If the music stopped and it was the cops at the door, someone plugged the music back in and we switched dance partners. Us in our suits and ties pair… - Leslie Feinberg

What was responsible for the imposition of the present-day rigid sex/gender system in North America? It is not correct to simply blame patriarchy, Chrystos stressed to me. "The real word is 'colonization' and what it has done to the world. Patriarchy is a tool of colonization and exploitation of people and their lands."

I was looking at her while she was talking, thinking to myself that I’m a stranger in this woman’s eyes. She’s looking at me but she doesn't see me. Then she finally said how she hates this society for what it’s done to “women like me” who hate themselves so much they have to look and act like men. I felt myself getting flushed and my face twitched a little and I started telling her, all cool and calm, about how women like me existed since the dawn of time, before there was oppression, and how those societies respected them, and she got her very interested expression on—and besides it was time to leave.

For all our lives, we've always … seen ourselves refracted through other people's prisms. We've always heard people analyze us, describe what our feelings are, what our thoughts are. How about talking about why Jesse Helms needs some therapy?