The photo is a 1974 photo of Leslie Feinberg, from the FBI file on hir. I’ve written a piece on my interpretation of Transgender Warriors and Trans Liberation, but I don’t think it’s quite polished enough, so I’ll post it later. Instead, I’ll go over hir FBI file: https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/dc-metro/rg-065/6282555/Batch0010/6282555_100-HQ-480756.PDF.
The FBI thought Feinberg could be violating the Communist Control Act, advocating the overthrow of the government, and engaging in rebellion. Needless to say, a hero to all of us. Feinberg was a member of the Workers World Party (the party still exists, but more notably PSL split from it), which apparently wasn’t openly advocating for the overthrow of the U.S, they just think it’s inevitable.
My favorite line? “captioned subject is believed to be a white female, who became male through some kind of sex change operation, and is possibly homosexual”. Some interesting language choice, and it’s an interesting snapshot into the evolution of Leslie’s identity.
The FBI found Leslie’s place of birth and birthdate from public school records. It’s a bit of an interesting look into all of the many places the FBI can get their information, along with how information like that was so much more patchwork before the digital age.
“Interview of subject is not being recommended because of the questionable nature of his sexuality”. Hmm, interesting.
It’s interesting how their investigation spanned multiple cities, from Kansas City to NYC to Bufffalo to Boston. It probably involved quite a few officers, though I’m sure it wasn’t the main focus for all of them.
There’s some interesting mention about changes in Leslie’s gender identity. Born a girl, for a time wearing a beard and mustache, then going back to “she”. I’m sure we all know, Feinberg’s gender didn’t stop evolving there.
“Subject reportedly contributes all extra money to WWP”, Leslie definitely was dedicated to the cause. Leslie doesn’t attend NYC WWP meetings, but the FBI doesn’t mention why.
The FBI isn’t immune to typoes, Leslie did some “criminal terspass” that garnered some attention.They wasted some time checking if Leslie was in Boston, but verified where Leslie in NYC lived by pretending to be a part of the Voter Registration Commission.
There’s a whole 43 pages of documents, all just from 1974-75. There’s plenty of interesting tidbits in there, so maybe check it out.
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I’m not the one who started this, I would prefer if you’d just say I’m being a transmedicalist or whatever next time though.
I would like to have an actual discussion on this fwiw because I have Thoughts and adjacent
E: I looked back at the original comment and yeah I kind of made an assumption I guess, Idk.
Ok, we can have that discussion. Forget about the disengage. I’m not saying you’re a transmedicalist, i never had that impression and still don’t. I need to get that out of the way, and i don’t want to antogonize anybody here. But i do see a lot of trains of thought on hexbear (and in most trans spaces, although i’ve stopped going to those that are worse than hexbear in this regard) that are centering biologist ideas over a performative and internal view of gender. And that doesn’t jive with my own experiences. That’s not to say that changes to our biology aren’t important, i’ve altered my body a lot, i will alter it much more in the future and it does me a lot of good. But no matter how urgent and needed that process is, that’s a secondary step. To determine one’s gender independent of any biological dictates, gain confidence in it, and claim our body as a space we can safely inhabit without it threatening our identity, and without being dependent on external validation, is what i view as the foundational groundwork of a fulfilling trans experience and as the core of trans liberation. That important step can be made at a very early stage in the transition, and it does not require already having brought our body more in line with how we want it to be. Fixing some things makes it easier to feel at peace in my own skin, but it does not make me more of a woman. Because i already am that.
I’ve found EstraDoll’s post to be really refreshing in that regard. I liked to see her gaining that sense of self acceptance and that understanding that she already is a woman by her self-identification alone and that this makes her body a woman’s body, regardless of how “female” it already is. This is why i took objection to bringing estrogen into it: It sidetracks what is a victory in an ideological battle against internalized transphobia and implies that acceptance of our gender identity requires achieving some degree of medical transition.
Alright well, I don’t think I disagree with anything you’ve said at all, so fair play. Good post. Looking at Estradoll’s thing again it is a pretty cool post, I agree completely. I won’t bother defending my dumb bullshit. A lot more these days I’m seeing much cooler, less essentialist views of gender in newly trans people and that feels good, having escaped from the most brainrotted places online. More broadly I think the temperature here on stuff like that is awesome.
however (dumb idiot bullshit)
Uh I’ve spent a lot of time around newly out trans people, and you see a lot of that often, the “estrogen=woman” thing which is obviously, y’know. I’ve never been any good at trying to impart what you describe though, I’m the fucking shittest person in the world at talking. I have no idea if there can even be a “one-size-fits-all” approach for this, because y’know gender is extremely individualised… Are there effective ways of trying to like, teach or convince I guess, people of this? It feels like just shoving copies of Gender Outlaw down people’s throats isn’t real productive, and most of the time I just give up which feels bad. Idk what the right approach or stance is or if I even should do it, but it’s depressing and I have never managed to change anyone’s view because I suck catastrophically.
God talking to people sucks so badly