The materiality of gender

SUMMARY Lesbian and transgender histories often recuperate the same historical figures; however, many lesbian spaces (like the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival) have excluded lesbian-identified male-to-female transsexuals. Through an analysis of historical inclusion and socio-political exclusion, this essay examines the relationship between "birth bodies," gender and sexuality. It argues that the lesbian body appears in history through the naturalization of "birth-bodies" and the recuperation of cross-gender behavior. In this way, the body becomes a template for lesbian historical recuperation and an organizing principle for contemporary lesbian communities.