Judith Butler

Born in 1956, Judith Butler (They/Them) is a feminist philosopher and ardent civil rights activist. Their body of work is vast and has come to form the bedrock of modern queer theory. We owe a whole lot to Judith, from their groundbreaking work in describing gender as a performance, as can be seen in one of their earliest works, (Performative Acts and Gender Constitution, (1988)) to their latest bestselling work, Who’s Afraid of Gender (2024) which dives into the roots of the anti-gender movement. There is value in knowing exactly who the enemy is, but Judith Butler takes it a step further by asking the question, “why?” Who’s Afraid of Gender? is said to be their most accessible book; we heartily recommend you give it a read, I’ll let you in on the gist of it: You see, Butler has noticed a pattern, and I’m sure you have too, that anti-transgender rights, anti-abortion rights, and general anti-feminist rhetoric follow right wing, authoritarian movements around, making things miserable for everyone.

This is not an accident. Butler argues that this rising tide of bigotry presents an opportunity for politicians, corporations, and sadly, many people like you and me are a lightning rod for the feeling that we all share: that something is not quite right with the world. This can be any number of things: insecurity, precarity, even climate anxiety. They all lead to one thing and that is fear. Fear is perhaps one of mankind’s most powerful motivators, says Butler, and one that they will do anything to escape. This makes the people benefiting from those not-quite-right-things naturally afraid themselves and leaves them with little choice but to point the finger at anything else. And so, in the tradition of fascists of all stripes throughout history, they have pointed their fingers at a ghost that they have conjured for themselves of “gender ideology”. I don’t know about you, but I feel like a person, not an ideology, and I deserve rights! Judith Butler would agree.

Butler is not only a philosopher, but a driven rhetorical speaker on civil rights of all sorts. Butler continues to be outspoken in their support of economic justice; as seen when they attended the Occupy Wall Street protest in 2011, voicing strongly their support for Black Lives Matter, racial equality, and for the dignity of all oppressed people. They have made powerful remarks in support of the people of Gaza and they condemn the use of antisemitism as a shield for acts of genocidal fascism around the world. If Judith Butler sounds like someone you’d like to hear more from you can see them speak online, or pick up one of their books at your local library. You won’t be disappointed!

Leslie Feinberg

Groundbreaking lesbian author, leading transgender rights advocate, fighter for workers’ rights, all these things are encapsulated in the person of Leslie Feinberg. Born in 1949, Leslie first found her way into the world of activism through the Workers World Party when she was in her twenties. As a member of the party, she took part in protests against the treatment of the Palestinian people, the handling of the AIDS epidemic, and even mobilized against the KKK, struggles that still resonate with activists of today. In the 1970s her activism turned to writing. Feinberg was a long time writer and eventually editor for the Worker’s World, the party newspaper for the WWP. In its pages, she wrote and later edited the political prisoner pages, a segment that with the opening of Guantanamo Bay to immigrants and other such politically minded incarcerations, is sadly still in use. From journalism she moved into novel writing and non-fiction, penning Stone Butch Blues (1993), a fictionalized autobiography of her experiences as a queer member of the working class. The book has won several awards, most notably what is now called the Stonewall Book Award for LGBT fiction.

But Leslie is not just a world class news and fiction writer. She is also a pioneer in transgender identity theory. In her work of non-fiction, Transgender Warriors (1996), Leslie posited that the term transgender is less of a strict category and more of an umbrella for those that present counter to or in challenge of traditional concepts of gender and sexuality. This definition would extend the concept of transgender identity to several gender non-conforming groups throughout history, from modern butch lesbians, as Leslie identified, to the practices of European pagans and some Native American tribes, to even figures such as Joan of Arc. In Transgender Warriors, Leslie applied for the first time the lens of historical and material analysis to the representation and also the repression of gender non-conforming people. Through this expansion, Leslie drew the connection of the development of transphobia to the parallel development of classism, patriarchy, and homophobia. All methods of control. All ways to assist in the concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a few. In later sections of the book, Feinberg highlights the often centered position of Trans rights activists in many of history’s civil rights struggles from Weimar Germany to the Stonewall Riots in the US.

Leslie Feinberg was also outspoken on the matter of support for the people of Palestine, famously saying in 2007 “I am with Palestinian liberation with every breath in my body; every muscle and sinew.” As a Jewish author, she stated that as far as she was concerned, the question of the occupation of Palestine “went to the heart of what it means to live and authentic life in a period in which this really historical crime is taking place in their name.”

Sadly, Feinberg died in 2008, ill with a case of tick-borne Lyme disease that had gone untreated since the 70s due to the difficulty being seen and cared for by a doctor when you are gender non-conforming. In the last years of her life, Leslie ran a blog focused upon the experience of being disabled and how it intersected with class, as well as centering disability art.

Magnus Hirshfield

With his birth in 1868, Magnus Hirshfeld is one of the earliest advocates of gay and transgender rights in recorded history. A doctor in Germany both during and after the First World War, Hirschfeld was the founder of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, the world’s first LGBTQ rights campaign, and the World League for Sexual Reform, which sought to break the societal stranglehold around the subject of sex. In 1919, he also opened the doors to the Institute for Sexual Science, the first of its kind. At the Institute, Magnus pioneered the field of Sexology, the study of human sexual attraction, behaviors, and function. It was here that even as the grip of the Nazi party tightened around Germany, Hirschfeld bravely performed groundbreaking procedures in the field of gender-affirming surgery. In fact, it was Magnus that first coined the term “transsexual” in an essay in 1923, putting a name to what had previously only been referred to as “extreme crossdressing”. Over the years, the Institute would develop procedures for hormone therapy, vaginoplasty, facial feminization and masculinization, and even a primitive form of hair removal treatments. Hirschfeld was also a pioneer in the study of the inborn nature of homosexuality and of Intersexuality. Truly a man ahead of his time!

Unfortunately for a gay German man living in the 1930s, Magnus drew the ire of Hitler’s Nazi Party. Much like the fascists of today, the Nazis were obsessed with trans people, seeing them as a threat to the toxically masculine culture they had invented for their Germany. They considered the nascent acceptance of gay and trans folks as an outgrowth of what they called “Judeo-Bolshevism,” a name that should sound familiar if you’ve heard a right-winger speak any time in the last decade. Don’t let them fool you, when they say things like cultural Marxism, you’ll now know what they truly mean. The Nazi’s also loved to remove books from libraries out of fear for the children. In fact, that famous image of the book burnings of the early thirties is the very same library built by Hirschfeld for the Institute of Sexual Science. After the raids that led to these bonfire rallies, the Institute was declared “un-German” and shut down. While Magnus managed to escape to France, where he died in 1935, many of the staff and clients of his Institute did not. It is sobering to remember that many of our gay, lesbian, transgender, and intersex brothers and sisters were also a victim of the concentration camps alongside those society had considered unfit, infirm, foreign, and dangerous. But there have always been those who fought, those who resisted, and even those who carried both the day and the banner of liberation into the future, passing the torch of human rights from one generation onto the next until we all can be free. It is our job to be the next link in this long chain passing back into history, so that everyone, queer or no, may one day live lives of open and happy authenticity.

Lou Sullivan

Born in 1951 in Milwaukee, Lou Sullivan was a trans author, activist, and diarist. Having kept a diary from the age of ten, Lou would document his life starting from his rebellious Catholic school “girl” days, to becoming one of the most noted trans and gay activists in San Francisco. In one of his earlier entries in the sixties, he notes “I want to look like what I am but don’t know what someone like me looks like. I mean, when people look at me I want them to think—there’s one of those people (…) that has their own interpretation of happiness. That’s what I am.” It would come to light that his desire was to live as a man.

By 1973, Lou was living as a “Female Transvestite” while working as a secretary for the Slavic Languages Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. It was there when he broke into activism by joining the Gay People’s Union, which was hosted by the university. By 1975, he fully realized that he was a transgender man and sought a life in San Francisco: one of the few places in the country at the time that had “more understanding” and proper access to hormones for his transition.

Unfortunately, he would hit a major roadblock: despite receiving lots of support from his friends, family, and cis male boyfriend, Lou was frequently denied gender affirming care and surgeries due to him identifying as a trans gay man. This forced him into a three year period of regressing to live as a cisgender female and trying to mask his trans identity. It wasn’t until he met transgender teacher and writer Steve Dain, in 1979, that he received the encouragement and doctors and therapists he needed from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.

Lou would channel his hardships and transitioning experience into the booklet “Information for the Female-to-Male Crossdresser and Transexual”. This book was most notable for being the first piece of trans research to distinguish the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity. Though written specifically for the transmasculine community, it quickly caught on in mainstream queer-centric spaces. Though trans gay men have, of course, existed earlier, Lou became the most notable example to bring attention to how it was not a contradiction.

Throughout his life, he led grassroots movements in making trans healthcare more accessible. He lobbied for medical professionals to remove sexual orientation from the criteria of Gender Identity Disorder. He fought for counseling, endocrinological services, and reconstructive surgeries to be more available outside of gender dysphoria clinics. Lou would also go on to establish FTM International: one of the first orgs to specifically advocate for the rights and welfare of trans men.

Lou died of AIDs in 1991. It is with his contributions, that we as trans individuals have easier access to the care we need as well as the beautiful sexuality-diverse community we’ve come to be known for. We really were lucky to have him in our lives and we encourage all to give him his long deserved flowers.

CeCe Mcdonald

Born in May of 1989, CeCe Mcdonald is a black trans woman, convicted killer, LGBTQ activist and prison abolitionist. In June of 2011, in Minneapolis, she was involved in a racist and transphobic-driven altercation with Dean Schmitz. The incident occurred while CeCe and her friends were on their way to buy late night groceries when Schmitz stepped out with his girlfriend and ex for a cigarette. While CeCe initially tried to ignore the verbal abuse thrown at her and her friends—which involved a slew of terms such as ‘f*ggots*’, ‘n***er lovers and ‘tr*nny’—Schmitz instigated a fight between him and CeCe. After a brief but violent struggle, the fight ended with CeCe having a scratch across her face that needed 11 stitches and Dean Schmitz with a pair of scissors in his chest, stabbed by McDonald. He died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

After turning herself in, a decision she regretted, CeCe was charged with two counts of second-degree murder. Her arrest and impending trial quickly caught media attention, including from author Kate Bornstein, who compared how CeCe’s arrest differed from George Zimmerman’s killing of Trayvon Martin; particularly how the media focus was shifted away from self-defense in her case.

After accepting a plea bargain in May 2012, CeCe was sentenced to 41 months in prison the following month. She was imprisoned in the Minnesota Correctional Facility - St. Cloud as a man, despite identifying as female. Though initially denied HRT in prison, it was only after a petition and mass campaigning that she was finally granted her proper hormone treatment in prison. She was released in January of 2014.

During her imprisonment, national attention was brought to the treatment of black trans women and the treatment of transgender prisoners, sparking the hashtag #FreeCeCe. American trans actress Laverne Cox noted that Mcdonald served as the inspiration for her performance as her iconic character of Sophia Burset in Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black.” A documentary that detailed her imprisonment titled “Free CeCe” was released at the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival in 2016.

She was profiled by Mother Jones, Ebony.com, and Rolling Stone in 2014 and heralded as an “LGBT folk hero for her story of survival and for the price she paid for fighting back.” That same year, CeCe was the recipient of the Bayard Rustin Civil Rights Award by the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club. She has since gone on to work as an artist, serve as an activist-in-residence at the Barnard Center for Research on Women, and publicly shared her letters from prison, calling for a political revolution against the U.S.’ prison industrial complex.

For too long, CeCe has been overlooked and it’s time we give her the recognition she deserves!

Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR)

In the aftermath of the Stonewall Riots, the gay rights movement kicked into high gear. Two young trans women of color took advantage of the momentum to build and strengthen the underclass community of New York City.

Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, both people of color and both living as drag queens in Manhattan, saw first-hand the conditions minority groups lived under and sought to change that. In September 1970, they formed an organization called Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, or STAR. It should be noted that the word ‘transvestite’ was considered an acceptable term for transgender people at the time.

The organization was devoted to feeding and housing the queer and homeless communities in Manhattan as well as fighting for gay and trans rights. Their manifesto outlines their socialist vision for an end to oppression, outlining how that oppression is baked into society’s sexist values and how that discrimination manifests itself in various forms, from harassment and violence to denial of jobs and basic services.

Many of the struggles the queer community faced in 1970 are still applicable today, and their manifesto’s goals still ring true, calling for bodily autonomy, an end to job discrimination and police crackdowns, malpractice from the medical industry, and a call to action for free education, healthcare, clothing, food, transportation, and housing.

Notably, the manifesto ends with a powerful statement:

“We want a revolutionary people’s government, where transvestites, street people, women, homosexuals, Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Indians, and all oppressed people are free, and not fucked over by this government who treat us like the scum of the earth and kills us off like flies, one by one, and throws us into jail to rot. This government who spends millions of dollars to go to the Moon, and lets the poor Americans starve to death. Power to the people.”

STAR’s manifesto, while using some dated language, is still as relevant as ever, with the queer community and workers across the country and world still facing immense struggles. To achieve these goals, the queer community and its allies must work with like-minded organizations, putting the people first, just as STAR had done, fighting to provide access to basic and essential rights for all oppressed peoples.