Five LIBERATING THE RAINBOW
We were led out of the bar Sylvia Rivera, “I’m Glad I Was in the Stonewall Riot,” in Feinberg, Trans Liberation, 106—7.
Yet the backlash itself The persistence of violent homophobia among cultural conservatives in the United States is given chilling expression in this e-mail received by the writer Andrew Sullivan two days after the 2004 presidential election:I wonder if you noticed that yesterday all eleven states that considered the question of gay marriage voted to ban it. ALL ELEVEN. I think this sends a very clear message—true Americans do not like your kind of homosexual deviants in our country, and we will not tolerate your radical pro-gay agenda trying to force our children to adopt your homosexual lifestyle. You should be EXTREMELY GRATEFUL that we even let you write a very public and influential blog, instead of suppressing your treasonous views (as I would prefer). But I’m sure someone like yourself would consider me just an “extremist” that you don’t need to worry about. Well you are wrong—I’m not just an extremist, I am a real American, and you should be worried because eleven states yesterday proved that there are millions more just like me who will not let you impose your radical agenda on our country. (Downloaded from http://www.andrewsullivan.com on November 4, 2004.)
Some came from the homophile movement See Karla Jay, Tales of the Lavender Menace: A Memoir of Liberation (New York: Basic Books, 1999), 77. 153 Hopeful (but not certain) that something was going to happen Ibid., 80. 153 young, white and unemployed Ibid., 78.
Sylvia Rivera, a Latina street queen Ibid., 79.
I had never met a real drag queen before Ibid., 80.
The general membership is fiightened of Sylvia Martin Duberman, Stonewall (New York: Plume, 1984), 235-36.
a bunch of stoned-out faggots Dudley Clendenin and Adam Nagourney, Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in Amenca (New York: Touchstone, 1999), 49.
The more daring activists who had sprung forward Ibid., 54.
She would throw herself into every meeting Duberman, Stonewall, 238.
Backthen, we were beat up bythe police In Feinberg, Trans Liberation, 106. 156 Their first home was the back of a trailer truck Duberman, Stonewall, 251—52.
Marsha and I had always sneaked people into our hotel rooms In Feinberg, Trans Liberation, 108.
There was always food in the house Ibid.
It is possible for all homosexuals Clendenin and Nagourney, Out for Good,
Huey decided that we were part of the revolution In Feinberg, Trans Liberation, 108.
When attacked by a GAA man Duberman, Stonewall, 238.
was being seized by drag queens as their holiday Clendenin and Nagourney, Out for Good, 169.
O’Learywas challengedby Lee Brewster Ibid., 172.
We liberated them. They owe us Rally and march for Amanda Milan attended by the author, New York City, June 2001. I met and spoke briefly with Sylvia Rivera at the rally, intending to interview her formally at a later date. She passed away before I was able to do so. David W. Dunlap, “Sylvia Rivera, 50, Figure in Birth of the Gay Liberation Movement,” New York Times, February 20, 2002.
the guilt-ridden commentary Dale Carpenter, “The Myth of a Transgender Stonewall,” “Outright” (column), The Texas Tnangle, downloaded from http://www.txtriange.com/archive/1022/viewpoints.htm.
Since May, I’ve been the food director Sylvia Rivera in update to radio program “Remembering Stonewall,” downloaded from http://wwwsound portraits.0rg/on- air/remembering_stonewall/update.php3.
I am proud of myself for being there that night In Feinberg, Trans Liberation, 109.
there was this very strong association formed between gender nonconformity and homosexuality Interview with Simon LeVay, Los Angeles, Calif, September 2001. “The idea of the congenital invert sums it up better than anything, the idea that people like gays and lesbians were pretty much like we now call transsexuals. My guess is that part of the reason for that misconception was that only a very small fraction of gays and lesbians came to public attention, and they were probably the more gender-nonconformist. You come across in the literature about the Mollies and so forth, in the eighteenth century—these very gender- noncomformist gay men who formed their little societies and had their pubs where they met and it’s clear that they dressed as women. And there were probably other homosexual men and women who never came to public attention, and so there was this very strong association formed between gender nonconformity and homosexuality. And then I think that there was a kind of overcorrection in that since the Second World War in the gay and lesbian community there’s been an almost excessive denial between homosexuality and gender nonconformity. However, I think there is a connection and I think that the evidence is particularly good for childhood.”
Gender issues stood at the forefront of the radical challenge Joanne Meyerowitz, How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 2002), 232.
the Cockettes, a group of singing, dancing, gender-fuck hippies Susan Stryker was the first person to mention the Cockettes to me. Two years later, the feature-length documentary The Cockettes, by David Weissman and Bill Weber, was released. The film was a nominee for Best Documentary at the Independent Spirit Awards and winner of Best Documentary, Los Angeles Film Critics.
They were people who brought together clashing styles Author interview with Stryker, September 2001.
Many of us believed that the best way to eliminate the male/female divide Jay, Tales, 82.
a novel that reflects hir experience Feinberg prefers the use of non-gender-specific pronouns (hir, sie) and usage in these paragraphs reflects hir preference.
One day I came home from work Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues (Ithaca, N.Y.: Firebrand Books, 1993), 135-36.
As much as I loved my beard as part of my body Ibid., 222.
strangers had raged at me for being a woman who crossed a forbidden boundary Ibid., 244.
the real Feinberg was denied medical treatment Feinberg, Trans Liberation, 2.
In May i?58, the Sunday Express of London Liz
