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Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue QUOTES

Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue QUOTES

1 " I have heard an argument that transgender people oppress transsexual people because we are trying to tear down the categories of male and female. But isn't this the same reactionary argument used against transmen and transwomen by those who argue that any challenges to assigned birth sex threaten the categories of man and woman? Transgender people are not dismantling the categories of man and woman. We are opening up a world of possibilities in addition. Each of us has a right to our identities. To claim one group of downtrodden people is oppressing another by their self-identification is to swing your guns away from those who really do oppress us, and to aim them at those who are already under siege. "

― Leslie Feinberg , Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue

2 " What is the bedrock on which all of our diverse trans populations can build solidarity? The commitment to be the best fighters against each other's oppression. As our activist network grows into marches and rallies of hundreds of thousands, we will hammer out language that demonstrates the sum total of our movement as well as its component communities.

Unity depends on respect for diversity, no matter what tools of language are ultimately used. This is a very early stage for trans peoples with such diverse histories and blends of cultures to form community. Perhaps we don't have to strive to be one community. In reality, there isn't one women's, or lesbian, gay, bi community. What is realistic is the goal to build a coalition between our many strong communities in order to form a movement capable of defending all our lives. "

― Leslie Feinberg , Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue

3 " Gender is the poetry each of us makes out of the language we are taught. "

― Leslie Feinberg , Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue

4 " The nature versus nurture debate has meaning for each of us here because we are constantly being asked in life: Why are you the way you are? When did you first know you were different? Do you think that while you were in the womb your tiny fist inadvertently clenched an essential gene too hard? Or was your mother domineering?

And my answer is: Who cares! As long as my right to explore the full measure of my own potential is being trampled by discriminatory laws, as long as I am being scapegoated for the crimes committed by this economic system, my right to exist needs no explanation or justification of any kind. "

― Leslie Feinberg , Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue

5 " Theory is important to those of us who are struggling to transform society because it offers distilled experience so we don't have to repeat mistakes.

A scientific materialist view of theory and history gives working and oppressed peoples a roadmap to find the path toward liberation. "

― Leslie Feinberg , Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue

6 " I don't think the point is: Why are we different? Why have we refused to walk one of two narrow paths, but instead demanded the right to blaze our own? The question is not why we were unwilling to conform even when being beaten to the ground by ridicule and brutality.

The real burning question is: How did we ever find the courage? From what underground spring did we draw our pride? How did each of us make our way in life, without a single familiar star in the night sky to guide us, to this room where we have at last found others like ourselves? And after so much of ourselves has been injured, or left behind as expendable ballast, many of us worry "What do we have left to give each other? Upon what basis will we build something lasting between us?"

I think we have a whole world to give back to each other. "

― Leslie Feinberg , Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue

7 " Trans liberation is not a threat to any lesbian woman or gay man or bisexual person. Yes, trans liberation is shaking up old patterns of thoughts or beliefs. Good! Because most of those thoughts and beliefs that we are challenging were imposed on us from above, were rotten to the core and were backed up by bigoted laws. But we're not taking away your identity. No one's sex reassignment or fluidity of gender threatens your right to self-identify and self-expression.

On the contrary, our struggle bolsters your right to your identity. My right to be me is tied with a thousand threads to your right to be you. "

― Leslie Feinberg , Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue

8 " For revolutionaries, theory that is not a guide to action is a worthless intellectual exercise. Our analysis has to be as taut as a diving board that enables us to springboard into the fray, to be able to recognize allies and enemies, and put an end to economic inequality and social injustice altogether. "

― Leslie Feinberg , Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue

9 " Struggle informs theory, and theory in turn counsels action. That's why those at the summits of power do everything that can to ridicule and condemn and censor these ideas. "

― Leslie Feinberg , Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue

10 " History, in the hands of those who have the most to gain from change, is a formidable weapon. That's why colonizers and imperialists always burned and destroyed the historical accounts of those they conquered. They revise history to parrot one message over and over again, "the way things are now is the way they've always been". The meaning is clear and demoralizing: Don't even think about fighting for change. "

― Leslie Feinberg , Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue

11 " History teaches us that when an economic crisis hits, the process of scapegoating becomes more intense and more violent. African-American, Latino, Asian, and Arab peoples, lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals, feminists, trans people - and others who have been in the forefront of progress - will increasingly find themselves in the crosshairs. And the gains we made will all be under siege, as well. "

― Leslie Feinberg , Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue

12 " To safeguard what we've won and to move forward requires securing, solidifying, and making more permanent alliances with others who are hurt by the same system. Consciousness plays an important role in cementing this coalition. Shared consciousness becomes a material force because what you're fighting for and what you are determined to win together has a big impact on how your foes react to you. "

― Leslie Feinberg , Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue

13 " The people who make a difference in history are those who fight for freedom - not because they're guaranteed to succeed - but because it's the right thing to do. And that's the kind of fighters that history demands today. Not those who worship the accomplished fact. Not those who can only believe in what is visible today. But instead, people of conscience who dedicate their lives to what needs to be won, and what can be won. "

― Leslie Feinberg , Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue

14 " I live proudly in a body of my own design. I defend my right to be complex. "

― Leslie Feinberg , Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue