GayPeoplesChronicle.com – by Eric Resnick
Cleveland–?Build genuine bonds of trust and solidarity [with other oppressed people], not quid pro quo,? Leslie Feinberg told 120 people gathered in Case Western Reserve University?s Ford Auditorium on February 9. ?It?s not ?I?ll do this, if you do that.? ?
Feinberg, 58, a transgender activist, historian, speaker, and author, is also an editor of Workers World newspaper where hir column ?Lavender and Red? appears.
Feinberg prefers the gender-neutral pronouns ?ze? and ?hir,? pronounced ?here.?
Ze spoke on many topics and took questions, but wanted the audience to think differently about how struggling people form bonds, how the oppressors stay in power by breaking those bonds, and how LGBT people have been used as wedge issues in nearly every social movement for centuries.
Feinberg described ?right wing? politics as those which perpetuate the status quo and allow a few to hold on to wealth, and ?left wing? politics as those which cause change and promote a more just society.
?It?s not enough just to have a left wing,? said Feinberg. ?The left wing needs a left wing.?