Stone Butch Blues is considered a cult classic in LGBT communities, and continues to be popular almost 30 years after its original publication. As mentioned by Diane Anderson-Minshall in The Advocate, Jess's relationships throughout the novel also highlight the historical significance of femme sex workers within lesbian communities. The novel is also a significant work for many labor organizers, listed in Autostraddle as essential LGBT labor history reading. Laura Sackton of Book Riot named it as one of the forty best queer books of all time, describing it as "the kind of queer, trans narrative we badly need: honest, freeing, and vital." The New York Public Library has listed it as one of 125 books they love, marking it as the forefront of a "new movement of transgender political identity and solidarity that was taking shape in the 1990s." The Guardian also listed Stone Butch Blues as one of the "top 10 transgender books." įeinberg covers topics related to union organizing and political activism in her real life, making Stone Butch Blues a political piece in addition to an LGBT work. Stone Butch Blues has received high praise for many years.
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Jess feels her life coming full circle, and she is filled with wary hope for her future with Ruth. Jess begins doing activist work in the city, giving speeches to large audiences on queer and trans rights.Īs the novel closes, the two embarking on a road trip to visit Ruth's parents, and Jess returns to Buffalo and reconnects with friends from her past. They develop a loving friendship and eventually move in together. She moves in next to Ruth, a drag queen and trans woman. After encountering Theresa and her new partner at a grocery store, Jess decides she needs to leave Buffalo and moves to New York City. She no longer passes as male and feels continually more comfortable in her gender nonconforming body. Horrified by Annie's use of slurs and insinuation that gay people are sex offenders, Jess leaves.Īfter years of passing as a man, Jess stops taking testosterone. The next day, Jess accompanies Annie to a wedding, where Annie makes several homophobic comments. Before they have sex, Jess slips into her strap-on without Annie noticing, effectively passing as male through their encounter. She asks out Annie, a barista, and they have a date at Annie's house. While relieved to be safer in public, Jess has complex feelings about her loss of visibility as a lesbian. Jess starts taking testosterone, gets chest reconstruction surgery, and begins to pass as a male. Jess learns about, and decides to pursue, medical transition. Theresa is confused and encourages Jess to forget about it, but the two later argue over Jess's gender. Meanwhile, Jess talks at length about her gender confusion, feeling like neither man nor woman. Theresa, who takes care of Jess after raids, attends feminist meetings, where others treat her love of butches as a betrayal of the feminist cause. Jess and the others are arrested, beaten, and raped by the police. Jess proposes, and they are unofficially wedded at the bar, a drag queen leading the procession.Ĭops continue raids and retaliation increases, the crowd inspired by the Stonewall riots. With Theresa, Jess matures, learns to take responsibility in relationships, and softens her stony exterior. Theresa is fired after opposing her boss for sexually harassing her, and Jess begins to date her. One man intentionally jams Jess's machine, severely injuring Jess and leaving her unemployed. Jess gets a factory job and gets involved in union organization, but is alienated by male coworkers. Angie identifies Jess as a stone butch, assuring Jess that there is nothing wrong with being stone.
When Angie attempts to touch her, Jess cringes. The two have an intimate conversation and then sex. She is taken in by Angie, a femme sex worker. In a traumatized state, Jess and Toni fight, and Jess is left houseless again. Jess is arrested, beaten, and raped by them. Jess finds her place in the lesbian community of Buffalo while the cops continue to raid gay bars. Traumatized, she drops out of school the next day, packing her bags and running away from home to a lesbian bar, where a butch, Toni, offers to let Jess sleep on her couch.
At school, football players harass Jess, tackling and gang-raping her. After a police raid, the bar closes and Jess loses touch with Butch Al and Jacqueline.
Butch Al and Jacqueline take Jess in and teach her about lesbian roles and culture. There, she meets drag queens, butches, and femmes. When she reaches puberty and feels the weight of gendered difference, Jess learns of a gay bar from a coworker. Her parents, frustrated with Jess's gender nonconformity, eventually institutionalize Jess in a psychiatric ward for three weeks. The narrative of Stone Butch Blues follows the life of Jess Goldberg, who grows up in a working-class area of upstate New York in the 1940s.