“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?'”
Trans Liberation is the phrase that has come to refer to all those who blur or bridge the boundary of the sex or gender expression they were assigned at birth: cross-dressers, transsexuals, intersex people, Two Spirits, bearded females, masculine females and feminine males, drag kings and drag queens. In this inspiring collective of speeches and new writing, Leslie Feinberg argues passionately for the acceptance of all trans peoples—and for the absolute necessity of building coalitions between all progressive political groups.
Speaking to an audience of 350 male heterosexual cross-dressers and their partners at the Texas “T Party” a speech at which Feinberg was the only person dressed in a suit and tie ze notes the similarities between their struggles and the struggle of the gay, lesbian, and bi communities to break down the closet doors of shame and silence. At the 7th Annual Queer Graduate Studies Conference ze stresses the links between lesbian, gay, bi and trans desires and the desire for education, food, and shelter. And always ze calls for tolerance and respect – a call whose importance is brought home by the affecting self-portraits written by individuals from across the diverse trans spectrum.
Trans Liberation is a call to action for all those who care about civil rights and creating a just and equitable society. As Feinberg writes, “A political movement isn’t just our physical motion into the streets, it’s the motion of our consciousness soaring, too.”
With self-portraits by Gary Bowen, Cheryl Chase, Michael Hernandez, Craig Hickman, William (Peaches) Mason, Linda Phillips, Cynthia Phillips, Sylvia Rivera, Deirdre Sinnott (Al Dente), and Dragon Xcalibur.