community coalesces
and organizes--a wonderful problem.
We've chosen words in this pamphlet we hope are understandable to the vast majority of working
and oppressed people in this country, as a tool to battle bigotry and
utality. We are trying to find
words, however inadequate, that can connect us, that can capture what is similar about the oppression
we endure. We have also given careful thought to our use of pronouns, striving for both clariry and
sensitivity in a language that only allows for two sexes.
Great social movements forge a common language-tools to reach out and win
oader under·
standing. But we've been largely shut out of the progressive movement.
It was gay transvestites who led the 1969 battle at the Stonewall Inn in New York City that gave
irth to the modern lesbian and gay movement.
But just as the lesbian and gay movement had to win over the progressive movement to the un·
derstanding that struggling shoulder to shoulder together would create a more powerful force for
change, the transgendered community is struggling to win the same understanding from the lesbian
and gay movement.
Many people think that all "masculine" women are lesbians and all "feminine" men are gay. That is
a misunderstanding. Not all lesbians and gay men are "cross"-gendered. Not all transgendered women
and men are lesbian or gay. Transgendered people are mistakenly viewed as the cusp of the lesbian and
gay community. In reality the two huge communities are like circles that only partially overlap.
While the oppressions within these two powerful communities are not the same, we face a common
enemy. Gender-phobia-like racism, sexism and bigotry against lesbians and gay men-is meant to
keep us divided. Unity can only increase our strength.
Solidarity is built on understanding how and why oppression exists and who profits from it. It
is our view that revolutionary changes in human society can do away with inequality, bigotry and
intolerance.
irit of builc
In the sp .
the commonalt
ist~~_walked that
gtnLoOk at us. We are t
T~NSGENDER PRJ
musician Billy Til
jaZZ. but for the reVt
PlUS1C, ••
ther than VlSltuJcer r3 .
After his death thl~
in a male_dominated 1
It is true that worn
economic pressures t
tral1sgendered womer
~xtreme harassment a
transgendered wom~l
anti-lesbian oppresslC
transgendered warne)
[f"masculine" won
patriarchal capitaliST!
IT'S "PASSING" n
Transgendered woml
products of oppressi
visibility. Transgendt
threats of violence. E
There are legions
is "at odds" with tht
ostracism they endu
Today all gender
fordable river rages'
men to express then
Transgender is a
egarded with hono
ing classes that rely
continents were res
"SHE IS A MAN"
"Strange country, t
males assume the
their own sex:'
Randy Burns, a
Project documentt
J nations.
-
t
RANSC;ENDER LlIlERATION 207
In the spirit of building that fighting movement, we offer this view of the sweeping patterns in
history, the commonality ofwomen and men who have walked the path of the berdache, of the trans
gendered-walked that road whether we were held in high esteem or reviled.
Look at us. We are battling for survival. Listen. We are struggling to be heard.
TRANSGENDER PREDATES OPPRESSION
lazz musician Billy Tipton died in 1989 at the age of 74. He will be remembered most not for his
music, but for the revelation that Tipton was born a woman. Tipton died of an untreated bleeding
ulcer rather than visit a doctor and risk exposure.
After his death this debate began: Did Tipton live as a man simply in order to work as a musician
in a male-dominated industry or because of lesbian oppression?
It is true that women's oppression, especially under capitalism, has created profound social and
economic pressures that force women to pass as men for survival. But this argument leaves out
transgendered women-women who are considered so "masculine" in class society that they endure
extreme harassment and danger. Many of these women are forced to "pass" in order to live. Of course
lransgendered women also experience the crushing weight of economic inequity and, in many cases,
anti·lesbian oppression. These factors also playa role in forcing "masculine" women as well as non
transgendered women to pass.
If''masculine'' women are acknowledged at all, it is implied that they're merely a product ofdecadent
patriarchal capitalism and that when genuine equality is won, they will disappear.
IT'S "PASSING" THAT'S NEW
Transgendered women and men have always been here. They are oppressed. But they are not merely
products ofoppression. It is passing that's historically new. Passing means hiding. Passing means in
\isibility. Transgendered people should be able to live and express their gender without criticism or
threats of violence. But that is not the case today.
There are legions of women and men whose self-expression, as judged by Hollywood stereotypes,
is "at odds" with their sex. Some are forced underground or "pass" because of the repression and
Ostracism they endure.
. TOday all gender education teaches that women are "feminine;' men are "masculine;' and an un
lordable river rages between these banks. The reality is there is a whole range of ways for women and
men to express themselves.
Transgender is a very ancient form of human expression that pre-dates oppression. It was once
egarded with honor. A glance at human history proves that when societies were not ruled by exploit
~:g c.lasses that rely on divide-and-conquer tactics, "cross-gendered" youths, women and men on all
, nllnents were respected members of their communities.
'sHE IS A MAN"
'SIrlange country, this;' a white man wrote of the Crow nation on this continent in 1850, "where
iTla es as h
'h . sume t e dress and perform the duties of females, while women turn men and mate with