BayWindows.com – Laura Kiritsy
Max Feldman, who wrote and recorded the first song that proclaimed a lesbian identity, died unexpectedly at home in Albuquerque, N.M., on Aug. 17. Feldman, who was 62, died of natural causes, said Helen Thornton, Feldman?s partner of four years.
Feldman, who lived for many years in Boston?s Mission Hill neighborhood, is best known for writing and performing the groundbreaking protest song ?Angry Atthis,? a lengthy career as an entertainer in the women?s music community and as the host of Oasis Coffeehouse, a Boylston Street performance venue that catered to a lesbian clientele in the 1980s. In later years, Feldman, after long embracing a butch lesbian identity, more fully embraced his transgender identity. Though some who knew Feldman well from his early days in the women?s music movement were unaware of this change, most of his friends knew Feldman only as male and said he was most comfortable using male pronouns. Thornton, who referred to Feldman with both masculine and feminine pronouns in interviews and emails, characterized the issue of Feldman?s gender identification as a ?both/and? situation as opposed to ?either/or.?