"Leslie" - he, she, it, zie, hir, him something or other died. What?

I always check the obits.

Sometimes I not only discover somebody died, but somebody very interesting and famous who somehow escaped my attention entirely. I never heard of "Leslie Feinberg."

And as I began to read the obit...I can see why. When you're a crackpot, you're only going to appeal to a small circle of other crackpots. If you're a Larry Kramer, Chaz Bono, Christine Jorgensen...you have a better chance. I mean, this fuckin' "Leslie," I wasn't sure WHAT died.

The coy way it was written (I doubt an obit will appear anywhere but "The Advocate") there was constant screwing with pronouns. "She" died, but liked to use weird made up terms like zie and hir? Like we don't have enough aggravation with the disgusting bee-buzzing Ms? Mizzzzzzzz because women don't like being identified as Miss or Mrs? And it was too simple to just go use Miss? Because SOME women LIKE Mrs? Fuck off, please.

A very good way of remaining obscure is to insist the whole world's crazy except you. Or, you come up with all kinds of idiotic rules and regulations for YOUR brand of freedom. Here was a Jew who supported Palestinians, apparently, and lived in America but relished being a Communist. This is the same person who was apparently born male, had a sex change, and decided to live as a "butch lesbian" with a faintly feminine "wife." Any more twists and turns to call attention to yourself?

This was all supposed to be "liberating." Like, because some unfortunate person isn't sure if she's he or she, or dabbles in a Twilight Zone of having a fake cunt or cock, let's ALL declare war on gender. Is that it? Or isn't it? How about I think most of us have better things to do than worry the point. I do recall Dr. Renee Richards saying she was "all for blue for boys and pink for girls," and that the traditional views of masculinity and femininity weren't bad at all. She had to know, as she chose to go from being Richard Raskin to Renee Richards because femininity was important to her. Sure, call her "her." Or are there "MS"creants out there who believe that sex-changers should have their own SPECIAL pronoun? Not him. Not her. Maybe BLUR.

Funny, the sex change people demand to be called by their new, surgically created gender. HIM or HER. But this LESLIE FEINBERG wanted to be zie and his and whatever. When it suited him, her or it.

Really, the piece went on and on. Some people are just boat-rockers when you get down to it. Fine, you challenge the borders of sexuality, and Communism vs Capitalism, and how to support the lovely Palestinians having a "homeland" while saying "Jews, get the fuck out of Israel and keep wandering." Most of us have better things to do, like try and earn a living, and deal with the aggravations of whatever "lifestyle" we have that isn't always working, straight, gay, or otherwise.

"Hey everybody, I've made up a new pronoun. I'm here and queer. I'm this and that. I'm a pioneer. I'm radical. I'm..." confused. Just confused. People who think they have the answers just haven't been questioned enough.