Transgender Speaker Calls For Cooperative Activism
BY JOHN BYRNE

At first, upon hearing someone refer to Leslie Feinberg as “ze,” one might think it strange. As the word is repeated, one quickly realizes that the word is the gender neutral personal pronoun adapted by the transgender movement. But “ze,” it seems, is only the tip of the iceberg.

Kicking off Transgender Awareness Week on Monday, Feinberg delivered a lecture on “Movement Making” to an enraptured crowd of over 200 students, faculty and staff in a King 306 with people sitting on steps, standing in the back, and overflowing out into the hall. 
The renowned transgender activist focuses on class, race and other social issues in her activism, and her lecture was no different.
Dressed in a nondescript gray suit and tawny tie, the stocky speaker created a visual presence as well as a spoken one. Often humorous, and frequently referring to current Oberlin College happenings, Feinberg used frank and simple language.
In introducing Feinberg, transgender awareness week co-coordinator and senior Rachel Barret said, “I’ll tell you why Leslie Feinberg is my hero. While some administrators might open their door a crack to throw money at me, when I feel like all I can do is watch Survivor or listen to some boy band music, I read Leslie Feinberg and I’m ready to fight again.”
No senior administrators were in attendance.
Feinberg began hir lecture by presenting hirself as an ally of other movements, not necessarily related to being transgender. “I will stand with you shoulder to shoulder in this struggle,” ze said.
Briefly, ze alluded to the recent unrest over the Cleveland Indians mascot by calling it a “racist insult in the guise of sports.” And, on the College’s recent concern over sports, she immediately added, “If there is anyone in the audience who came to this meeting thinking it was about sportsphobia…it’s not.”
A wave of laughter and applause ensued.

Feinberg described movements as rivers, with different currents, not complete within a single individual. Ze called on campus activists to persevere and “walk their talk” — something that ze claimed Oberlin College, a purportedly liberal institution, was not doing.
Speaking further on coalition, Feinberg discussed the fact that some members of the gay rights movement were vexed by the inclusion of ‘T’ in the “LGBT,” and also that some people thought LGBT was too awkward to say. Ze explained the necessity for the entire acronym, “Because every one of those initials is an open door.”
Condemning past rejection of transgenders from the queer community, Feinberg said, “If you’re saying drag queens and butch cross-dressing women are stereotypes, then which movement will defend us?”
Feinberg said that the status quo seeks to simplify gay/trans issues in a way that presents the movement only as a homogenized “gay is good” statement, rather than being inclusive of race, class and violence issues. 
On class, ze explained that the ruling classes historically sought to insert fault lines along race and gender issues. 
“Part of what these fault lines have done is make us feel we cannot trust each other. We have to find ways to teach each other that that’s not true because it’s more important than anything that we fight against each other’s oppression as it is our own.”
Ze mentioned her sexuality and gender only in passing. “There are those who defy the pink and blue caps in the delivery room, and I was one of them.”
Regarding recent co-opted hate crimes legislation, ze charged that the movement must not acquiesce to law enforcement. “Just passing legislation doesn’t turn cops and courts into allies,” ze declared. 
Feinberg also argued that giving the death penalty for hate crimes would not be a deterrent, saying that recent racist and heterosexist-motivated murders were committed in full knowledge and risk of the death penalty. “There is no reason to think that stiffer sentencing is somehow going to stop hate crimes,” ze said. 
Ze related this discussion of capital punishment to hir work for the freeing of Mumia Abu Jamal. Feinberg pointed out that while in prison, Mumia advocates against violence towards LGBT people. Calling him “the voice of the voiceless,” ze said his struggle against the death penalty had symbolic importance.
Arguing against professed liberal politicians, Feinberg made jabs at President Bush and his conservative administration, but derided Clinton for his don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy and the Defense of Marriage Act. Ze said that sometimes having the “hard cop” in the White House, meaning Bush, meant that more people were inclined to realize the underhanded discrimination of liberal government. Ze added that it was a conservative court that first passed Roe v. Wade.
Legislation against gays, Feinberg said, is comparable to the racist miscegenation laws in the United States during reconstruction. “The entire racist lynchings were always built on those racist miscegenation laws. Those relationships were criminalized. Now there’s a [new] sick twist.” 
Feinberg spoke of the spirit of Stonewall in her encouragement of activism. When students expressed ignorance of Stonewall, ze explained the significance of the Stonewall Riots in New York City in 1969, where enraged drag queens beat back oppressive police officers after the officers raided and humiliated the bar’s patrons. “Today,” ze said, “we are beginning to see what I feel like is a reflection of Stonewall — that our actions can actually shape history.” Ze called on students to be leaders of the new movement, quoting African American poet Jean Jordan, by saying, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”