Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitiness

You may have missed it in, you know, a fit of fascistic transgenderphobia, but November 15 was the National Transgender Day of Remembrance. And who did Integrity USA, the famous LGBTQ advocacy group, remember? Leslie Feinberg, of course.

Sam Peterson, Integrity's Development Director, writes about Feinberg's influence:

"Leslie Feinberg’s seminal memoir Stone Butch Blues changed the lives of many of my friends. They were excited to read a book about the experiences of someone whose gender was resolutely masculine, despite the seeming conflict of their body; it was their experience."

I'm sure it was. Sam gets all spiritual in the end, as you'd expect from a spokespirsin of a religious organization like Integrity USA.

"To be transgender can mean being loving, lively, creative, and connected. To be transgender in situations that diminish our worth is painful, depressing, and soul-destroying. All of us know this—as gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans*gender, as intersex and as queer people we’ve all experienced some flavor of the diminishment of who and what we are. On this day of gravitas and difficult reality, I’m going to remember those who came before me, who made my new life possible through their lives and work. I renew my commitment as a transgender spiritual human—a Transgender Warrior, in the language of Feinberg--to speak up and out, and to share the love that was so generously given to me. Our strength comes from that absolute understanding: we are a part of God, and therefore magnificent and holy beyond human reckoning."

Minnie

But how did Transgender Warrior Feinberg die? According to hir obit:

"Leslie Feinberg, who identified as an anti-racist white, working-class, secular Jewish, transgender, lesbian, female, revolutionary communist, died on November 15. She succumbed to complications from multiple tick-borne co-infections, including Lyme disease, babeisiosis, and protomyxzoa rheumatica, after decades of illness."

Written by hir spouse, Minnie Bruce Pratt.

Of course. But what God do you think these people are a part of?

You can read the whole thing hir, in case you think I'm lying.

LSP

Get On The Dove!

The day started pretty early, before first light, when I teamed up with GWB for a Sausage McBiscuit and a cup of coffee. The idea being to get some scoff before shooting dove. 

Home of the Sausage McBiscuit

I say "scoff", but English readers might be confused. The Sausage McBiscuit has nothing whatsoever in common with anything you would think of as a sausage, or a biscuit. It's more of a scone type of thing with a thin patty of spicy(ish) meat in the middle, that may or may not have some resemblance to sausage meat. American readers might be confused too. The Sausage McBiscuit has about as much resemblance to the real thing as the $1 McCheeseburger has to a real cheeseburger. But hey, I like both, even if they are entirely different "food" items.

Where's the Bloody Birds?

That aside, we set up in the traditional treeline and waited for the birds to fly. Sure enough, a couple flew in and GWB brought them down. Nice work. Then, as he was retrieving the birds, a cloud of the avian acrobats appeared out of nowhere and I blazed away, like a Flak Tower.

There weren't many fly-ins after that, so I went for a walk-about, saw a couple of bunnies, which I didn't shoot, and some dove, which I missed.

Shadow LSP

I consoled myself with taking the odd "shadow selfie" and generally being pleased that I'm not living in the Dallas "hot zone."

Just a few more days of dove season left, must get some more birds.

Cheers,

LSP