In the Life: Interview with Kate Bornstein, Leslie Feinberg [unedited footage]

In the Life: Episode 602, "The State of AIDS" [unedited footage]. Date: October 21, 1996. Interview with Kate Bornstein and Leslie Feinberg.
The pioneering LGBT news magazine aired on PBS 1992-2012. Learn more about In the Life at www.cinema.ucla.edu.
© The Regents of the University of California

[@KS-ns4op]

missing you today leslie. i was 13 years old when you died, and i didn't know your name, and i could never have known how much you would come to mean to me as an organizer, an activist, a pioneer and an elder.
in 1996 you wrote, "it was the discovery that women and men, long dead, had left me messages about their feelings, emotions i could compare to my own. i had finally found others who were as lonely as i was. in an odd way, that knowledge comforted me." that is certainly what you did for me when, twenty years after you published stone butch blues, i found it online, read it wholesale in just one day, and wept until i felt like i couldn't anymore.
only a week ago, i got my print copy of the book in the mail, and i started to reread it as a result. it had been a few years and i'd forgotten how safe it made me feel to read your words, and now, watching this interview, to hear your rare and powerful voice. i am doing my best to honor your memory. i only wish i'd been blessed enough to have had the opportunity to meet you, the beautiful rebel whose words taught me what it meant to be butch, what it meant to be me.
1949-2014. hir memory continues to be a blessing, this seven years later. may it be so for ever.

[@lavendrrrboygrl]

God, I miss you Les. I wish I could’ve met you. I held you in ‘Stone Butch Blues’, and I hope I will again.

[@canadey97]

The fact that they’re words are just as potent now says so much about the power and truth behind Kate and Leslie’s words.

[@livvy94]

I was just sent this from someone in a local trans support group and I agree. I am in awe

[@leox7674]

Here i am back again 5 months later still worshipping these two

[@clownactivist]

same!

[@sandhya315]

I love that Leslie pushed back at downplaying the roll the police played in Brandon Teena's death. 1312.

[@leox7674]

This is pure gold!!! Love these two!! Their words are all completely on the mark 21 years later! Which is quite a testament. 💜💜

[@maxinemckenzie5765]

23.45mins ~ The TERF's just don't get this...even 24 years later. These two great pioneers so ahead of the curve.👌💋♥️

[@a.k.painter8281]

I don't even know how to describe in words how much the lives and work of these two humans mean to me. Thank you thank you.

[@AndyBun]

That moment when Kate turns to Leslie and says "daddy" 😍

[@lucyl15]

💗💗💗💗💗💗💗so much love and respect for these two. They are amazing speakers and brave souls for helping to pioneer the modern queer movement

[@goodbyeworldhelloalgorythm1871]

my favorite boomers

[@johnhendersonclark]

I must have missed this in 1996. I watched "In the Life" back then as I was attempting to come to terms with at least my orientation (lack thereof). What is amazing is how the debate between the two still goes on today. Identity politics vs understanding our community in a context. I had a few interactions with Leslie as a heavy in WWP some years before, so it's interesting to see those politics at work in the context of gender politics. What's amazing is to see two trans leaders of the time both outside the gender binary. I'm sure watching Aunt Kate in '96 would have cut years off my GD (or GID back then).

[@xoxoshaneandmexoxo]

Still so relevant?!?!?! Love to them both

[@Sara-uq6km]

It’s so facinating how much is similar to back then

[@ellioats4374]

This is just magical. So special.

[@gabrielastein13]

thank you so much for making this available to the public 💜💜

[@leox7674]

I told my partner about how great this video is and they asked to watch it last week. We had to keep stopping it to have feelings and to google things such as the pictures of Leslie meeting Quentin Crisp!

[@fourcatsinatrenchcoat]

Right there with ya Leo, Kate is truely a treasure ❤️

[@renb7897]

"for me, "transgender" means transgeessively gendered. that is, any kind of transgression against the mores and codes that would make up "gender" in the culture. that can be anything from having feelings that "well this gender I'm in right now isn't right" it can have... it can mean something like "well I'm a woman but I don't want to be, you know, barefoot and pregnant in my husband's kitchen all the time" it can mean...it can even mean, because in this culture there's this big rule that says, "real men... love women, real women love men". That's a gendered rule. so anyone who's transgressing that rule- someone, a woman who loves women, a man who loves men, is transgressing a gender rule, is in fact transgender.
transgender is just a big ol umbrella term that includes just about everyone i know"
favorite definition of transgender and i wish we could use it more these days

[@lesbianendtimes]

Thank you so much for uploading!

[@alex-lv6sb]

miss u leslie

[@celinadenunno1314]

The sound volume is very poor

[@switchbladejimmy7655]

My two faves in one place!!! Better get the good booze

[@g.9478]

This is nonbinary trans archive, I'm so happy !

[@toranusorousrex]

Cool cats

[@morriganbonegardener500]

anyone have a version of this with audio?

[@sp33r]

love

[@claudchins7645]

1922-1994 age 72
1946-2013 age 67

[@Shannon_Robbie]

These dates are incorrect! Kate Bornstein was born in 1948 and is still alive. Leslie Feinberg was born in 1949 and died in 2014.

[@helensearle1896]

So prescient.

[@heartfulcry]

31:10