Monday morning, my Facebook feed exploded with tributes to author Leslie Feinberg. Maybe yours did too. Feinberg, who died over the weekend from complications due to multiple tick-borne illnesses (one of them Lyme disease), was a trans activist and a prolific author, whose writing examined butch identity, and whose best-known work was arguably Stone Butch Blues. Much has been written about Feinberg since this weekend, but Shauna Miller's piece at The Atlantic does two things that other writers have not: Miller writes about the highly personal influence Feinberg's work had on her as a not-yet-queer-identified teenager in the 90s ("1993 was a hard year to be queer. For one thing, almost anyone who used the word "queer" was probably about to kick your ass for being one.") and she uses the pronouns Feinberg reportedly preferred:

I wouldn't blame you if you thought the audience for Stone Butch Blues must be incredibly limited. (You'd be wrong: It's been translated into Chinese, German, Italian, Dutch, Slovenian and Hebrew.) Admittedly, the "Who Cares?" barriers are high. It's about a woman. It's a about a gay woman. It's about a sexuality and gender expression that's hard for even the narrator in question to understand. The story itself is pre-Stonewall, and it was published pre-Internet. It could seem antiquated and irrelevant to young people today, kids with the freedom to embrace their queerness—and especially their genderqueerness and identity fluidity—with actual communities they can turn to, Tumblrs they can learn from each other on, and role models they can Tweet at. Who wants to read story about some crusty butch who can't open up to her lovers? To anyone?

I did. My god, I was dying for it. I read that book with big, round eyes and a highlighter. Stone Butch Blues was the heartbreaking holy grail of butch perspective. The main character Jess Goldberg, is always on the move—either trying to find a new spot to maybe fit in, or more likely rest a while before being forced to move on for her safety. Her appearance is an affront. Her appearance is aggressive. It puts her life in danger. It puts her livelihood in danger. It's dispersed any biological family. Her appearance has cost her everything.

Read the whole thing here.