Leslie Feinberg (b. September 1, 1949, in Kansas City, Missouri) is a transgender lesbian activist, speaker, and author. Feinberg's first novel Stone Butch Blues is widely considered a groundbreaking work about gender. Feinberg also authored two non-fiction books--"Transliberation: Beyond Pink or Blue," and "Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman"--the novel, "Drag King Dreams," and "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 partner is the prominent lesbian poet-activist Minnie Bruce Pratt.
Feinberg's 1993 first novel Stone Butch Blues, which won the Lambda Literary Book Award, is a novel based around Jess Goldberg, a transgender individual growing up during the 1950s anti-communist witch hunt in the U.S. Despite popular belief, the fictional work is not autobiographical Curve: Leslie Feinberg. This book is frequently taught at colleges, universities and some high schools.
Feinberg's writings on LGBT history, "Lavender & Red," 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. News and Events
Leslie Feinberg is secular Jewish, 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". For more about Feinberg and pronouns, read "We are all works in progress" in Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue.
Feinberg began taking photographs in late 2008 after illness and resulting disability made writing difficult. Read ["When and why I took these photographs"][1] in Feinberg's flickr profile.