Leslie Feinberg in Outlaw (1994) directed by Alisa Lebow

available now on archive.org!

in memory of Minnie Bruce Pratt (1946-2023), remembered as a prolific author, poet, and lesbian-feminist activist. view her works here.

photography by leslie feinberg

a collection of self portraits done by the revolutionary leslie feinberg. via flickr

photo of leslie feinberg and minnie bruce pratt taken in jersey city, nj (1993) | photo: robert giard

I just saw on Minnie Bruce Pratt’s website there’s an update that she’s in palliative care currently, her sons set up a google doc for people to send her words of encouragement and I think this is a great opportunity to send love to our queer elders! Her website is her name .net

thank you for letting me know ♥️

here’s the link

Lesbian Connection submission about Minnie Bruce Pratt, March/April 2024 issue. Written by LauRose Felicity, from Ashland, OR.

I found this personally moving, and very glad it was submitted. Full plain-text transcript under the cut.

"LC's passing on MINNIE BRUCE PRATT (whom I had known as a friend since the early '80s) did not record her sex writings as clearly as I (and perhaps she) would have liked (Nov/Dec 2023). True, Minnie Bruce was a wronged mother, a staunch radical feminist and activist, an authentic Southern voice speaking about the perniciousness of racism, an anti-capitalist. But she was also a sex-positive femme who gloried in a reciprocated passion that anyone would envy. The kind of lesbian passion that, as in this case, is sometimes erased.

This passion is very clear and present in her books S/He and Magnified. In them, Minnie Bruce describes the consuming sexuality of her and Leslie's butch-femme union in a way that is still legendary today. The majority of S/He is a finger-licking, torrid account of the infinite desire of a fierce Southern femme for her urban, strap-wearing butch.

I needed to write this for Minnie Bruce, and for all of us tawdry femmes who will never be shamed into passing, or denying our driving need for our butches. Once, in our own lifetimes, our love was illegal. In my Southern state of Kentucky, our "crimes against nature" carried a 20-year sentence and for me, as an attorney, possible disbarment. In North Carolina where Minnie Bruce was living, the felony was used as justification for stealing her children. But our sexual desire was not to be denied. We risked everything for it: children, income, houses, professional stature, incarceration. And it deserves to be mentioned at our passing."

- LauRose Felicity, Ashland, OR

Excerpt from Minnie Bruce Pratt's "All The Women Caught in Flaring Light"

Minnie Bruce Pratt, Waulking Song, «Sinister Wisdom», No. 24, Edited by Michelle Cliff and Adrienne Rich, Rockland, ME, 1983, pp. 135-142 (pdf here)

“My Life You Are Talking About” by Minnie Bruce Pratt

Originally published in Sinister Widsom 37 and later in Pratt’s award-winning poetry collection Crime Against Nature.

Minnie Bruce Pratt (1947-2023)

Minnie Bruce Pratt with her partner, Leslie Feinberg, in the late '90s.

photo & caption by Mariette Pathy Allen [website] [instagram]

when minnie bruce pratt said When I am with her, I have no idea what sex I am or what gender, whose body I have or the meaning of my gestures

and when minnie bruce pratt said You long to see how much pleasure I will let flow through my nipples like milk, gushing and falling on the ground, perhaps in your mouth, perhaps on my own hands for me to lick off

and when minnie bruce pratt said What am I to call this if not marriage? My ringless hands rest lightly on your back as you groan and push a little deeper into me, my cunt biting sweetly into your cock

and when minnie bruce pratt said My nipples unfolded, erect, and you closed your eyes to recite, "I touched her sleeping breasts and they awoke like spikes of hyacinth in my hand"

and when minnie bruce pratt said Traitors to our sex, or spies and explorers across the boundaries of what is man, what is woman? My body yawns open greedily for what you are not afraid to give me

and when minnie bruce pr--

“No one had turned to us and held out a handful of questions: How many ways are there to have the sex of girl, boy, man, woman? How many ways are there to have gender - from masculine to androgynous to feminine? Is there a connection between the sexualities of lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual, between desire and liberation? No one told us: The path divides, and divides again, in many directions. No one asked: How many ways can the body's sex vary by chromosomes, hormones, genitals? How many ways can gender expression multiply - between home and work, at the computer and when you kiss someone, in your dreams and when you walk down the street? No one asked us: What is your dream of who you want to be?”

-S/HE by Minnie Bruce Pratt,1995.

Rest in Power, Minnie Bruce. September 12, 1946 – July 2, 2023

If you don't know who Minnie Bruce Pratt was, then right now is the time to educate yourselves. She was an American activist, the widow of Leslie Feinberg, the mother of two children in her first heterosexual marriage whom she lost custody of in 1975 because she came out in North Carolina and it was still a crime to be homosexual in that state. She helped develop the LGBTQ+ department at Syracuse University, where she was a (retired) Professor of Writing and Women's Studies. She was a fierce defender of all of our rights, and that included trans rights.

Minnie Bruce was a poet, an author, an educator, and someone who was never afraid to use her voice on behalf of her community. She was anti-racist, anti-imperialist and wrote many important pieces on gender and sexual theory. She helped to open the doors for so many of us, and she deserves to be known for her lifetime of hard work. I've included a link to her official webpage, but there's a wealth of information easily found by just looking her up online. Please get to know her and her work.

A few excerpts from S/He by Minnie Bruce Pratt that resonated with me.

after i finish reading s/he and the persistent desire, gonna go for my annual read of stone butch blues